JoeBucsFan has contacted a Dallas attorney to shed some light on the legal precedent in cases like these. I'd advise you to read the whole piece (it's not very long), but the conclusion is simple: people like Talib are generally viewed favorably by the court, and he's likely to be offered a deal for a lesser charge, with 2 to 10 years of probation attached. If this happens Roger Goodell is almost certain to hand out a suspension, likely a 4-game suspension, but it presents the Bucs with a problem. Talib will have been found neither innocent nor guilty, so how do they handle this? It's easy to cut ties with a convicted felon,
As I said before, it's time for the Bucs to show their colors. And if this scenario happens, the Bucs need to choose between releasing a player with All Pro potential, and keeping a highly troubled player on the team because of his talent. Neither choice is ideal, and each choice will annoy plenty of people, but this is a situation of Talib's and the Bucs' making. They knew that Talib was troubled when they drafted him, and that has continued to this day. While he supposedly cleaned up his act last offseason, it seems those reports were grossly exaggerated.
In my opinion, the Bucs should stand with Talib if he does cut a deal with authorities. The real chain of events may never be known, and it's hard to let go of a player of his caliber. The Bucs should do everything in their power to keep Talib on the straight-and-narrow, and that includes whatever professional counseling they can get him. He needs to work on these issues and he needs to find a way to cut these problems out of his life. But if he is willing to work on these things, I do feel the Bucs should give him another chance.
This would fit with what Raheem Morris told Pat Yasinskas before the Talib story broke. "Myself and (general manager) Mark Dominik hold ourselves accountable for helping those young men come along. But we can't raise them. We can only pick them, get them in the building." Morris and Dominik need to feel responsible for their players, but they are grown men and cannot be controlled. The Bucs do need to make it clear that they don't tolerate poor behavior, and Morris says they handle the discipline in-house, not publically. At the same time, though, they also have an obligation to their players to help them straighten out their life when needed.
In the end, though, I can fully understand those people who say the Bucs shouldn't keep someone like this on the roster. We'll see what the Bucs think once the lockout ends.