It’s never too early to look ahead, especially when you’ve got the glaring issue of not having a QB1 on your roster with Tom Brady set to become a free agent. Heading into the 2023 offseason, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will need to dig themselves out of the financial hole they find themselves in, with-$43M in cap space.
The Buccaneers have a long list of pending free agents that include notable names such as Lavonte David, Jamel Dean, Mike Edwards, Rakeem Nunez-Roches, William Gholston, and Aikem Hicks. You can call that salary cap “smoke and mirrors” if you want, but just because you don’t fully understand it, doesn’t mean it’s not real. Remember what Judy from The Santa Clause taught us? “Seeing isn’t believing. Believing is seeing.” With the list of pending free agents, $43M above the salary cap, what can Jason Licht and the Buccaneers do to keep the team as perennial playoff contenders for the future?
Seven players are eligible for simple contract restructures. That would push their base salary to their veteran minimum, and convert the rest into a roster, or signing bonus. By doing this the team is able to spread out the cap hit over a maximum of five years. This is a short-term solution to generate money, but it could hamstring the organization in years to come if they lean on this tactic too heavily.
Brady, for example, has a $35M dead cap hit next season, which is the biggest issue for the Bucs as 83% of the cap overage is allocated toward him. However, Brady will still be on the books for three more seasons, at a much lower price of $10.7M for 2024 and 2025, and $2.7M in 2026. This is where restructuring some contracts can come into play.
Players eligible for structures and the financial savings
- Chris Godwin – $9.4M
- Shaq Barrett – $6.5M
- Carlton Davis – $6.7M
- Vita Vea – $8.5M
- Ryan Jensen – $5.6M
- Russell Gage – $4.4M
- Leonard Fournette – $2.7M
Restructuring those seven players give the Buccaneers a salary cap window of approximately $866,607. That is not even in the realm of the possibility of enough space to re-sign some of their core free agents and bring in a legitimate starting quarterback. Meaning that we will likely have seen the end of some of the Buccaneers’ core players. Trading away Carlton Davis after 6/1 would drop his $18.3M cap hit to $3.3M for the next two seasons, saving $15M in cap space for next season. Davis ranks 28th amongst cornerbacks that have played 809 or more snaps this season. Dean, pending free agent, has a projected market value in the area of a 3-year $26.2M deal with an average annual salary of $8.7M- and is currently the 9th ranked CB, per PFF.
Whether you are choosing to ignore the situation until after the season, or you’re looking at it now, the Buccaneers are heading into treacherous waters in 2024.