The NFL offseason is chock-full of buzz and rumors. Those rumors aren't always good, though, or even accurate, for that matter.
On Wednesday night, the Twitter page @nflrums tweeted a rumor about Indianapolis Colts star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, intimating that he wants a trade out of town.
"#NFLRumors #Colts DeForest Buckner wants to play for a contender and could be traded," the account said. "Buckner has a $19.7M cap savings with trade with 0 dead money."
This particular Twitter account has a less-than-sterling reputation for reporting what it deems to be reality, but those who weren't already aware of that were caught off-guard by the Buckner tweet.
Buckner himself took to Twitter on Thursday morning to debunk the rumor.
"I need you to check your sources @nflrums," Buckner tweeted, including a GIF from the movie "Wolf of Wall Street" where Leonardo DiCaprio's character colorfully states, "I'm not leaving!"
So, there you have it. While it makes financial sense for a rebuilding team like the Colts to try and move Buckner or to acquire draft assets, he doesn't want to go anywhere and the Colts don't want that either.
Drafted No. 7 overall in the 2016 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers, Buckner earned a Pro Bowl (2018) and Second-Team All-Pro nod during his time in the Bay Area before being traded to the Colts in 2020 for the 13th-overall pick. He signed a lucrative four-year, $84 million contract extension at the time and since then has made another Pro Bowl (2021) and a First-Team All-Pro team (2020).
In seven seasons, Buckner has started 109-of-112 games and totaled 463 tackles (69 for loss), 53.0 sacks, 140 quarterback hits, 7 forced fumbles, 9 fumbles recovered, 20 pass breakups, 1 safety, and 1 defensive touchdown.
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