Philadelphia Eagles: One dream trade target from each team for 2020

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Shaquil Barrett

In what shouldn’t have been a surprise at all, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used the franchise tag on Shaquil Barrett this offseason after the linebacker shattered his previous career high in sacks by recording 19.5 during the 2019 season.

Seeing how Barrett previously recorded just 14 sacks in five years as a member of the Broncos before joining the Buccaneers on a one-year deal, one can only imagine what his second year in Tampa Bay is going to be like for an encore.

As much as the Eagles and a bunch of other teams would have preferred to see Barrett hit the open market in free agency, the Buccaneers clearly took advantage of the situation to make sure they kept him around for at least one more year in case he became too expensive later on.

Barrett certainly will still need to prove that what took place last season wasn’t just a one-time thing, and he can still live up to the hype of being a top linebacker in the league, but there shouldn’t be any reason for concern.

Thanks to Brady deciding to join the Buccaneers after 20 seasons with the Patriots, plenty of football fans view Tampa Bay as a legitimate Super Bowl contender all of a sudden.

And while Brady will receive most of the attention as far as this team’s success is concerned, Barrett could be just as important on the defensive side of the football.