Ian Rapoport Weighs in on Bucs Rumors

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have not stopped being part of the rumor mill since concluding their 2018 playing season.

First, there were rumors Dirk Koetter was to be fired reaching back as far as mid-season. Then he was.

Then, there were rumors the Buccaneers were courting Bruce Arians as their next head coach hire. Then he was.

Now, DeSean Jackson is gone. Or not. Gerald McCoy is likely to be released or traded. Or not.

In the midst of all the trade talks and workouts and interviews, Bucs Nation was able to land a few minutes of time with NFL Network’s own Ian Rapoport.

We all know Ian, he’s famous or infamous depending on how you view his access to the league, for breaking news and having all ten fingers squarely on the pulse of the most popular professional sports league in the country.

So, when given the chance, we asked him to fill us in on what he knew about both McCoy and Jackson and his feeling about how the situations will unfold, and here’s what he had to say,

“It seems like McCoy has basically settled. It sounds like he’s coming back, and he probably should.”

Rapoport also stated he understood why the team would bring him back given his status as one of the faces of the franchise.

On Jackson, Rapoport said,

“It’ll be interesting to see what happens from like, a business sense. It’s actually more what it is. Is he going to end up playing for ten million? He definitely has value. You definitely like a home-run hitter in that offense. Anyone who could convince him that it would be beneficial to him, it would be Bruce Arians.”

Earlier this week at the combine, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians was asked about his meeting with DeSean Jackson and stated it had gone well from his point of view, but that we’d have to ask Jackson himself if it went well for him.

When asked if he knew anything further about the conversation, Rapoport said it went well and that part of Jackson’s problem was in fact related to cohesion with Jameis Winston. He also mentioned however that Arians may be able to fix the issues if given the opportunity.

Arians has stated he wanted to work with Jackson and looks forward to doing so. If Jason Licht and the Glazer family trust in Arians as much as they’ve stated publicly, then it definitely appears likely Jackson will be back, if the business side of things gets cleared up.

It’s been mentioned before Licht doesn’t like asking players to take pay cuts, but we’ve all done things we don’t like to do when it served the greater good.

We are not out of the woods on this yet, and there will surely be more to come. Stay with Bucs Nation throughout the off-season, and to catch the full audio of Rapoport’s comments to myself and James Yarcho, tune in to the next episode of the Locked On Bucs Podcast.