Ok Its about to get into the fastest, most unpredictable, most hectic free agency period ever in the NFL since the very first one! Gone are the one year tenders the Bucs have been offering players, they are going to have to either let Barrett Ruud go, or sign him to a long term contract because if they even try to offer him a one year tender, Ruud will laugh at it and take one of the surely 4-5 offers from other teams now loaded with extra money they HAVE to spend on free agency.
EXCEPT…one small thing. Franchise tag; and you can bet your bottom dollar the Bucs will use it on Barrett Ruud. The Bucs do not want to have Ruud as their long term answer at Middle Linebacker. He cannot shed blocks, and is too small to be effective in the passing game. Ruud excels in the passing game where he is light and fast enough to cover tight ends and running backs coming out of the backfield.
If this were any other year, Rookie Linebacker Mason Foster would have been signed immediately, and groomed to compete with Ruud in OTAs. He could have been given a crash course, and if the Bucs liked what they saw, they would have been able to possible make their move. But with the lockout, the Bucs have not seen anything. And Foster has done no work, so he will not even be ready to compete for the job, much less even come close to take it over save for maybe towards the last few weeks of the year.
Nope, Barrett Ruud will have to play one more year and nurture Foster for the position like Shelton Quarles did for Ruud. That is why I feel the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are almost guaranteed to place the franchise tag on Ruud, pay him probably close to 9 million dollars for the one year, then letting him go once Foster has completed a full season and an offseason getting ready for the payday.
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