Former Bucs QB surprised $14M player skipped OTA practice

The "O" in OTAs actually stands for "organized" team activities, not "optional" team activities. Despite that, they are optional, but players can be judged on whether or not they show up based on surrounding circumstances.

It isn't as big of a deal when Buccaneers veterans like Tristan Wirfs, Vita Vea, Mike Evans and Lavonte David don't show up, since they've been Buccaneers for their whole career and know their respective systems and climate. But for a player like Haason Reddick, who knows none of those things and held out most of last year when he was a New York Jet, not showing up to OTAs could turn some heads.

One of the heads mentioned was former Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms, who sat down with Mike Florio for an episode of PFT. When asked about Reddick not showing up in Tampa Bay, he expressed some surprise.

"I don't get it. I don't think it's very good [strategy] here by Haason Reddick," Simms said. "I don't understand why Haason Reddick wouldn't go, and hopefully he shows up. I know he's a veteran player... but when you come off a year where you didn't really play a whole lot, you held out from the Jets, I don't think you took the right approach there — yeah, I was surprised to hear he wasn't in Tampa."

He went on to discuss the investment Tampa Bay made in him — a one-year, $14 million contract — and how such a contract should have motivated Reddick to show up.

"Tampa made a nice little investment for a guy that, yes, did sit out a year... I would think Haason Reddick would wanna get on the field and just get the reps going. I was shocked to hear that he wasn't there yesterday."

Reddick could well have his own workout regimen and head coach Todd Bowles did mention that he was sure Reddick would show up "one of these days" — in fact, he may have already shown up in the OTA days not open to the media. It's still fair to question his absence after his saga last year with the Jets, however, and we'll have to see whether or not he's there on Day 4 come Monday.