Pro Football Talk is reporting that the Buccaneers and impending free agent DE Shaq Barrett have opened talks regarding a long-term extension.
This comes shortly after the news that the Buccaneers are using their franchise tag on WR Chris Godwin.
Barrett is one of the best pass rushers available in this year’s free agent class and could get a big payday on the open market if the Buccaneers are unable to lock him up long-term.
Last month, Barrett implied that he won’t be offering Tampa Bay a hometown discount.
“I’m most definitely looking forward to getting a long-term deal done…” Barrett told Adam Schein on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio via NFL Media’s Kevin Patra. “I feel like it’s time for me to break the bank now, and I most definitely want to do that to be able to set my family up better and most definitely going to keep producing, so it’s not like anything is going to fall off.”
Tampa Bay placed the franchise tag on Barrett last year after he broke out with 19.5 sacks in 2019. His sack total dropped to eight in 2020 but he added four more in the postseason and was a terror in the Super Bowl.
“I still think I got a lot left in the tank,” Barrett added. “I’m still getting better, actually. I’m still learning, like just still learning, like week in, week out. And there’s like, as you can see as the season progressed like … I ended the season playing the way that I wanted to play. And you can see that I did progress throughout the season, and I’m still progressing.”
Barrett, 28, signed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent out of Colorado State in 2014. He was waived coming out of the preseason and re-signed to Denver’s practice squad.
After bouncing back and forth between the practice squad and active roster, Barrett landed on the active roster at the end of his rookie year. Barrett signed with the Buccaneers as an unrestricted free agent in 2019 to a one-year, $4 million deal and was franchised last year.
In 2020, Barrett has appeared in 15 games for the Buccaneers and recorded 57 tackles, eight sacks, two forced fumbles and three passes defended.
We have him included in our Top 100 – 2021 Free Agents list.
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