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Bucs Add Big-Name Pass Rusher

Originally posted on PewterReport.com | By Scott Reynolds | Last updated 4/3/24

Although free agency is winding down, the Bucs aren’t done signing players.

On Thursday Tampa Bay signed veteran outside linebacker Randy Gregory to a one-year, prove-it deal worth less than $5 million to help the team’s depth at the position. The Bucs released Shaq Barrett, who will be 32 this fall, in a salary cap move, as Barrett was earning an average of $17 million per season.

The 31-year old Gregory comes much cheaper, and still has some gas left in the tank. He’s fresh off a Super Bowl appearance with San Francisco after splitting time between the 49ers (12 games) and the Broncos (four games) last season.

Known for playing hard, the 6-foot-5, 242-pound brings size and experience to a Tampa Bay outside linebacker room that needs both after the departure of Barrett. Gregory was Dallas’ second-round pick out of Nebraska in 2015, and spent his first five seasons with the Cowboys. He moved on to Denver in 2022 where he lasted just over a year before ending the 2023 season in San Francisco.

Randy Gregory Could Wind Up Starting For The Bucs At OLB

Randy Gregory was not necessarily signed to be a starter in Tampa Bay. But he will be competing with Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Anthony Nelson for the right to start opposite YaYa Diaby this season. His signing does not preclude the Bucs from drafting another edge rusher, too. Yet it lessens the need to do so.

Gregory reunites with Bucs outside linebackers coach George Edwards, who was the Cowboys’ pass rush coach from 2020-22. Gregory has recorded 117 tackles, 22 sacks, 10 forced fumbles and a pair of fumble recoveries in his seven-year NFL career. He also had an interception during the 2021 season where he also tied his career high with six sacks.

Gregory had seven pressures and a sack while with the Broncos last year and 18 pressures and 2.5 sacks with the 49ers.

With the Bucs having a very young outside linebacker room with three players entering their second season in the league in Diaby, Markees Watts and Jose Ramirez, it was important that the team sign an edge rusher like Gregory to replace the veteran presence that Shaq Barrett brought to the room.

Gregory was a very athletic edge rusher coming out of Nebraska with 4.64 speed in the 40, a 6.79 time in the three-cone drill and a 4.16 time in the shuttle. Those numbers are among the 90th percentile for edge rushers entering the NFL Draft.