Ali Marpet joins center Ryan Jensen and guard Alex Cappa—who’re both free agents—as lineman the Bucs need to replace. Credit: Photo by Tori Richman/Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Pro Bowl guard Ali Marpet announced his retirement this weekend, and Tampa Bay has already started the tributes.

Marpet made his first Pro Bowl this season, and has been a mainstay on this Bucs offensive line that’s been among the best in football the past two years.

He joins center Ryan Jensen and guard Alex Cappa—who’re both free agents—as guys the Bucs need to replace up front, along with a seemingly never ending list of other starting spots the Bucs need to fill.

The news comes as quite a surprise, as the former Hobart College man is only 28 years old. He was also due to make upwards of $20 million over the last two years of his contract.

However, clearly many things are bigger than football, and whatever his reasons, Marpet will be fondly remembered as a consistent performer who missed only 12 games over his seven-year career.

Looking at the bigger picture, this off-season really couldn’t be going worse for the Bucs. It was common knowledge going into this that the team would have to find creative ways to keep its Super Bowl roster intact, but with Brady’s somewhat unexpected retirement and now this, they’ll have upwards of 12 new guys in their starting lineup next season.

That kind of turnover doesn’t usually breed success when one of those 12 positions is under center. Marpet’s retirement combined with the Bucs’ cap problems makes it a much less attractive destination for quarterbacks like Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers.

Pipe dreams to begin with, any thoughts of the Bucs being a favored destination for any star quarterbacks potentially looking for a new place to play are looking more and more unrealistic by the day.

Oh, well. It was fun, wasn’t it?

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