The Facts: Contrary to what you may have heard coming out of the rumor mill, the Buccaneers have not given up on the idea of Martin running the ball for them again in 2017 or beyond.

Diehards Line: According to long-time Bucs bewat man Roy Cummings, the word from inside team headquarters is that the Bucs intend to play the Martin situation out and see where things stand with the beleaguered back when the time comes for the Bucs to reassemble again this spring. Even then the Bucs may not be ready to make a long-term call on Martin, in part because they really don’t have to make any kind of a call on Martin until after Week 3 of the 2017 regular season. That’s when the four-game suspension Martin earned for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancing drugs is scheduled to expire. Since they are no longer on the hook for what was to be a $7 million guaranteed payout this year, the Bucs can afford to keep Martin around and probably should right through the start of the season. Without Martin the Bucs simply do not have an every-down running back and in terms of backup options who have proved themselves at the NFL level they’re actually a little shy on those, too. Charles Sims is looking more and more like a change-of-pace, third-down back at best and while Jacquizz Rodgers, who becomes an unrestricted free agent next month, showed signs of every-down capabilities last year he’s never done so across a full season.