Jacquies Smith and Russell Shepard sign tenders with Buccaneers

Jacquies Smith and Russell Shepard have signed their exclusive rights and restricted free agent tenders, respectively. That means the group of restricted and exclusive rights free agents who were tendered by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this offseason have all signed their deals, and we shouldn't see any holdouts from those players.

The other restricted and exclusive rights free agents who signed their tenders earlier in the year were safety Bradley McDougald, linebacker Jeremiah George and longsnapper Andrew DePaola. The Bucs did not tender defensive end Olatunji Fatinikun and fullback Jorvorskie Lane, both of whom are recovering from injuries. They also let linebacker Danny Lansanah walk, preferring to sign Daryl Smith instead. Those three players can still be re-signed at a later date, though.

For Bradley McDougald, this is a real prove-it year. A good performance could see him earning an expensive long-term contract with the Bucs. The same is true for Jacquies Smith but to a lesser extent, as the team can still keep him as a restircted free agent next season.

The fact that we shouldn't see any holdouts there doesn't mean we won't see them elsewhere. Most notably, Demar Dotson started a holdout last season before ending it to negotiate a long-term contract -- those negotiations were then cut short by his knee injury. We might see something similar this year.