The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will sign one of the tryout players they brought in for heir rookie minicamp to a contract. Undrafted free agent Myles Wade out of Portland State will join the Bucs this offseason, according to Aaron Wilson of Fox Sports. The defensive tackle was highly recruited out of high school in 2007, but failed to academically qualify for Oregon. After one year at a junior college, he took a year off to help his mother, who was battling brain cancer. His mother passed away, and it supposedly changed Wade's life.
In 2009, he committed to Texas Tech. He played in 10 games in two years and earned a degree, but he wasn't satisfied. "When I got to Lubbock, Texas, I thought it would help me take my mind off of (everything)," he told Oregon Live. "But in actuality, all of the things I had to go through to get to Lubbock, all the memories of my mom and all the hardship and the struggle that my family and I had to go through kept on reoccurring in my head."
He moved back to his home state, and played for Portland State. Portland State's head coach credited Wade with pushing his players to improve. Whether Wade can bring that same attitude and some quality play to the NFL remains to be seen, but at least he'll get a chance to show his skills in training camp.