It seemed the way Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht was talking about Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett, he wouldn’t mind bringing back Shaq once again.
Last year, in a move Joe thought smacked of desperation, the Bucs brought Shaq out of mothballs late in the season. He got into two games, only 17 snaps, with no starts.
Shaq had 12 snaps in a win over New Orleans and five snaps in the playoff loss to the Commandos. Shaq had two solo tackles, one in each game. And Licht said in February that Shaq wants another year in pewter and red.
Licht was asked about Shaq yesterday at the NFL owners meetings at the swanky Breakers in Palm Beach. Licht didn’t deny he’d like to have Shaq back but it seemed to Joe that the Bucs wouldn’t promise him playing time or starts.
“Oh, [we] love Shaq,” Licht said. “We’ll have to see how things go here.
“We want to give him fair opportunity to give him the best shot to play a little bit. We’ll have to see how that goes.
“We’ll keep monitoring that, but Shaq is always going to be a Buc.”
So yeah, it sure smells to Joe that if a another team can guarantee Shaq playing time, then the Bucs will wish Shaq good luck and maybe a job in football operations if he ever wants one.
Joe sort of wishes Shaq would be around this summer, if for no other reason than to help out Chris Braswell.
