New Miami Dolphins edge rusher Shaq Barrett is keen to show his former team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that he has plenty of gas left in the tank.
The Bucs released the defensive star after five seasons while keeping the likes of QB Baker Mayfield and Antoine Winfield Jr.
The two-time Superbowl winner and double Pro Bowler went undrafted in 2014 but since then the linebacker has honed his skill with a long stint at the Broncos before a decent spell in Tampa Bay.
“I still got a lot to prove,” Barrett said via team transcript.
“Especially getting cut from another team. That adds another whole fuel to the fire right there. The Dolphins are going to be happy they signed me. Tampa is going to be mad they let me go because this year that I’m planning on having and the success that we’re about to have as a team is going to be amazing,” he added.
Barrett will be looking to duplicate his 2019 form where he led the league in sacks with 19.5, while picking up 10 in 2021.
“It was just amazing,” Barrett said of his 19.5-sack campaign. “Everything just aligned. The stars were aligned and it was just good to be on a team where the coaches pretty much just let me just go out and play football and knowing the scheme, I didn’t have to think too much. I was just able to read and react, so to be able to just have that trust from my coaches, trust from my teammates to go out there and get the job done just made it an amazing year and I’m excited to try to get back to that or get close to that.”
Barrett picked up 4.5 sacks last season from 16 games and will look to the Dolphins to relaunch his career.
“Every year I will never reach my goals obviously because my goals are 23 sacks,” he said. “I want to break the record every year. I want to be the best, one of the best pass rushers to do it and I think getting the sack record would solidify that fact or make you part of the argument for it, so that’s what I be trying to go for every year. But I need to still be happy about not reaching that goal and still having 10 sacks, 12 sacks, or whatever amount of sacks I might have. But yeah, I always set the goals really lofty.”
