Bashaud Breeland remains unsigned after Tampa Bay Buccaneers visit
By Matt Conner
Bashaud Breeland remains available as a free agent cornerback for some team to sign after he left the Tampa Bay Buccaneers without a deal.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the latest team to bring in free agent cornerback Bashaud Breeland for a visit when he worked out for the team on Tuesday. And like the several others visits he’s taken, he left without signing an official contract.
The Buccaneers were or perhaps are in the market for cornerback help given the devastating news that Vernon Hargreaves is out for the season with a shoulder injury suffered in Week 1. He will require surgery which means the Bucs are in the pass defense market. However they did already sign veteran corner Marcus Williams to the active roster. They also signed another cornerback, Jeff Richards, to their practice squad.
Whether or not they are still interested in Breeland is unknown but it’s clear that he came and went without a deal. The same thing has happened at a number of other teams, including the Kansas City Chiefs, with whom he visited overnight and seemed to enjoy himself with coaches, front office personnel and potential teammates—especially his former teammate Kendall Fuller from their days in Washington.
Breeland has visited the Oakland Raiders, Chiefs, Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and New England Patriots while the New York Jets were also rumored to be interested at one point in the preseason. It’s telling that each of those visits allowed him to walk, but it’s also confusing given Breeland’s clear history of above-average performance as a pass defender at the highest level. Even six months ago, the Carolina Panthers were ready to commit to him at an average of $8 million/season.
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At this point it’s easy to wonder if Breeland simply is not ready and wouldn’t be able to pass a physical to even sign a deal in the first place. If so, why take all these free agent visits? Is it so that when he is ready, he can solicit offers from teams that he’s already visited so there’s no guesswork on his part? Perhaps and if so that’s a smart move on his part. From the fan perspective it’s baffling to know why someone with his talent doesn’t have meaningful work in a league that needs pass defenders.