Buccaneers left tackle Donald Penn is in the midst of his second year of the restricted free agency dance. This time around, Penn might not be caving as quickly as he did a year ago.
According to PewterReport.com, Penn won’t be participating in Organized Team Activities, and he possibly won’t show up for a mandatory minicamp next month -- which isn’t mandatory for Penn because he hasn’t signed his tender.
Penn has been working out on his own, dropping 40 pounds from an in-season peak of 365.
Last year, Penn eventually showed up, presumably because of the June 15 rule, which allows an RFA tender to be reduced to 110 percent of the player’s salary from the prior season. In 2008, Penn was receiving the minimum for a third-year player. Because he received the highest possible RFA tender in 2009 of $2.792 million, his tender could be dropped only to $3.07 million, which means he’d give up roughly $100,000 by holding out beyond June 15.
To the average person, that’s a hell of a lot of money. But with Penn hoping to unlock a long-term deal that would give him a life-altering amount of guaranteed money, it’s easy to give up the $100,000, especially when he’ll still be getting more than $3 million if/when he shows up.
He can show up on the eve of the start of the regular season and still get the $3.07 million. The Bucs can choose at any time to rescind the tender, which would allow him to sign with any other team -- and several of them would be very happy to get a left tackle.
And at least one of them would give him the contract that the Buccaneers to date have declined to offer.