While the Buccaneers have been up against the cap this offseason, things could be much worse.

Fortunately the team is constantly one of the Top 2 team with the least amount of dead cap money, including have the lowest amount in 2018 and 2019.

A big part of that is because of the workings of Director of Football Administration, Mike Greenberg.

Last Tuesday while in Arizona, PewterReport.com had an exclusive one-on-one interview with Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer, who praised the work of Greenberg.

“Mike does an outstanding job and we are fortunate to have Mike,” Glazer said. “You know this goes many years back when we kind of set a strategy on how we were going to manage the cap and manage the contracts. And it gives us a lot of flexibility moving forward.

“But he has done an outstanding job and is a key, key contributor to Jason and our organization.”

Bucs co-chairman Bryan Glazer and director of football administration Mike Greenberg – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Greenberg is one of, if not the, longest-tenured member of the Bucs front office, coming aboard in 2010 under then general manager Mark Dominik.

Glazer isn’t the only one who has been complimentary of Greenberg. Last year general manager Jason Licht shared his thoughts with The Athletic’s Greg Auman who was still with the Tampa Bay Times.

“He’s invaluable. Helped me work for two weeks before the draft with an Excel sheet from here to that door with every single scenario you could think of,” Licht said. “I made a decision while things were calm, so they don’t get crazy, on what I would do in every scenario, what I would trade, what I would ask, what I would be willing to give, what I settle for. When the scenario comes, he shows me the sheet, this is it, I know exactly where I am.”

Some fans may begrudge the organization for a lack of current cap space, but the Gerald McCoy situation is a perfect example of how Greenberg’s structuring of contracts – forgoing a signing bonus which is spread over the full length of the contract – and giving the guaranteed money in the first two seasons of a new deal instead, helps the team. The Buccaneers could cut McCoy who will carry a $13 million cap hit, without any penalty. Had McCoy been given an upfront signing bonus, cutting him would still free up money, but not the full $13 million.

Sometimes it is the little things that make a team run smoothly. And a lot of the times it is the behind the scenes faces that few fans would recognize even if they bumped into them at their neighborhood supermarket.

“Correct(he doesn’t get the credit he deserves),”Glazer said. “There are a lot of people being the scenes that do a lot of great work, and Mike is certainly one of them.”