Tampa Bay Spends Big, Lands Vincent Jackson And Carl Nicks

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The official Buccaneers Twitter feed had a comment from Barth on the signing. Barth called the deal “a dream come true” and “an amazing opportunity.”

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Retirement was obviously an option that a lot of people speculated on following the season, but the Bucs told Barber last week that they want him back. New head coach Greg Schiano was expected to sit down with Barber sometime after he was hired.

Barber is coming off of an injury after fracturing his forearm in Week 17, but he should be good to go for OTAs.

Faine signed a massive six-year, $37.5 million deal with the Bucs four years ago. He was a candidate to be released this offseason, so it’s not a major surprise that he’s gone.

Faine is 30 years old. He’ll get another shot someplace on a more reasonable contract.

It was a busy day.

There’s still plenty to come as most of the top free agents have yet to sign. Here’s a run down of what we saw in day one of free agency.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it’s a five-year deal worth $47.5 million with $31 million guaranteed.

The Bucs are the early winners of free agency (even if you don’t really “win” free agency). It’s clear their offense was a priority and by adding Jackson and Nicks they’ve gotten a lot better in the last 24 hours.

Wright will be expected to help improve what was one of the worst defenses in the league last year. The Bucs allowed 394.1 offensive yards per game, which ranked 30th out of 32 teams. They also gave up 30.9 points per game, which was the highest total in the league.

Among the Bucs’ problems on defense was an inability to create turnovers, something they did just 27 times. Wright’s four interceptions would have led the a Bucs team that had 14 among them.

Jackson was the No. 1 free agent on the market and he was fully expected to land a deal that paid him in excess of $10 million per year. Per Schefter, Jackson will receive $36 million of that in the first three years and $26 million in the first two years.

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Nicks was the Saints’ fifth-round pick in the 2008 NFL draft. He has started all but three games in his four-year NFL career.

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It’s not a done deal, but according to various reports, it’s getting close. The Bucs are among the league leaders in salary cap space, so they can afford to get it done. Jackson could get a contract with average annual salary exceeding $10 million per season.

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The two-time Pro Bowler is finally hitting free agency after receiving the franchise tag last offseason, and Jackson is coming off a 60 catch, 1,106 receiving yards and nine touchdown season in 2011. As Jensen mentions, Jackson will be in high demand in free agency and will likely garner a pretty massive contract.

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Zuttah was originally drafted by the Bucs in the 2008 NFL Draft in the third-round out of Rutgers. The new Buccaneers head coach, Greg Schiano, was Zuttah’s coach in college, so he should be very familiar with what kind of player he’s getting on the field. Zuttah has proven to be a versatile offensive lineman for the Bucs during his tenure in the league.

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According to the Stephen Holder on the Bucs Beat blog at the Tampa Bay Times, the two sides have not begun significant movement toward a new contract just yet.

There is still plenty of time for the two sides to hammer out a deal before free agency begins. Tampa Bay looks to have plenty of cap room to offer Zuttah a respectable deal.

He failed to live up to expectations in Washington -- that’s putting it gently -- and played his last down for the Redskins in the middle of the 2010 season, before he was suspended for the rest of the season for conduct detrimental to the team.

Haynesworth’s reputation will likely prevent him from any sizable guaranteed money in free agency, but defensive tackles are hard to come by so it’ll be interesting to see how much, if any interest he garners.

Dominik stated that the team would look to add at least two starters via free agency.

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Here is the full crop of impending Tampa Bay free agents via Mac’s Football Blog:

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