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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may be pursuing defensive lineman Chris Baker, per Mike Klis of the Denver Post. The Bucs will have some competition for Baker’s services in the Denver Broncos.
Broncos, Tampa Bay are teams hot on DT/DE Chris Baker, per source. Jacksonville in play for DL Calais Campbell. #9sports
— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) March 7, 2017
The veteran has played for Washington for the past five seasons, starting 26 games in the past two years. At 6’2”, 320 lbs. he may be listed as a defensive tackle/end, he’d be a nose tackle in the Bucs’ system — possibly playing some end in some 3-4 alignments.
Baker is mostly a run-stuffer and given his size and likely position, the Bucs are probably targeting him to replace Akeem Spence to play alongside Gerald McCoy on running downs.
The fact that the Bucs continue to be linked to defensive linemen even after re-signing William Gholston (they’ve also been tied to Calais Campbell), suggests they don’t see that position as solved.
As always with free agency and draft reports: take this with a grain of salt. Agents will hype up their players, while teams will try to plant some misinformation in the media for their own purposes, or just because they think they live in a James Bond movie.