The NFL trade deadline saved its biggest trade for last. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have confirmed via Twitter that they have traded cornerback Aqib Talib to the New England Patriots. The compensation on the trade is not known.
The Patriots were known to be in the hunt for secondary help so that they picked up a cornerback is not a surprise. What is a surprise is that it's Talib, who has been suspended four games for violating the league's policy on performance enhancing substances, which he says was Adderall.
Talib was the Buccaneers first round pick in the 2008 NFL draft.
There were some calls in Tampa Bay for the Bucs to cut Talib, who has had other off-the-field problems. Talib is very talented but the off-the-field questions made many conclude he wasn't worth the headache.
The Buccaneers tweeted this information out from their official Twitter account 12 minutes after the 4 p.m. ET deadline, which suggests this trade really did go down to the wire.