Doomsday For DJax?
March 8th, 2019
End of the road today?
So the Bucs are up against the salary cap with several players that either need to be re-signed or acquired to fill holes.
And on the roster the Bucs have a malcontent wide receiver who hasn’t remotely come close to putting up production, based on both his talent level and hassles with teammates and coaches. This same guy also seems to have worked harder to Pearl Harbor the career of America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, than to help the Bucs win games.
That would be DeSean Jackson.
So something has to give and that $10 million salary of Jackson’s for 2019 sure looks to be in jeopardy.
Now Jackson, despite all of his negatives, is still a popular player among some Bucs fans. Why, Joe isn’t sure other than maybe many of these same fans believe Jackson’s PlayStation production should translate to the field of play.
Last week at the NFL combine in Indianapolis, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht and coach Bucco Bruce Arians sure seemed to be blowing a lot of smoke suggesting Jackson has changed his ways and is a major asset to the Bucs.
The way Licht and Arians raved about Jackson, you would have thought they were talking Lynn Swann.
What are we to make of all of this? Well, no one in NFL media is better at sifting through smoke than former practicing attorney and current NFL insider, the creator, curator and overall guru of ProFootballTalk.com, the great Mike Florio. At the combine, Joe had a chance to talk with Florio and Joe asked what he made of all the Jackson cheerleading by the Bucs’ big-shots.
JoeBucsFan: What do you make of all the love that Jason Licht and Bruce Arians were spreading thickly about DeSean Jackson? Was that just a sales job?
Mike Florio: I think you want a deep threat in any offense to stretch the field. But if he doesn’t want to be there, you don’t want to have that distraction week-in and week-out. We see what the Steelers are going through with Antonio Brown. But before you move on from DeSean Jackson you want to make damn sure you have a guy that can run the deep route and open things up for Mike Evans and anyone else – the tight ends, etc. You can also argue you really don’t need that when you have Mike Evans and the tight ends they have. So, I think they have to decide what is right for Jackson and what’s right for them and if a trade is right, so be it. But if anyone is going to talk this guy into really committing or recommitting to Tampa it is going to be Bruce Arians.
Joe: Can the Bucs really believe after two years of hassles with coaches, blowing off meetings, sleeping in meetings, not taking notes, not knowing the playbook and trying to run off the franchise quarterback that all of a sudden this guy is going to change spots and fly right?
Florio: And think what you have to do is show how he is going to get the football in your offense. ‘Look DeSean, here is how it is going to work. Here is what the read is going to be. And this is how we are going to get you the ball. This is how my offense works. Just bear with me here and we will make it happen.’ And maybe they say to him as well, ‘Hey, if it is not happening then we will talk about trading you before the deadline.’ Licht was really committed to keeping him. They could have gotten something for him last year. There were teams jostling. So they see there is value there and I think they are doing what they can to hang onto him.
Well, today is Friday. NFL teams if not the league itself likes to put out bad news on Fridays and sometimes the weekend. Could today be the day the Bucs wave goodbye to Jackson?
Or have the powers that be at One Buc Palace convinced themselves Jackson can play nice and be a team-first guy?
Joe has major doubts about that.
March 8th, 2019 at 10:36 am
Can we just cut this guy already? The last thing the Bucs need is TMZ nonsense.
March 8th, 2019 at 10:36 am
Joe is pushing Jackson as a malcontent almost as much as he pushes Jameis is a franchise QB…
Part of me hopes DJAX stays just to rile the Joes up but the Bucs have too many highly paid underperforming players and need a lot of help all over the field
March 8th, 2019 at 10:40 am
Don’t have to push. The evidence is all out there for anyone to see. And documented.
March 8th, 2019 at 10:41 am
so jackson tried to pearl harbor jameis winstons career? was jackson throwing inaccurate balls to himself that were a. either 5 yards behind him that he had to wait for or b. 8 yards in front of him that he had no shot at? this jameis winston nuthugging has to stop. jameis winston aint a perfect qb by any means. funny how kirk cousins donovan mcnabb mike vick rg3 never had a problem hitting djax in stride but your boy jaimes does and its jacksons fault….hmmmm…..weird.
March 8th, 2019 at 10:41 am
This is what should happen, but I’m expecting nothing to happen.
TRADE, RELEASE
Brate- 7,000,000 (trade to the for a 2nd or 3rd) possible trade partners Colts, Jets, Bills. No need for 3 TEs in the new O.
