BUCHANON SIGNS WITH BUCS
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have signed cornerback Phillip Buchanon to a one-year contract, at a prorated base salary of $585,000.
Buchanon was released by the Texans on Monday. And the Texans actually did him a big favor by making the move when they did.
If the Texans had waited until Wednesday, Buchanon would have been required to pass through waivers. As it stands, Buchanon became a free agent.
Under NFL rules, players with less than four credited seasons always pass through waivers whenever they are cut, with the worst team to the best team getting a shot to claim him. Prior to the trading deadline, vested veterans instantly become free agents. After the trading deadline, however, all players regardless of tenure must go through waivers.
In Buchanon's case, someone like the Packers might have taken a chance on him. His full base salary was only $800,000, and with six weeks in the books the balance would have been only $517,650.
So Buchanon instead will earn $378,529 from the Bucs along with the balance of his $800,000 salary from the Texans, since he is now entitled (as a vested veteran) to receive termination pay.
The end result? His total 2006 income increased in one day by more than $375,000, assuming he finishes the season with Tampa.
It's baffling, in our view, that the Texans wouldn't have waited until Wednesday to cut him loose, in the hopes that someone would pick up his contract -- and allow the Texans to get off the hook for more than $500,000 in unpaid wages.
We're also told that the Texans tried to trade Buchanon before cutting him, but found no takers.
Buchanon was a first-round draft choice in 2002 out of the "M", and he was traded to Houston in 2005 for a second-round and third-round draft pick in 2006. Bucs G.M. Bruce Allen was in that same role with the Raiders when Buchanon was drafted.
