BUCS STILL DEBATING WHETHER TO TAG BRYANT

According to our friends at Pewter Report, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are still pondering whether to use the franchise tag on receiver Antonio Bryant, if they can’t work out a long-term deal with him before Thursday at 4:00 p.m. The franchise tag would require a one-year offer in the amount of $9.884 million. Given the fact that Bryant has never enjoyed a major NFL payday, our guess is that he’ll quickly sign the contract, making the amount fully guaranteed. Pewter Report also raises the possibility of the Bucs using the transition tag, which would require a one-year offer of only (only?) $8.393 million. The problem, however, is that the transition tag would give the Buccaneers only the right to match any offer he receives elsewhere -- and the one-year salary again would become fully guaranteed if/when he accepts the tender. Our partially-educated guess is that Bryant will be willing to play for one more year with the Bucs, and then jump to whatever team former Bucs coach Jon Gruden is coaching in 2010, since it was Gruden who rejuvenated Bryant’s career. Unless, of course, the team Gruden is coaching plays its home games in South Bend or Knoxville.