Marvin Lewis: Buccaneers Set Bad Precedent Signing Dezmon Briscoe For As Much As They Did

As Geoff Hobson recently pointed out, the Buccaneers visit with the Bengals this weekend will reunite former Bengals draft pick Dezmon Briscoe with the Bengals. While Briscoe was a favorite in Cincinnati, he was eventually cut on the final roster cuts. After clearing waivers, Briscoe mulled over what to do next while Cincinnati reportedly had a practice squad deal on the table for him.

While Cincinnati was offering the going rate for practice squad players at $5,200, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers basically swooped in and offered Briscoe the league minimum for rookies at $310,000. Where do you think Briscoe would sign?

Marvin Lewis remembers all of that, speaking with the media on Wednesday:

"When you overpay a guy on the practice squad, you create a problem for teams,'' Lewis said. "I don't know that teams want to set that precedent and they did with Dez.

"That's not a great precedent for teams to set as we try to keep the NFL and doing the things we're trying to do as a league. It's still a league of 32 teams and things are put together a certain way.''

ESPN's Pat Yasinskas defended Tampa Bay saying.

I get Lewis’ point, but the Bucs did what they felt was necessary. Besides, the Bucs are 2-0 against the Bengals so far this season. They got Briscoe and they also got the last laugh as the Bengals paid a ton of money to former Tampa Bay receiver Antonio Bryant and had to turn around and cut him.

Wow. ESPN writer defending a team he's covering. I wonder what that actually feels like.