McCoy- 13,000,000 (trade for a 3rd or 4th,restructure contract, or release.) possible trade partners 49ers, Packers, Lions, Eagles. Replacement can be drafted @ 5. (We let Sapp go about this same time & production)
Jackson- 10,000,00 (trade for a 4th or 5th) possible trade partners Texans, Bengals. Evans, Godwin, Watson, and Howard other teams are successful with much less
Anger- 3,500,000 (release). DRAFT Jack Bailey out of Stanford in the later rounds.
POSSIBLE CAP CASUALTIES (actually just cut these players before the season)
Caleb Benenoch
Beau Allen
Mitch Unrein
Jaquise Rodgers
Andrea Ellington
March 8th, 2019 at 10:43 am
No need to cut Djax…..try to work a trade as long as possible…..if not, then cut him…..we need the $10 mil but have until Sept to comply with the cap.
I simply can’t see any way we keep Djax……the love coming from BA & Licht is to bolster our trade position…..if other teams are certain we will cut him….many will wait. The hope is that there is a team that wants him and does’t want to compete for his services.
March 8th, 2019 at 10:44 am
oh and fitz too.
March 8th, 2019 at 10:45 am
Whoah! A DJax article.
Haven’t seen one of these in forever.
March 8th, 2019 at 10:47 am
Joe,
Please get on blood pressure medication immediately if Bucs keep DJax
March 8th, 2019 at 10:48 am
Uh, Oh
Did you hear something joe?
Seems pretty random that they would cut or trade him TODAY unless I’m missing something with the League dates (Very Possible)
WWG1WGA
March 8th, 2019 at 10:51 am
If we had an actual competent GM, who can prepare and compile an actual winning franchise, jason gump would have traded desean last year, along with GMC at the trade deadline but 5-11 GMs put a team in cap hell and acquire and keep 5-11 players…..he has only cut bait with one draft pick and that is a kicker who was one of the all time worst draft picks in NFL history
March 8th, 2019 at 10:53 am
Joe is right… the “evidence” is all out there…
Jackson has had a borderline Hall of fame career, made multiple pro bowls, has broken all sorts of all time records.
Jameis… not even sure if he deserves a second contract…
March 8th, 2019 at 10:58 am
That shyster said he wants to play for the Rams.
He must be cut, or the organization loses any remaining dignity.
March 8th, 2019 at 11:04 am
Trade him to Pittsburgh. Brown for DJax. Diva for diva. And swap 3rd round picks. I think Jameis and Evans would be much much better off with Brown. I personally think come the new season week one we will be without either DJax or GMC.
March 8th, 2019 at 11:14 am
Not random at all. Look at all the players being told by teams they are moving on. Free agent dinner bell rings next week. Unless Bucs really want to hose Jackson, will be hard for teams to find cap room to sign him after next week. Also lowers his chances of a bigger salary.
And it is Friday. Joe spelled out why Friday is important in the story.
March 8th, 2019 at 11:15 am
Cut Jax, Allen, Brate, Conte, Fitz, Grimes, Rodgers, Evan Smith, and Unrein please so we can free up some money to get key players. If Hump don’t want less then 9 mill cut his ass to
March 8th, 2019 at 11:24 am
JP_09 – go do some research on the cap at overthecap.com and you’ll see that some of the things you’re suggesting are nonsense. Cutting Ellington for example – who we literally just signed – will do almost nothing for us. Cutting Unrein would be hard, you’d need an injury settlement most likely. And rather than Benenoch, it’s far more likely they let go of Evan smith. Beau Allen won’t get us 5 million dollars either like a lot of places are reporting.
And you don’t cut DeSean. You’d trade him. His contract is VERY reasonable. He will have trade value. And you can’t trade till the new league year. So hold your water and be patient folks.
March 8th, 2019 at 11:25 am
Jonzey Says:
March 8th, 2019 at 11:15 am
Cut Jax, Allen, Brate, Conte, Fitz, Grimes, Rodgers, Evan Smith, and Unrein please so we can free up some money to get key players. If Hump don’t want less then 9 mill cut his ass to
Sorry to inform you but Conte, Fitz, Grimes, Rogers & Hump are not under contract…..so can’t be cut…..they are already gone….so there is no cap savings on any of them
March 8th, 2019 at 11:26 am
can’t hit an open djax and it’s his fault. huh
March 8th, 2019 at 11:28 am
Knucknbuc Says:
March 8th, 2019 at 10:41 am
so jackson tried to pearl harbor jameis winstons career? was jackson throwing inaccurate balls to himself that were a. either 5 yards behind him that he had to wait for or b. 8 yards in front of him that he had no shot at? this jameis winston nuthugging has to stop. jameis winston aint a perfect qb by any means. funny how kirk cousins donovan mcnabb mike vick rg3 never had a problem hitting djax in stride but your boy jaimes does and its jacksons fault….hmmmm…..weird.
