It appears as if the Buccaneers have moved on from 35-year old defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. Tampa Bay signed the former five-time Pro Bowler in 2019 and he helped the team win Super Bowl LV the next season. But age is catching up to Suh, and the Bucs wanted to get younger, faster and more athletic at the defensive tackle position.

So, Suh wasn’t re-signed during the 2022 offseason and the team drafted defensive tackle Logan Hall at the top of the second round. Bucs general manager Jason Licht hasn’t closed the door on Suh re-joining the team at some point – likely in an emergency situation due to injuries.

“No, we’re not shutting the door on that,” Licht said. “There are a lot of injuries that happen throughout the year and we’re not putting all of our stock in the guys we have right now, so I wouldn’t shut the door.”

Bucs DT Ndamukong Suh – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But that doesn’t mean that Suh will be just hanging around, waiting for the phone to ring with a call from the Bucs. If Suh, who had six sacks last year, wants to play a 13th season in the NFL, he might get interest elsewhere.

Raiders Could Be Interested In Suh

ESPN Raiders reporter Paul Gutierrez thinks Las Vegas could come calling for Suh after June 1. He notes that because of the June 1 designations applied to the March 16 releases of defensive end Carl Nassib and linebacker Cory Littleton, the Raiders will get an additional $19.8 million in salary cap space this week. Here is what Gutierrez wrote for ESPN regarding Suh:

“Hear me out here. Sure, the Raiders already have 27 defensive tackles on the roster (the actual number is eight, but it feels like more), having signed Bilal Nichols in free agency, re-signed Johnathan Hankins and drafted Neil Farrell, Jr. and Matthew Butler, among other moves. But coach Josh McDaniels has said he likes to make a strength, well, stronger. Imagine, then, perennial bad boy Ndamukong Suh suiting up for the erstwhile bad boys of the NFL.

Sure, Suh is 35 and the five-time Pro Bowler’s best days are behind him, but he has not missed a game since 2011 and has missed only two in his career. Suh had six sacks in each of his past two seasons, with 32 combined QB hits. Teaming him with Nichols, who has eight sacks combined the past two season, to collapse the pocket from the interior would free up defensive ends Maxx Crosby and Chandler Jones.”

Suh Would Prefer To Stay With Bucs

Suh made a subtle plea on Twitter to Todd Bowles when he became the Bucs head coach on March 30. He signed three one-year deals with Tampa Bay beginning in 2019 at $9.25 million. The last two deals were worth $9 million per season – a price the Bucs no longer want to pay.

While the Raiders aren’t the Super Bowl contender that the Bucs are, Las Vegas would be an ideal destination for Suh given his business interests. There is quite a boom in real estate and in the business community in Vegas. And Suh definitely has an eye toward the financial sector when his life as a football player is over.

It will be interesting to see if the Raiders – or another team – show interest in signing Suh. Or maybe he will continue to stay in Tampa Bay unsigned and on the Bucs’ short list of emergency players at the defensive tackle position.