Demar Dotson preparing for extended holdout as Buccaneers posture

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have to go through this week's OTAs without right tackle Demar Dotson, who is continuing his holdout, Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times reported yesterday. Dotson is prepared to  hold out into training camp, according to Pewter Report.

Auman writes that the Buccaneers had offered Dotson a new contract, which Dotson and his agent apparently didn't see as sufficient.  The team has since withdrawn the offer, apparently because of a policy that they don't negotiate with players who aren't participating in team activities.

Of course, we have no clue what the terms of that contract were, so we can't really evaluate whether or not the offer was fair. What we can say is that the Bucs' policy to not negotiate with players who aren't participating in team activities isn't very realistic. If the team needs a player, it's not going to let their presence at OTAs stand in the way of securing their services with a new contract. It's just posturing, nothing more.

The Bucs will likely reach an agreement with Dotson eventually, though it may take some time for that to actually happen. The team has plenty of cap space, and Dotson has been underpaid for basically his entire career as a starter, and the Bucs don't really have any quality backups -- last year's disaster at right guard Patrick Omameh or second-year fifth-round pick Kevin Pamphile are the main candidates if Dotson is out, and neither is remotely reliable.

Put simply: with a rookie quarterback and last year's horrible offensive line still fresh in memory, the Bucs aren't in a position to go into the season without their starting right tackle.