On 12 March, 2018 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and all other 31 teams counted down the minutes until legal tampering began at noon on the same day. Fans everywhere waited with hearts in their throats and nerve endings burning by the minute.
If you were like me, you were burning through your battery checking the sites (hopefully this one was one of them) and Twitter feeds for any sign of an upcoming Tampa Bay Buccaneers signing.
What you got though, was much different. Around ten in the morning I asked my co-expert James Yarcho if he knew off the top of his head when the deadline to tender restricted free-agents was. I was worried Cameron Brate was about to become an unrestricted free-agent.
Of course, I assumed the deadline hadn’t come and gone, but my aforementioned burning nerve endings got the better of me. While I was sure the team would at least tender the talented tight end with a second-round value, I was all the more happy to get my first alert of the day when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers re-signed the tight end for six more years.
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Not only six more years, but six more team friendly years. In all, Brate will average $3 Million per year with his new deal in guarantees. Incentives and bonuses will fill the rest of what he’ll get, and I’m sure some of those incentives will be along the silver scale of Madden trophies.
Next up, was Brent Grimes. And then there was Adam Humphries.
Bringing Grimes back for 2018 is big. It doesn’t single handedly fix Tampa’s defense, but it certainly helps to know the team doesn’t need to pursue one more cornerback to get their unit up to snuff.
Depending on whether or not the team plans to play Vernon Hargreaves inside or not, the team now has one singular focus for their cornerbacks.
Humphries has been a huge role player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in his short career. Save for a devastating fumble in Buffalo last year, he’s been a model of consistency. The team tendered him with a second-round offer, meaning any team who signs him would have to give Jason Licht their second-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft unless the general manager chooses to match it and keep him for himself.
Spoiler alert: If – IF – another team offers Humphries a contract and the Bucs take the second-round pick, it’ll turn into D.J. Chark out of LSU. Don’t @ me. Or do. I enjoy conversing with readers.
So, there weren’t any splash rumors breaking. No blockbuster trades. Ndamukong Suh is going to be available to the highest bidder. Maybe Tampa has interest in him? Some of their fans certainly do.
However, as disappointed as some of us may have been not to see bigger news breaking in the early hours of legal tampering, it was not a lost day for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Now that they know who they have to bring back in key positions, they can solidify their attack strategy for the 2018 NFL free-agency frenzy and further solidify their draft plan.
Any time you can secure loose ends and bring your future into focus; it’s been a good day.