Shortly after the trade was announced, Bucs general manager Mark Dominik spoke with the media at One Buc Place and explained that Tampa Bay felt this decision was best for the organization.

 

"I'm here to announce today that we have traded Aqib Talib to the New England Patriots," Dominik said. "It's a decision that we felt like was in the best interest of our organization, what we wanted to do. It's been a - you know, the trade deadline every year comes and you look at it from different perspectives of whether you want to make a move to require a player, whether you're going to have an opportunity to trade a player. You know, the last I'd say 48-72 hours has been a lot of work on the phones talking to a lot of different clubs - everybody in the league - trying to find out what's going on in terms of things that we want to talk about and discuss. We felt, again, sitting down with Greg (Schiano) going through the whole process, we felt like this was the right move for our football team and what we want to do internally."

The former Kansas Jayhawk was selected by the Bucs with the 20th overall pick in the first round of the 2008 draft, and although he is a talented football player, Talib has had trouble off the field since entering the league. He served a one-game suspension in 2010, missing the season opener against Cleveland as a disciplinary measure for assaulting a Tampa Bay area cab driver on the final day of training camp in 2009.

This week, Talib is serving the final game of a four-game suspension for testing positive for a performance enhancing substance the fifth-year player said was Adderall. 

Immediately following Talib’s suspension, Bucs head coach Greg Schiano said: “I have spoken with Aqib, and he knows that he made a poor decision that let our team down. Certainly, other players will have the opportunity to step up while he serves this suspension.”

The 26-year old Talib, who is in the last year of his contract with the Bucs, has 18 career interceptions, including three that he has returned for touchdowns, 182 tackles, 53 passes defensed, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. Prior to his suspension, Talib recorded 21 tackles (20 solo), one interception and seven passes defensed.

Dominik ended the impromptu press conference by discussing what this trade says to the other players about the organization. 

"Well the thing you got to keep in mind for us as an organization - two things: your body of work is what it is, you know, and Aqib (Talib) played well here for us, but at the same point he's got eight games left on his contract and his contract [is] going to expire, so we have to look at everything when we make these decisions. And each player is an individual situation, each player is an individual case."

PewterReport.com will keep you updated as new information comes in on any new details regarding the trade.