Auman Article on Wirfs Future Contract

Auman wrote a nice article about our most talented and valuable piece of the offense. 

Wirfs and Winfield are undoubtedly the 2 best players on the team (interchangeable at 1a and 1b) and the most valuable. 

Here's some snippets into the article:

Wirfs, 25, has been a star since his rookie year, when he played every snap in 20 games in a Super Bowl championship season. He has made the Pro Bowl in each of the past three years, and in 2021, he became the first offensive lineman in Bucs history to earn first-team All-Pro honors from the Associated Press. If that weren't enough, after three years as a right tackle, he made the daunting shift to left tackle last season and still finished as the league's fifth highest-graded player at the position by Pro Football Focus.

So how much might a new deal for Wirfs be worth? His NFL earnings to date have been fairly modest, earning $16.2 million in four years after being taken with the 13th overall pick in 2020. The Bucs have exercised his fifth-year option for the upcoming season, which will pay him $18.2 million, more than doubling his career earnings in one year. 

And, on what that number could look like:

The highest-paid tackle in the league on a per-year basis is the Texans' Laremy Tunsil, who signed a three-year, $75 million extension with Houston, good for $25 million a year. That's probably the starting point for any Wirfs deal, resetting the league high both for annual payout and Thomas' overall guarantee.

So if we're throwing out a big number, we'll target four years and $108 million, which works out to $27 million a year, and fully guarantee the first two years. Add that to the 2024 salary and he'll have $72 million in guarantees, a record for an offensive tackle. Spotrac, which tracks NFL contracts, has Wirfs' "market value" assessed at four years and $102 million, which would still top Tunsil's deal as the top-paid tackle. Spotrac projects Darrisaw at four years, $99 million and Sewell at four years, $90 million.

In theory, the Bucs could add a fifth year — still not guaranteed, but making it easier to convert base salary to bonus for salary-cap relief without having to use "void years" that can backload a contract too much. But even at four years, let's put $108 million in perspective: That would put Wirfs at $142 million in career earnings if he finished the deal, still not even 30 years old.

Obviously, they'll ride out the 5th year option and look to do a deal at some point this year. But, it will be something to keep an eye on, especially with the future deals for AWJ (top priority), Evans, and Baker on the slate. 

Since, we're certainly not "contenders", I'm hoping the Evans and Mayfield contracts don't include a ton of voidable/dead cap years that come back to bite us in the ass 2-3 seasons from now.