Buccaneers Need To Close The Deal For Freeman

Twelve days and counting.

Twelve days from now, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will report for training camp—Raheem Morris style.

You can bet Morris is antsy, ready to go, wishes it were today.

High-energy, high-enthusiasm guys like Morris are like that.

There is one last necessary task the Bucs must complete before this 2009 camp opens for business—sooner than later, they need to sign their No. 1 draft pick, quarterback Josh Freeman.

You've probably never seen any general managers stress over late-round picks.

The Bucs have signed Roy Miller (third round), Kyle Moore (fourth), Xavier Fulton (fifth) and two seventh round picks, E.J. Biggers and Sammie Stroughter.

Never seen a team worried about those type of picks holding out. What's there to hold out for?

Which brings us to Freeman.

This process, on paper, shouldn't be that hard.

The contracts given to first rounders in 2008 set some sort of precident or map for what guys will get this year.

Last year's 17th pick was the greatness that is offensive tackle Gosder Cherilus of Detroit. Cherilus signed a five-year, $14.9 million deal with $8.9 million guaranteed and another $12.5 million available to him through incentives.

The 18th pick, Joe Flacco, the Ravens' quarterback, signed a five-year, $11.9 million deal with $8.75 million guaranteed and another $17.9 million available to him through incentives.

Which now brings us to Freeman. This shouldn't be a brain-buster for general manager Mark Dominik and his contract guy, Digger Daley (no relation to Digger Phelps).

If you take the Cherilus' contract and increase it by five percent, you'd be looking at something in the neighborhood of $15.645 million. Let's be generous (as the Glazers no doubt want to be) and round it up to an even $15.7 million over five years.

Now comes the potential sticking point:

Guaranteed money, perhaps in the form of up-front bonus money.

It's what you and I and anyone else would ask for.

Bet is that Freeman's agent will ask for a minimum guarantee of $9 million. They'll want it up front, one check. Teams like to spread that bonus because, obviously, a dollar three years from now isn't worth a dollar today.

And with training camp coming up fast—real fast—perhaps Daley will remember his real estate days and recall contracts with a closing date of "on or before." In this case, they should work like it's "on of before July 31, 2009."

It needs to happen.

Sooner than later.