The PR Bucs Monday Mailbag is where PewterReport.com’s Mark Cook answers your questions from our Twitter account. You can submit your question each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag.

Below are the questions we chose for this week’s edition of the PR Bucs Monday Mailbag.

Question: Just saw Lavonte David was ranked No. 100 on NFL Network’s Top 100, and I know winning holds a lot of weight. Do you think with all the hype this year some of the Bucs like David finally get the notoriety they deserve?

Answer: It is hard for me to believe there are 99 better players in the NFL than Lavonte David. I have been fortunate to have seen David come into the league and perform at a high level now for eight seasons, all without a lot of fanfare. Of course Bucs fans know how he good he is, but David isn’t one that is all over social media, promoting a brand or looking for attention. In fact, once the season is over, we rarely hear anything from David at all until it is time for camp to start back up again.

Bucs ILB Lavonte David – Photo by: Getty Images

But the biggest factor in David being so low key on the NFL radar is exactly what you mention in your question – winning. The linebackers who tend to get more attention than David come from winning programs. Perennial Pro Bowlers like Seattle’s Bobby Wagner or the now retired Luke Kuechly and others, who have gotten the spotlight over David, are players that have been a part of a lot of wins and even Super Bowl appearances and that leads to more national exposure.

If the Bucs can win this year and return to the playoffs for the first time in over a decade, the recognition for David and others on the team will follow. Having five national television appearances this season will also help. In Tampa Bay’s lone Super Bowl season, the team sent seven players to the Pro Bowl and five were named AP All-Pros in 2002. Unfortunately for David, not making the playoffs for 12 straight seasons – eight since David was drafted – have hurt his recognition factor. That could – and should – change in 2020.

Question: This schedule has a bevy of elite pass rushers from (primarily) the left side: New Orleans’ Cam Jordan twice, Chicago’s Khalil Mack, Denver’s Von Miller to name a few. How does this staff evaluate Tristan Wirfs’ readiness with essentially no live action?

Answer: It will be up to the coaching staff to get Tristan Wirfs up to speed, or at least as up to speed as one can expect from a rookie. But remember Wirfs is a first-rounder, not a mid-round guy or some free agent they are developing. He is an elite talent and players picked as high as he was are picked there for a reason. Expectations are high for Wirfs’ rookie season, but that is based on the talent evaluation rather than how well he currently knows the protections and blocking schemes from strictly Zoom meetings with coaches this offseason.

Tampa Bay doesn’t draft Wirfs and let Demar Dotson walk if the team didn’t feel Wirfs’ floor will be what Dotson’s ceiling would have been in 2020. The Bucs fully expect Wirfs to play as well as a rookie as what Dotson did last year. Here is to hoping that they are right. Wirfs will be tested early and often this season with some great pass rushers such as the ones you mentioned.

Bucs RT Tristan Wirfs – Photo courtesy of Iowa

Hopefully Wirfs did his homework this offseason and was in great shape when reporting to camp. No offseason workouts and no preseason hurts the offensive line as much as any unit on the team. With him being counted on to start, there will be a lot of pressure on Wirfs right out of the gate.

Expect Tampa Bay to give Wirfs plenty of help from time to time from tight ends like Rob Gronkowski, who is one of the better blockers in the league. Bruce Arians and offensive line coaches Joe Gilbert and Harold Godwin are pretty smart coaches. It won’t take them long to know what they have in Wirfs once the pads come on in mid-August.

Question: So if Donovan Smith decides not to play, I know he gets a $350,000 stipend, but what does that do to the salary cap? Potential replacements?

Answer: The good news – depending on how big of a Donovan Smith fan people are I suppose  – is Smith is expected to play this season and not sit out as he recently suggested he might. This was first reported by PewterReport.com’s Scott Reynolds on Saturday. In fact, the team doesn’t expect any Bucs player to exercise their opt-out before the August 3 deadline. We can sit and debate how good of a player Smith is, or if he is worth his salary, but there really is no debating the fact he is the best left tackle on the roster and the best by a long shot.

Bucs LT Donovan Smith – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs would be in a world of hurt if Smith were to sit out or miss 2020 due to injury. In fact earlier this season I wrote other than quarterback Tom Brady, Smith might be the biggest factor is Tampa Bay’s 2020 success. Keeping Brady upright and healthy is priority No. 1 for the offense, and doing it with reserve tackle Josh Wells or being forced to play a rookie like Tristan Wirfs on the left side would be less than ideal.

There are two sets of stipends that players would qualify for if they opt-out. The first is $350,000 stipend, which would replace their salary, if they have a medical condition that puts them at a greater risk for complications from COVID-19. The second one is just a $150,000 stipend instead of their salaries for players that don’t necessarily have a preexisting medical condition but simply don’t want to risk getting COVID-19 and choose not to play this year.

Question: With the new agreement between NFL and NFLPA it seems that the Bucs will have to put extensions for Chris Godwin and Lavonte David off until the season is over and they know what the 2021 cap is. And does that put O.J. Howard’s fifth-year option and Donovan Smith’s 2021 non-guaranteed salary in jeopardy?

Answer: There is no question COVID-19 has thrown the sports world for a loop. Cancelled and shortened seasons, huge economic impacts and big revenue losses are all a result of the pandemic our nation is currently facing. And our country’s most popular and profitable sports league – the NFL – won’t be immune to it. Limited fans in attendance, and in some cases none at all depending on the state, will create massive drops in stadium revenue that ties directly into the salary cap in future years.

Bucs director of football administration Mike Greenberg and GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The good news as you mentioned, is the league and players have agreed on a salary cap floor for 2021 ($175 million) so teams can begin to start planning and will know at least the bare minimum they will be dealing with in terms of the cap next season. Scott Reynolds broke down how that will affect Tampa Bay’s plans for extensions for Chris Godwin and Lavonte David in an article on Saturday. While the Bucs are in good shape salary cap-wise compared to some teams with just over $23 million available in 2021 as it stands right now, it won’t be easy to do what they had planned before the pandemic hit and disrupted things.

The salary cap has gone up by around $10 million each year over the past five years and that trend was supposed to continue. So instead of looking at a cap of $208.2 million in 2021 – which would have been a $10 million increase from this year’s figure of $198.2 million – the new floor of $175 million will be about $33 million less than what it was projected to be next year.

That will force Bucs general manager Jason Licht and director of football administration Mike Greenberg, the team’s cap wizard, to make some adjustments to create some more cap room. Aside from David and Godwin, the Bucs will want to pursue contract extensions with outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett, the team’s franchise player, and tight end Rob Gronkowski among others.

O.J. Howard’s $6,013,000 salary for next year is already factored into Tampa Bay’s 2021 salary cap, so there wouldn’t be any change. If Donovan Smith plays this year, as expected, he would not have any guaranteed money in his $14.25 million salary in 2021.

There will have to be some tough choices made and unfortunately not everyone will be happy, from the organization to fans to a handful of players. Director of football administration Mike Greenberg has always earned his paycheck, but may be in line for a raise after dealing with the hand he has been dealt with an adjusted salary cap.