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Bqcaneers’ lineout player Shaq Barrett is now a Super Bowl champion.
He is also a hanging free agent.
Barrett led the league with 19.5 bags in 2019. Although he had only 8.0 during the 2020 regular season, he looked like a pocket champion in Sunday’s 31-9 victory over Kansas City. He was consistently in the backfield to push Patrick Mahomes and ended up with a bag and four stoppers.
But he played the 2020 season under the franchise label, which means he will reach the open market in March.
In the euphoric aftermath of Super Bowl LV, Barrett may have undermined a bit of his agent’s leverage by making clear his desire to stay at Tampa Bay.
“I know [there] there is no other place I would rather be. “I’m sure my agent will talk to them, they’ll talk and we’ll find a quick solution to this, ‘Barrett said. ‘I know I found a house here. They gave me a chance. I deserved a starting point here. They gave me the freedom to play the way I wanted to play. And it just works. It’s been a perfect match since Day 1.
“I love it and just want to keep proving it right.”
Barrett did have a strong post-season, with 4.0 sacks, three tackles for loss and eight stoppers in four games.