With no progress whatsoever in terms of a longterm contract extension, Donald Penn is expected to protest the only way he knows how: sit out the start of training camp.

Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times reports that Penn is not expected to be present when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers kick off training camp on Friday. The left tackle skipped the entire offseason workout program. He was tendered as a restricted free agent for $3.168 million and when the June deadline passed, the Bucs reduced that offer by $100,000, the most they were allowed to slash it.

Now, the Bucs and Penn can play some good ol’ fashioned chicken with the regular season approaching. Tampa doesn’t have any depth worth mentioning at the position and the Bucs are going to need Penn this season. General manager Mark Dominik told season-ticket holders that the team didn’t want to invest in Penn because he couldn’t stay in shape. Penn and Dominik met briefly when the player attended the team’s fan festival. Now, we’ll see where this thing heads.

“Everything that's going on right now is out of my control," Penn said recently, according to Stroud. “If we had a new (collective bargaining agreement) I would never have been in this position.
“I'm a good guy. I don't talk bad about the organization and I'm never going to start.”

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