2012 NFL Free Agents: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Suitor for Big-Name Wide Receivers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are expected to be one of the big players in free agency this season as they try to erase the stain of a miserable 4-12 2011 season, and if recent reports are any indication, the Buccaneers may be set to spend some of their reported $42 million in salary cap space to procure at least one of the top free agent options at wide receiver.

Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday that while the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins have been rumored as the leading candidates to sign San Diego Chargers wideout Vincent Jackson, the Buccaneers may have emerged as a deep-pocketed dark horse in the race to sign the 29-year-old.

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Sources indicate there will be a strong market for Jackson, one expected to be too rich for the Chargers’ taste. Despite the Bears’ interest in him, Jackson might cross the threshold they’re willing to pay. His salary might exceed $14 million a season, and the Bucs and Redskins also are interested.

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Jackson is a talented player who at 6'5" would present quarterback Josh Freeman with a big red zone target, and the seven-year veteran has three seasons of over 1,000 receiving yards on his resume.

However, Jackson has also been known to take the wide receiver position's reputation for producing prima donnas to extremes, and it's unsure if new head coach Greg Schiano would want that sort of potentially divisive influence in a young Buccaneers locker room.

Jackson isn't the only top target in this year's receiver class that has been linked to Tampa Bay however, and the Buccaneers may choose instead to target Mario Manningham of the New York Giants, who Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News says is squarely on the Buccaneers radar.

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For all his talk of a 25-50% chance that he could return to the Giants, you might as well put the number close to zero. He wants a big-money, $7-8 million-per-year deal and the Giants don’t have the cap room for that. Even if they did, the reality is that the Super Bowl hero is their third receiver and you can’t give a third receiver that much. He’s gone. And probably to Tampa Bay.

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Manningham may not have Jackson's resume, but the 25 year-old hero of Super Bowl XLVI is also four years younger and would come considerably cheaper than Jackson, and the fifth-year pro has shown considerable flashes of talent in the past.

The Buccaneers are a team in transition, but with an energetic new head coach, a top-five pick in April's NFL draft and loads of cap space, it's a transition that can be made pretty quickly if the Buccaneers play their cards right.

It would appear, if these reports are to be believed, that an early part of that transition will be a badly-needed upgrade to the Tampa Bay receiving corps.

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