I'm not trying to set a double standard here. Kevin Winslow's situation and Barrett Ruud's are two totally different animals. First off, Winslow has a track record and carries with him a somewhat tenuous history coming from the Browns. He is on a new team and with a fresh start and a phat contract he just signed. I assummed he would make the most of it and be at the OTA's like I posted earlier.

 Ruud, however, is the hard working cog that is pretty much the face of the defense. Besides that, he has no bad track record, is in his last year of his rookie contract that he signed in 2005 and pretty much just wants to be paid like he should be. Granted he is getting paid 1.6 million this year, but the first 3 years he got paid an avg of 350 K and didn't have a huge signing bonus. This is the last year of Ruud's contract. I know, I know, some people will say he needs to play out the remainder of his contract and quit whining, but if we do that he may never come back. Surely we could franchise him, but I say we should just show him the money!

Check out this article I read on tampabay.com: http://blogs.tampabay.com/pointafter/2009/05/ruud-skipping-workouts-in-may-is-no-big-deal.html

And if your interested, rotworld.com has a list of everyone who is team's current contract. If we can pay Mike Clayton what we pay him and Sean Mahan what we pay him then we can definitely pay Barrett Ruud. Here's the link: http://www.rotoworld.com/content/clubhouse_contracts.aspx?sport=NFL&majteam=TB