Tuesday, February 26, 2013
New deal coming for Mike Williams?
By Tim Kavanagh
Over the course of the past few offseasons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have made a concerted effort to secure some productive pass-catchers for QB Josh Freeman; as they continue to determine whether he's a true "franchise QB," surrounding him with strong players at WR will give them a better idea of his viability in that regard. To that end, they signed Vincent Jackson to a monster deal in free agency last offseason, and one of their recent draft targets, Mike Williams, could be up for one in the near future.
Williams' agent Hadley Engelhard commented this week that the two sides both agree that extending the Syracuse product's time with the team is a good idea. What remains to be hashed out between Engelhard and GM Mark Dominik are the specifics, and they may not get this done until things settle down a bit following the draft.
"I met with Mark, and it was a very productive meeting," Engelhard confirmed, per the Tampa Bay Times. "We are progressing toward a new contract for Mike, but they've asked us to be patient to let them get through free agency and the draft. We've agreed to be a little less aggressive and give them some time. The target date right now would be sometime in May."
Williams is entering the final year of his current pact, a deal that Engelhard believes his client has outperformed. And as the agent admits, in the worst-case scenario, Williams will hit unrestricted free agency a year from now, which may not necessarily be a bad thing.
