Bucs make 1-year tender offer to retain G Nick Leverett

The Bucs are set to retain a 10-game starter on the offensive line with the move.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are working to retain one of their offensive starters from the 2022 season.

The team announced Friday that it had extended a tender offer to left guard [autotag]Nick Leverett[/autotag] to make him an exclusive rights free agent.

The move prevents Leverett from negotiating with other teams, so Tampa Bay will look to go with Leverett’s experience as a starter on the offensive line as it heads into the 2023 season with a new quarterback behind center.

Because Leverett has not accrued three NFL seasons, he becomes an exclusive rights free agent instead of a restricted free agent, which would have allowed other teams to give him an offer that the Bucs would have had a chance to match.

Leverett joined the team in 2020 and got his first playing time in 2021, where he appeared in three games, and now it appears as if the 10-game starter in 2022 will stay in Tampa Bay for the time being. Leverett will get the opportunity to take the field in a Buccaneers uniform again after missing the team’s most recent playoff matchup against the Dallas Cowboys due to a knee and shoulder injury.

With Leverett taken care of, the Bucs will only have cornerback and special teams player Dee Delaney as its last remaining player eligible for the ERFA tender.