Shaq Barrett Wants To Make The Bucs Regret Cutting Him

Former Bucs outside linebacker Shaq Barrett still has the fire to rush the passer and play football at age 31.

And Barrett fired off a shot in Tampa Bay’s direction at his initial press conference in Miami after signing with the Dolphins in free agency.

“I still got a lot to prove,” Barrett said on Monday. “Especially getting cut from another team. That adds another whole fuel to the fire right there. The Dolphins are going to be happy they signed me. Tampa is going to be mad they let me go because this year that I’m planning on having and the success that we’re about to have as a team is going to be amazing.”

Barrett, who turns 32 this fall, suffered a season-ending Achilles injury during a disappointing 2022 campaign in which he had just three sacks in the first half of the year before being placed on injured reserve. Although Barrett made a successful return to the field and played in 16 games for the Buccaneers last year, he had just 4.5 sacks.

That declining production and the weight of a big contract that paid him an average of $17 million per year led to the Bucs releasing him this offseason in a salary cap move with a June 1 designation.

Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, a former first-round pick, and Anthony Nelson are entering contract years and are expected to compete for the right to replace Barrett and start opposite YaYa Diaby. The Bucs will likely select another edge rusher in the 2024 NFL Draft to increase the talent at the position and add competition.

Despite the Dolphins having two quality edge rushers in Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb, both are coming off season-ending knee injuries and Barrett was signed for depth. Barrett, who signed a one-year deal worth up to $9 million, was teammates with Chubb in Denver prior to signing with Tampa Bay in 2019.

In his first season with the Bucs, which was on a one-year, prove-it deal worth $5 million, Barrett stunned Tampa Bay and the NFL by going from a backup with the Broncos to a bona fide star in 2019. His 19.5 sacks led the league, set a single-season franchise record, and earned him his first Pro Bowl berth.

Shaq Barrett Happy To Stay In Florida, Still Believes He Can Put Up Big Sack Numbers

While not capable of posting that many sacks again as he nears age 32, Barrett still believes he’s capable of being a double-digit sacker with the Dolphins.

“Every year I will never reach my goals obviously because my goals are 23 sacks,” he said. “I want to break the record every year. I want to be the best, one of the best pass rushers to do it and I think getting the sack record would solidify that fact or make you part of the argument for it, so that’s what I be trying to go for every year.

Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett and Titans QB Will Levis – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“But I need to still be happy about not reaching that goal and still having 10 sacks, 12 sacks, or whatever amount of sacks I might have. But yeah, I always set the goals really lofty.”

Barrett saw the writing on the wall with the Bucs last year and was not surprised he was a salary cap casualty. Tampa Bay was faced with re-signing a bunch of key players this offseason and the team needed some of the money that was being spent on Barrett to go towards keeping others.

“Depending on if we’re going to be a Super Bowl contender and I played good, then there was a chance I was going to stay, but if I played like the season I had, I knew they had to pay people and I was going to be a potential cut, so I was preparing my family for pretty much the whole year, honestly,” Barrett said. “And then like once it happened, it wasn’t a surprise at all because I was making the money I was making then, but then my numbers weren’t supporting the fee that I was being paid, so I understood that part of the business, so it wasn’t too hard.”

Barrett was relieved to find the Dolphins interested in his services. With Miami being just four hours south of Tampa, the ability to stay in-state and keep playing football was too good of a situation for the family-oriented Barrett to pass up.

“Moving my family, that’s usually the hard part,” Barrett said. “But only going down the road, we’re going to be able to keep our house in Tampa and then they’re going to come travel down here every other week. So we’re going to make it work. That’s the best part about it, not having to really relocate the whole family.”

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