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

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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.