Pearson To Bucs: “Take Your 80% Pay Raise And Shove It”

I should probably stop putting quotations around those kinds of headlines. Of course he didn't really say that. What Kalvin Pearson really said, though his agent, was:

"We have a contract offer, but we're not going to sign it."

The RFA offer was $927,000. Last year he earned $516,360. Pearson is essentially a special teams player to this point, so $900K+ isn't such a bad deal to cover kicks and be the emergency safety. His agent says they're getting some interest from other teams, so maybe there's a team out there that is desperately shallow at safety and saw some potential in Pearson. Or maybe it's all a smokescreen to get the Bucs to up their offer before free agency hits at the end of the week. Safety, however, is not a position of concern for the team, so they'll be happy to let the market determine his value. It will be interesting to compare the $927,000 to whatever he eventually signs.