Bucs general manager Jason Licht joined the Pewter Report podcast on Thursday and spoke on a number of subjects regarding the team’s big Super Bowl win, the parade and also the Bucs’ pending free agents.
Licht told Scott Reynolds and Jon Ledyard the team has a few days to let things settle down, but noted the team wants defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and outside linebacker Shaq Barrett back in red and pewter next season. He also said both have expressed interest in coming back.
“I think he’s said it, that’d he’d love to come back here,” Licht said of Suh. “I know that there’s mutual respect for each other and I’ve told him that we’d like to have him back. We’re just kind of letting the dust settle here for a couple days, we’ve got some time here. You never hit utopia I guess unless you win the Super Bowl, but a lot of things we want to try to do, I’m hoping we can do, we’ll have to see how it all shakes out, but he’s definitely one that we want back.”
Where as Suh could possibly retire this year as opposed to returning, Barrett said earlier on Thursday that he wants to come back but also break the bank at the same time.
“I probably won’t touch on that,” Licht said. “I’m proud of Shaq. I understand that this is a business and there’s no hard feelings over this. It’s just part of doing business, we’ll see what happens. We’d love to have Shaq back, that’s for sure.”
You can watch and listen to the whole podcast with Licht here.