The Bucs had a premature exit from the 2024 postseason due to a 23-20 loss to the Commanders in the Wild Card playoffs and are now firmly in the offseason mode. Over the course of the next several months Tampa Bay will need to assess its current roster and see where and how it can make improvements while limiting losses in an effort to bolster the team for a deeper run in the postseason in 2025.

General manager Jason Licht and assistant general manager Mike Greenberg will have big decisions to make on some pending free agents as well as some potential salary cap casualties.

In a series of videos on the PewterReportTV YouTube channel, I plan to help you, the Bucs fan, understand the team’s 2025 roster from start to finish. That will include a deep dive on the current roster complete with roster locks, bubble players and pending free agents.

I’ll walk you through possible salary cap hits, restructures, extensions and re-signings. We will go in-depth in how much cap room the Bucs can create along with a more likely scenario of how much cap space they likely will create.

And eventually we will look at potential free agent additions and even potential trade scenarios that could help Tampa Bay level up in 2025.

We’ve already gone over the roster breakdown in the first video in this series, so make sure you check that video out, too.

Video 2: Bucs Salary Cap Moves

In the second video in this series, we look at what salary cap moves the Bucs can make to create additional room to eventually pursue external talent. We break up these maneuvers into multiple categories.

Veteran Extensions

We go into depth on how re-signing Chris Godwin before his expiring contract voids on February 20th could help the Bucs 2025 salary cap situation. We explore what that extension would look like. Additionally, I propose that the Bucs help their cap situation by extending Mike Evans beyond 2025 with a one-year, $23 million deal.

Restructures

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

There are several veterans on the Bucs roster who the team could restructure in order to create more room. While the Bucs could save almost $10 million by restructuring NT Vita Vea, I don’t present it as a possibility. Tampa Bay didn’t restructure his deal last year and he’s approaching 30. That signals that the team doesn’t want to create more potential dead cap when his deal is up following the 2026 season.

We go in-depth on exactly how much the team could save if they max restructure the following players:

• Baker Mayfield
• Tristan Wirfs
• Antoine Winfield Jr.
• Chase McLaughlin

Cuts

After a disappointing season from the Bucs’ secondary, two veterans from that group are on the roster bubble and could provide the team with cap relief if the Bucs were to cut them. I walk through how much the team could save by releasing CB Jamel Dean and S Jordan Whitehead.

2022 Draft Class Restructures

Good drafting leads to big extensions. The Bucs could save money long-term by extending three talented members of their 2022 draft class before their contracts are up in 2026. I walk through hypothetical restructures for CB Zyon McCollum, TE Cade Otton and OT Luke Goedeke. While all three would represent sizeable multi-year financial commitments, I show how the immediate salary cap impact is minimal.

Possible vs. Likely

Finally, I take a stab at which moves the Bucs are more and less likely to commit to. And I put together how much total cap room the team can create based on their likely moves. After creating that room, I pull back in the pending free agent re-signings we discussed in the first video in the series to come to a final external free agent cap space number.

You can catch the entire video, complete with color-coded Google Sheets cells here or by clicking the video below.