The Buccaneers are officially NFL royalty.
Having Tom Brady as your quarterback and winning the Super Bowl will do crazy things for your team. Two years ago, the Buccaneers were irrelevant. No one wanted to come to play in Tampa unless it was for a major contract. Now, reporters and analysts alike think it possible that a top-10 wide receiver like Odell Beckham Jr. would come to Tampa on a veteran minimum contract, regardless of how unlikely.
OBJ is almost assuredly not coming to Tampa. Despite the desire to play with Tom Brady and the mutual respect between the two, the odds of this transpiring are low for several reasons.
The Browns were smart to rework OBJ’s deal to make him more attainable for more teams. When you mix in the waiver wire, there is almost no chance that the Buccaneers even have the option at going after Beckham.
This isn’t bad news; the Bucs already have the best receiving corps in the NFL. The top three have no equal in the NFL when healthy, and the depth players have shown out in recent weeks as well. Beckham is far from a priority, but it was still fun to wonder what if.
Regardless, this still shows the marked shift in the philosophy in Tampa and from the rest of the NFL on the Bucs. Tom Brady and the Buccaneers are contenders, and the willingness of players to play on a cheaper deal with a good team tells you everything you need to know about this franchise.
Beckham may not want to take the lesser role and the smaller deal in Tampa, but at this point, who knows what may come. After all the moves the Bucs have made over the past year and a half, it is very hard to rule out anything, and that is a fun position to be in for a team that has been so bad for so long.
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