-The Buccaneers were awarded a fourth-round compensatory pick on Tuesday. The NFL announced that 15 teams would receive 32 compensatory selections this year, with New England receiving the most at four. Compensatory selections are determined by free agents lost and gained in the prior offseason. In the case of the Patriots, they lost Malcom Brown, Trenton Brown, Trey Flowers, Chris Hogan, Cordarrelle Patterson, Eric Rowe and LaAdrian Waddle while only picking up Brandon Bolden. Losing five and gaining one means four picks – and where those picks fall (in the third round or later) are determined by an NFL algorithm that takes into account the performances of each.
The Bucs received one compensatory pick after giving up four free agents: Kwon Alexander, Adam Humphries, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Adarius Taylor. They picked up Shaq Barrett, Breshad Perriman and Bradley Pinion – all of which had significant contributions during the 2019 season, with Perriman coming on late the season when injuries took down both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Even given the value they received from the three players, the Bucs received their highest compensatory selection in almost 20 years, garnering the 139th overall pick, which is the 33rd selection in the fourth round.
With that pick, and all 32 others added in, the Bucs now have seven picks in the 2020 draft and the 2020 draft order is finally set. Let the mock drafts begin! …Oh wait.
-There have been some changes to the start of free agency due to the NFLPA vote on the new proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement. The current CBA expires following the 2020 season and the new proposal has already been ratified by NFL owners. It is now up to the player vote whether it will pass and the deadline for players to get their votes in was extended to this coming Saturday, March 14, at midnight.
As a result, the deadline to place franchise tags on players was moved back from Thursday, March 12 to Monday, March 16 at 11:59:59 a.m. That's one second before the legal tampering period begins at noon. It means teams can immediately begin negotiations with certified agents and player representatives after deciding whether or not to tag players. These two deadlines are normally much further apart. Needless to say, it will be a VERY busy day for each team's front office and the representatives of pending free agents.
-NFL Network aired an NFL 360 segment on Sunday night (and International Women's Day) that featured two of the Bucs coaches called, "Call Me Coach" while ESPN aired another feature Tuesday night on SportsCenter that also featured the pair in honor of Women's History Month. Those two coaches, assistant defensive line coach Lori Locust and assistant strength and conditioning coach Maral Javadifar are the first pair of full-time female coaches in the NFL – and they now have a year under their belts.
-Bucs tweet of the day:
