Could Leftwich Be A Buccaneer Smokescreen?

The contract given by the Bucs to quarterback Byron Leftwich reportedly includes a $2 million base salary in 2009. Unless there’s a signing bonus (and no published report suggests that there is), the Buccaneers could later choose to dump Leftwich with no financial consequence. And so we’re not prepared to agree with Stephen Holder’s take in the St. Petersburg Times that the arrival of Leftwich is “the strongest indication yet that quarterback is not a consideration for the Bucs’ first-round pick in the draft.” We think that the Bucs are still potentially in play for a guy like Josh Freeman at No. 19, and that signing Leftwich less than two weeks before the picks start to fly might persuade some of the folks who might otherwise be inclined to leapfrog Tampa to assume that the Bucs would pass on Freeman if he’s still on the market when they go on the clock.