Again let’s revisit the facts.
Jameis is the first to show up last to leave the building. DJax barely shows up and when he does doesn’t want to practice.
Jameis hits every other receiver with no problems and all but one stays after practice and works with him on timing.
DJax goes on a national media tour saying he prefers Fitz, Jameis tells anyone that will listen how great DJax is and he wants him back.
One shows up for off-season work outs with his teammates to get better the other stays away.
So after knowing all of those FACTS you seriously blame the QB? That clearly shows a bias that no matter what Jameis does he will be the issue in your eyes. Find a new team sir cause he isn’t going anywhere.
March 8th, 2019 at 11:30 am
No need to cut or trade Brate, tons of injuries per year!!!!If 1 TE goes down then we are dead!!!!!
March 8th, 2019 at 11:39 am
JonzeY … Conte, Fitz, Grimes & Rodgers are all FAs. You can’t cut what you don’t own. They don’t count against our Cap fortunately.
March 8th, 2019 at 11:40 am
TBBF… You beat me to it.
March 8th, 2019 at 11:42 am
Bwawawa…Licht has made some talent judgement misses, I can understand that, however NOT trading DJax when he asked to be traded before the deadline in a season and on a team going NOWHERE…..is inexcusable…we would be talking about how to use that draft pick, realistically a 3rd round pick, but now nothing ! This is/was inexcusable !
March 8th, 2019 at 11:44 am
Not to mention Jameis doesn’t have issues hitting anyone else with a long pass, except the malcontent who won’t work with him.
March 8th, 2019 at 11:47 am
Love what he can do but jameis can’t hit the broadside of a barn
Give hump 5 and Kwon 5 and move on
March 8th, 2019 at 11:55 am
The HATE runs deep. ..smh
March 8th, 2019 at 11:59 am
Call Buffalo
March 8th, 2019 at 12:03 pm
JBF:”and joe spelled out why friday is important in the story”
did i miss it? all i see is “NFL teams if not the league itself likes to put out bad news on Fridays and sometimes the weekend.” So your statement that NFL teams like to put out bad news on friday is really spelling out why friday is important? Im thinking maybe you guys know more than just fridays is often bad news days..
March 8th, 2019 at 12:15 pm
Joe Says:
March 8th, 2019 at 11:44 am
Not to mention Jameis doesn’t have issues hitting anyone else with a long pass, except the malcontent who won’t work with him.
The fans who have actually watched the games know this is not true. Winston hits on one of ten deep passes with a receiver and the media calls it a success? It only took four years but he eventually hit a deep pass with all of them.
March 8th, 2019 at 12:18 pm
@ Mort, no where in my apparent incoherent rant did I mention cutting Jackson, re-read. Thanks for the inputs as far as Unrein goes though, as far as Ellington, he’s a filler he will not be on the roster when the season starts. There’s a lot of fat on this roster that needs to be cut, and if we’re true Lt changing to a 3-4, you don’t need as many DL
March 8th, 2019 at 12:24 pm
I can’t see how Edelman is making 5.5 mil a year and hump wants 10 a year..that baffles me and I do like hump , I really do but 10 mil for his services on THIS team is not the way to go..just cut or trade djax , let hump sign somewhere else and rid us of McCoy…13 + 10 + another 10 for hump saves us 33 mil just getting rid of thoes 3..draft , draft , draft and draft well & we are on our way !
March 8th, 2019 at 12:27 pm
Buh, Bye.
March 8th, 2019 at 12:48 pm
I just don’t get the MeSean love. He’s only played 16 games twice in 11 years. He averages 3.8 catches a game, 55 for a season. His catch % is about 55-56%. Yes about twice a season he catches a long TD but he only averages 4.8 TD’s a season. His stats have never warranted a 10 million dollar contract. To top it off he’s a diva who is more name than substance.
The sooner he is gone the better.
March 8th, 2019 at 12:52 pm
What does Desean Jackson really want? Answer: To get paid next year, so that is the basis of his complaint, he wants to go somewhere that he can show another team that he is worthy of another contract. So as long as BA can devise schemes to get him.the ball, so that he can get paid, DJax is going to be fine.
March 8th, 2019 at 12:53 pm
Oh and I forgot to mention he’s a one trick pony. He runs the go or post route mostly. You rarely see him coming across the middle. He’s not a good blocker either. I would love to trade him but I think he’ll just be released to sign elsewhere. No way he gets that 10/11 million Tampa was going to pay him.
March 8th, 2019 at 1:35 pm
should call him AJAX because he needs to “clean” out his locker.
