Did Shaq Barrett Just Play His Last Game As A Buc?

The Bucs have a lot of difficult decisions to make this offseason on players they want to re-sign. While Tampa Bay has more salary cap flexibility this year, that doesn’t mean it would stop them from creating more space by releasing others from their roster. Unfortunately, one of those players who might be a cap casualty because of it is outside linebacker Shaq Barrett.

Falcons RB Bijan Robinson and Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett – Photo by: USA Today

Tampa Bay has hopes of re-signing the likes of Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans and Lavonte David, among others. Barrett is still under contract for one more year and is set to make just over $14 million. Although it would result in some dead cap money, opening another roster spot and getting Barrett off the books would benefit the Bucs long term.

Shaq Barrett means a lot to this organization. But his production wasn’t there this season. To be fair, Barrett had a tumultuous offseason with a family tragedy and rehabbing his Achilles injury. He did lead the Bucs with 19 pressures, but he had just 4.5 sacks on the season. With the price tag that Barrett has and at the age of 31, that just isn’t enough.

Is Shaq Barrett Back Next Year?

A day after the Bucs lost 31-23 to the Lions in the divisional round to end their season, Shaq Barrett answered if there’s a possibility he may have played his last game as a Buc.

“There’s a possibility,” Barrett said. “I’ve been around for a minute and I know with my contract and my production and (the Bucs) got some promising young guys, all that can play a factor into it. But I would still love to be here. It’s a second home. We love it. Florida, the kids love it down here.

“I understand it as a business, but after everything that happened this year, we’re family now and I appreciate them for everything they did. Just rocking with me, sticking with me through everything. Hopefully it’s not, but I understand it is a real possibility, but I hope it’s not.”

It’s admirable for Barrett to be brutally honest about his situation. He’s as humble of a player as there is in the NFL. As Barrett mentioned, some of the other players at his position factor into all of this. Rookie third-round pick Yaya Diaby had a great season, leading the Bucs with 7.5 sacks on the year and he didn’t even get named a starter until Week 11.

The Bucs know they have Diaby as a starter next season and have solid, inexpensive depth behind that with Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Anthony Nelson along with Cam Gill, Markees Watts and Jose Ramirez. Tampa Bay is still looking for that menacing pass rusher who can be a consistent threat like Barrett was from 2019 through 2021.

Shaq Barrett And The Pitfalls Of Contract Negotiations

Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett and Titans QB Will Levis – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Shaq Barrett was franchise tagged by the Bucs for the 2020 Super Bowl-winning season and then signed a four-year deal in 2021. He’s been through those contract negotiations that the Bucs front office and many players are going to have in the coming the months. Even when you have a lot of money coming your way, Shaq Barrett was honest about not really enjoying the ongoing conversations to get through it.

“That’s a stressful process, stressful process,” Barrett said. “But it’s just a business. I understand that you don’t want it to feel personal, but it’s always going to feel personal a little bit. You try to take that out of there if you can get somebody to do the job and try to get it for as low as possible,  you are going to try it.

“But if you want to be hard about negotiations, then you got to just keep fighting, going back and forth, then you meet on a common ground. This is what it should be like: ‘I understand what you’re worth, I’m going to try and get you for lower, but I’m going to settle for like a fair value’ and stuff like that.

“You got to try to, it’s impossible to keep the emotions out of it, but it’s impossible. It could be stressful for a lot of people. They usually do the right thing, get the guys here back that they really want to keep building a championship defense and a championship team and playoff contending teams and start to take that next step of getting back to the Super Bowl.”

Regardless of what happens this offseason, Barrett will be considered as one of the greatest free agent signings in Bucs history and a very important piece to the Bucs’ Super Bowl LV championship.

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