Zyon McCollum was not the only Bucs cornerback to get a new contract worked out with the team. In Jamel Dean's case, Pewter Report's Josh Queipo has learned that the veteran corner will be playing out the 2025 season on a reworked deal before becoming a free agent in 2026.
Pewter Report's @josh_queipo has learned that the #Bucs have restructured the contract of CB Jamel Dean with Dean taking a pay cut in exchange for being a free agent in 2026.
— PewterReport 🏴☠️ (@PewterReport) September 8, 2025
What does it mean for Dean and Tampa Bay for this season and beyond?
Jamel Dean Takes 2025 Pay Cut For Guaranteed Salary, Chance To Enter 2026 Free Agency
OverTheCap.com provides updated salary cap numbers for every player across the NFL, and after observing what the site says about Jamel Dean, we can glean a few takeaways. The first, as Josh Queipo points out, is that Dean's contract with the Bucs has been amended and that he will now enter free agency after this season.
Bucs CB Jamel Dean – Photo by: USA Today
Instead of playing on a non-guaranteed $13 million in 2025 and his $13.5 million being non-guaranteed in 2026, Dean's new contract will allow him to earn up to $6 million this year. How that breaks down is that his base salary is now a fully guaranteed $4.25 million, with a $1 million in likely to be earned incentives, counting as a full cap charge. Dean will also earn a $750,000 per-game roster bonus if he plays the full 17-game season. Having not done that yet in his career, it would prorate on a game basis.
These changes also have an effect on his salary cap hit. Instead of $15,136,941 counting against the cap, that charge goes down to $12,631,412. The biggest change there, as mentioned, is the decrease in his base salary from $12.5 million to $4.25 million. His per game bonus was $500,000 before, with just $353,000 applied to the cap because he only played in 12 games last year.
According to OverTheCap.com, making this move also allows Tampa Bay to accelerate his prorated signing bonus hits into 2025. Rather than taking the $2,284,000 hit for the next three seasons, they are accounting for all $6,852,000 now. Adding this up with the $5.25 million he's likely to earn and the new 12-game proration of his $750,000 per-game roster bonus comes out to $12,631,412 against the 2025 cap.
What do all these numbers effectively mean going forward?
The team has saved $2.5 million in salary cap space this year, while also adding another $7 million in cash in the piggy bank. They have also freed themselves of dead cap charges should Dean sign elsewhere next offseason.
This move does seemingly make that possibility a likely reality.
Bucs Furthering Their Commitment To A Youth Movement In The Secondary
After locking up Zyon McCollum last week, the Bucs have one long-term answer entrenched at cornerback. After reworking Jamel Dean's deal, it also allows asserts that the youth movement is fully underway.
Bucs CBs Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Second-round pick Benjamin Morrison has yet to work himself into the picture, but head coach Todd Bowles made it sound like he would be ready to play in Week 2. As Morrison enters the mix, and with third-round pick Jacob Parrish able to play on the inside and outside, the long-term plan is coming to fruition.
The rest of Tampa Bay's secondary also includes safeties Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tykee Smith. Winfield is still fresh off the four-year deal he signed last offseason, while Smith is playing on a cost-controlled rookie deal after being a third-round pick in 2024. When undrafted safety J.J. Roberts returns next year; he will be yet another young piece who can work his way into playing time.
All of this also means that Dean's hourglass is running low on sand. A mainstay since being a third-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, he is getting aged out by the rest of the team's cornerbacks. One other variable to consider is that because of his adjusted contract, the Bucs are no longer eligible for a 2026 compensatory draft pick should he sign a multi-year deal with another team.
When it comes to the Bucs' secondary, they have made a lot of recent investments, but this move is one that will likely mark the end of Jamel Dean's tenure in Tampa Bay after this season.
— Pewter Report's Josh Queipo contributed to this story.
Adam Slivon has covered the Bucs for four seasons with PewterReport.com as a Bucs Beat Writer, Social Media Manager, and Podcaster. Adam started as an intern during his time at the University of Tampa, where he graduated with a degree in Sport Management in May 2023.
In addition to his regular written content, he appears every Thursday on the Pewter Report Podcast, has a weekly YouTube Top 10 Takeaways video series, and leads the managing of the site's social media platforms.
As a Wisconsin native, he spent his childhood growing up on a farm and enjoys Culver's, kringle, and a quality game of cornhole. You can find him most often on X @AdamLivsOn.
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