March 8th, 2019 at 1:49 pm
Any team willing to pay Hump more than $7 M is playing checkers. Like him as a player but let’s be honest, he’s not scaring anyone on the other side of the field. If we can use a RB in our passing game for once, then his position isn’t that valuable to begin with.
BTW, looks like they have interviewed quite a few WR’s at the combine so I anticipate they are looking to add some speed through the draft.
March 8th, 2019 at 1:54 pm
lmaooooo djax has been in the league 12 years hes had a bunch of different qbs not once have i seen his timing be off with any of the others. but yea its all djax fault im sure he just started practicing/ working out like this since coming to tampa. i seem to remember jqmeis saying last offseason he got with djax alot to work on timing. yea its all djax fault. no problem at all with jameis americas probowl alternate. djax has actually been picked to go to probowls before not ano injury replacement either.
March 8th, 2019 at 2:15 pm
Anyone with sense knew he was a Me Me turd when we signed him. Big mistake and messed w chemistry.
March 8th, 2019 at 2:21 pm
Winston is not now a franchise qb so why all the bs ?Didn’t Fritz have a better completion %? then Winston..Fritz could hook up with Djax but it takes an accurate qb to throw to a small window ..Djax would be better off playing for a another team with better qb
March 8th, 2019 at 2:31 pm
Bye Bye whiner !
March 8th, 2019 at 2:52 pm
Joe Says:
March 8th, 2019 at 10:40 am
Joe is pushing Jackson as a malcontent almost as much as he pushes Jameis is a franchise QB…
Don’t have to push. The evidence is all out there for anyone to see. And documented.
^^^ Anyone can spin evidence all they want. In this case Joe “Hannity” is pumping this “franchise QB” spin for Winston (house of cards really) but to get to real truth of it you have to ask yourselves this Joe/s.
Does DJAX not taking notes or sleeping in meetings affect Winston’s ability to throw the ball deep with accuracy?
I thought not… pull your skirt down Joe your bias is showing.
Where’s Kobe Faker when you need him?!
March 8th, 2019 at 3:14 pm
The Florio waffle is typical “maybe yes, maybe no” response saying nothing. Bucs decision makers must exercise their responsibilities reviewing the DJ facts and numbers. No maybe there. Anybody at the combine see any pure speed and athleticism? Anybody have insider info on the waiver wire maybes? Come on Bucs guys shut up already on DJ. Get a life. Move in the fast lane.
March 8th, 2019 at 3:17 pm
Trade him for a 5th or 6th round pick and call it a day. If we are going to keep a QB that has accuracy issues with the long ball, no use in keeping DJax. Trade him for whatever we can get.
March 8th, 2019 at 3:22 pm
@zzbuc, there is a need to trade a 7 million dollar back up TE when you don’t even have 22 competent starters. Who is NEs, KCs, or any teams back up tight end? Nobody has a 7 million dollar back up TE
March 8th, 2019 at 3:59 pm
@jp_09
You are one smart summmmbitch!
Love your suggestions.
March 8th, 2019 at 5:01 pm
I hope they cut him and he gets 25% of what he would have made he just being a team guy somewhere else where he will get no playing time. Ajax, Antonio brown, Leveon bell, brent grimes, terrell ownes all these me guys can kick rocks.
THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE READY TO TAKE YOUR JOB CHUMP!!!!!
March 8th, 2019 at 5:33 pm
Joe Says:
March 8th, 2019 at 11:14 am
Seems pretty random that they would cut or trade him TODAY unless I’m missing something with the League dates (Very Possible)
Not random at all. Look at all the players being told by teams they are moving on. Free agent dinner bell rings next week. Unless Bucs really want to hose Jackson, will be hard for teams to find cap room to sign him after next week. Also lowers his chances of a bigger salary.
And it is Friday. Joe spelled out why Friday is important in the story.
Why wouldn’t they want to hose him? The way he acted around here? The way he tried to basically ruin Jameis rather than lift him up as a teammate. Screw Desean!!!! Cut him during the final hour without warning.
March 8th, 2019 at 5:38 pm
There’s nothing like group think. The minions are strong.
March 8th, 2019 at 8:19 pm
REEMEMBER….that THIS GUY said…..Licht is just trying to keep his hifalutin W2….
He endlessly said he was grateful for being here (insert vomitous noise) to the Glazers.
Gump is JUST trying to keep his ridiculous W2 as long as he can.
And yes, BA is calling the shots, but even THAT is circumspect. At 67.
Not John Harbaugh.
So….what keeps Gump from his W2??? Making bold waves. Which he won’t do. Why? It will undermine, his comfy 1-2 year remaining ineptitude.
Go Bucs!