A lot of things happened on the first day of NFL Free Agency, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers helped lead the chaotic charge. The Bucs got to work right away at the start of the legal tampering period, inking deals with Haason Reddick and Chris Godwin almost as soon as the light turned green on teams being able to do so.
Godwin was by far the biggest signing, not just for the Bucs but throughout the entire league. For weeks, all we've heard is how Tampa Bay was in danger of losing him to the Jaguars, Patriots, or Raiders, but in the end, he remained right where he's always been.
Reddick comes aboard to help the Bucs' pass rush, and Ben Bredeson signed a three-year deal that has gotten lost in the shuffle of everything that followed.
Tampa Bay even made waves with moves it didn't make.
Not long after the team had deals in place with Bredeson, Godwin, and Reddick, it was reported that running back Samaje Perine had joined the fray. The only problem was it never happened, as Aaron Wilson's report was erroneous and debunked almost right away.
That didn't stop it from getting picked up by the weirdo aggregation accounts on social media which ended up giving us one of the best moments of the day.
Jason Licht shuts down bogus report about Buccaneers signing Samaje Perine
Wilson reported that Perine had agreed to a $22 million deal with the Bucs, which seemed absurd given their running back situation. Perine ended up signing a much smaller deal with the Bengals not long after, but before that happened the report he was coming to Tampa Bay got dunked on by the highest of sources: Jason Licht.
The Bucs' general manager took to social media to confirm rather epmphatically and hilariously that the report about Perine was false.
Doesn't get any clearer than that!
The real winner in all this is Wilson, who everyone had forgotten about thanks to Dov being the one Licht dunked into another dimension on social media. Still, it's a reminder of how fast things move in the free agency frenzy and how even a trusted reporter can get burned.
It's also a reminder that no general manager has a better social media game than Licht. We've seen him dunk on rival players before but to see him this plugged into the news cycle -- and be on the right side of the fight against low grade engagement bait -- is further proof that he's a man of the people.
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