Ronde Barber’s one year contract for 2012 is reportedly worth $3 million.
Tampa Bay has re-signed tackle Demar Dotson for two years. Dotson played 13 games in 2011.
After the signing of Dotson the Bucs are still $15 million under the salary cap.
New Head Coach Greg Schiano said LeGarrette Blount must take care of the football if he wants to get the bulk of the carries. “No one who touches the football will get touches if they don’t protect the football,” Schiano said. “That is one of our core covenants: the ball. It’s so important, they named the game after it. So we make a big deal about that thing.” Blount has fumbled nine times over the last two seasons and six of them were recovered by the opposition.
Schiano knows that he is expected to bring quick results to a franchise that went just 4-12 last season. “I … know it’s a win-now league. Believe me, I got that memo,” Schiano said. “I think it trickled down to college as well. You had a head coach get fired in college after two years. That’s unheard of. But we also know what coaches are getting paid, too. That’s changed, too. With everything, as the stakes rise, I got that part, too.”
Tampa Bay Co-Chairman Joel Glazer says the franchise wants to bring back the fans they have lost in the community over the last couple of seasons. “That’s a huge priority for us,” Glazer said. “We’ve focused more and more with re-connecting. We’ve got a lot of good initiatives that I think will be well received by our fans. We’ve lowered ticket prices again. We now offer pricing for everybody and we’re reaching out to all corners of the community. I have great confidence the Tampa Bay community will respond. They’ve always responded in the past and we know they love the Buccaneers.”
Other than Schiano’s comments at the owners meetings three weeks ago the Buccaneers still have not commented on Aqib Talib’s situation. The team was hoping to have it resolved before the draft but with his trial now pushed back until the end of June, that will not happen.
Ray Blanchette covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Outside The Redzone. He also covers NCAA football for the Saturday Blitz. Follow along at www.saturdayblitz.com. Blanchette is the owner of Blanchette Sports Holdings, a new sporting company that will operate 8 different sports leagues. Follow along with them at www.blanchettesportsholdings.weebly.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100003521034703&sk=wall or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/BlanchettSports
