FAB 2. Can Barrett Do It Again?

There was no better breakout player in the NFL last year than Tampa Bay’s Shaquil Barrett.

There was no better free agent signing in 2019 than that of Barrett by Bucs general manager Jason Licht, inking the former Broncos pass rusher to a one-year, $4 million deal.

There was no better NFL defender at getting to the quarterback last year than Barett, who recorded a league-high 19.5 sacks, which broke Warren Sapp’s single-season franchise record of 16.5.

Bucs OLB Shaquil Barrett – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Inside of the long-term contract extension he was seeking, Barrett got the franchise tag instead.

A one-year deal that screams, “Do it again. Prove to us that 2019 wasn’t a fluke.”

Can he do it again?

Can Barrett once again lead the league in sacks and approach – or top – 20 sacks?

“He can do it again – easily,” legendary Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp told me in an interview this week. “The kid ain’t satisfied with that one year. He understands being around Von Miller and winning a Super Bowl that they’re going to call it a one-year fluke. Now you have to turn around and do it again.

“I’ve already talked to him about that. I said, ‘Son, you’ve got to do it again. You know they’re going to make you do it again. They’re going to make you do it again to prove that it wasn’t a fluke. Maybe you got lucky if you do it again. Now if you do it a third time, now you’re consistent. You keep sticking your name back in that conversation as one of the premier rushers in the game and if you look back up in 10 years you might have yourself a Hall of Fame career. That’s what you work for and then the rest of it – the playoffs, the division titles, the championships – falls into place with the work that you put in. I don’t see this young man stopping. Once you’re sitting at the king’s table and you’re eating the feast, there’s no chance you’re not coming back and eating.’”

Sapp got to know Barrett last year after his hot start to the season, racing out to nine sacks in the first four weeks of the season. Sapp encouraged Barrett to break his single season sack record first on social media and later through text messages as the two got to know each other.

“I encouraged him all year long and I talked to him all year long on social media,” Sapp said. “I was in Costa Rica when he had the first shot to do it. I was watching him in a bar and when he didn’t get it I texted him and I said, ‘The good Lord just wants me to be there to see it!’ I’ll be home to see it and I promise you I won’t miss it. He didn’t do nothing but dig me up from out of the grave. Nobody thought about my 16.5 sacks from 2000 – not in a long time. I heard my name in those last four weeks of the season at a Bucs game than I did since I was playing. It was crazy.

“I love when someone digs up the annals of the games and goes out and passes records. The game allows it. It’s meant to be that way. And they were supposed to reward that man with a contract extension. And what did they do? String him out. Unbelievable. Damn, and he’s a good guy, too.”

Barrett signed his franchise tag tender worth $15.8 million in July, but informed the team that he was going to file a grievance like Baltimore’s edge rusher Matthew Judon did. The Bucs and Ravens run a 3-4 defense and while both pass rushers are classified as outside linebackers, both Barrett and Judon played enough snaps as defensive ends on a four-man front in nickel defense to deserve a defensive end franchise tag designation, which is about $2 million more.

Baltimore met Judon in the middle and the two agreed on a one-year deal worth $16,808,000. Expect Barrett to get the same type of financial outcome this year as he chases a bigger payday – and a long-term extension next March – with another stellar, Pro Bowl season in 2020.

Barrett took the franchise tag this year in stride.

“It was pretty much the whole situation with COVID, it was too much up in the air so we weren’t able to get on terms or the right negotiations going because we really didn’t know anything,” Barrett said. “They did make it clear that they love me, they like me, they want me and just when the time is right we might be able to get something going in the right direction.”

Bucs OLB Shaquil Barrett – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Barrett, who came to Tampa Bay with 12.5 sacks in his first five years in Denver, won’t sneak up on anyone this year. Instead, he’ll be a marked man, and might be subjected to slide protection his way and some extra attention by running backs in pass protection. Yet Sapp doesn’t necessarily think so.

“No, he won’t,” Sapp said. “It won’t be but about three or four more plays where he’ll get a little chip. They’ll make the back aware and to chip him before he goes [out to catch a pass]. Shaq plays mostly against the left tackle, and left tackles in this league don’t need much help. But that’s why Shaq had 19.5 sacks. He beat them. He’ll have four or five more chips each game, but that’s nothing that he won’t be able to recognize and counter.”

Bucs reserve linebacker Kevin Minter agrees with Sapp that Barrett can put up crazy high sack numbers again because Todd Bowles’ defense fits Barrett’s skill set like a glove.

“Sapp’s absolutely right and Shaq can do it again, especially with the way our front seven shuts down the run,” Minter said. “You aren’t going to want to run on us. He’s going to get plenty of opportunities. You should see the moves this man has. Shaq is a pass rush savant. He’s got a whole arsenal. He’s got a bag of tricks.

“The way Coach Bowles is rushing this defense this year he’s going to have a lot of chances for one-on-ones, especially with how we’re built with JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) on the other side and Vita [Vea] and [Ndamukong] Suh in the middle. You can only double-team so many people, and we have Will Gholston and Nacho (Rakeem Nunez-Roches), too. Our front seven is one of the best I’ve been around athlete-wise. You have to pick your poison with us. I actually see sacks being a lot more evenly distributed this year to be honest with you.”

Minter said it might actually be Pierre-Paul leading the team in sacks this year if Barrett gets some extra attention from offensive coordinators. Pierre-Paul notched 8.5 sacks in 10 games, including five in the last two games of the 2019 campaign.

Bucs OLBs Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“We didn’t have JPP at the beginning of the season last year and there’s no telling what kind of numbers he can put up,” Minter said. “That man’s still got it! The motor he has is unreal. It’s really going to be him and Shaq fighting for the sack title.”

It will be hard for Barrett to reach the lofty numbers he had last year. Even All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald came back down to earth last year with 12.5 sacks after recording a career-high 20.5 sacks, which led the league in 2018.

But even if Barrett reaches a dozen sacks in 2020 he’ll prove his worth to the Buccaneers.

“That kid loves it, and I talk to him enough to know he loves it,” Sapp said. “And when you love this game and you work at this game and you do the right things off the field it will come home for you. If he does everything he’s supposed to do to get paid, he’ll get paid, and it will come back tenfold for him. I’m a firm believer in that. Oh, I love this kid! Oh, I love him! He plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”