2023 will be Jason Licht's toughest year. If he can successfully navigate his way to putting this team on the winning track in the post-Brady era it will be quite a feat. Of course he's been here long enough that any problems are ones he was responsible for causing.
1) Deferred Contracts. To try bring about one more Superbowl, Licht deferred over $50 million, $35 mil was Brady. The cap is expected to be about $220 mil. That's money paid out in 2022 and counting against 2023 cap. So take he has $170 Mil to spend while most other teams have $220
2) Veteran contracts: Licht signed most players through at least 2023 using large signing bonuses. That was good when we thought the team was good. Now it's possibly not so good. He will have to tell Coach Bowles that he has to work with what he has for the most part. He will have to tell Coach Bowles he doesn't want to push more cap money into the future. Coach Bowles won't want to hear that.
3) Quarterback. Brady will be gone. There are very few crumbs left in Mother Hubbard's cupboard to pay a guy like Danny Jones or Derek Carr. He would have to backload a contract with a lot of guaranteed money. I don't see this happening, not with what has happened in Denver and Arizona. He'll have to provide poor Bowles with a bargain basement quarterback. And yet he's paying top dollar for his wide receivers. Bowles will take scowling to a whole new level next year if he has a bad quarterback.
4) Coach Bowles. Getting a new OC will be hard enough without a good QB and with a head coach already on the hot seat after one year. As for Bowles, Licht has to have a short rope on him. Licht has put together a talented roster in his eyes, and he can't let things fester for too long if it's not working out. And to make it even tougher, Arians is still around, the guy who handed his job to Bowles. Licht will have to pull rank and make a tough decision, but hopefully it won't come to that.
5) Transitioning the Bucs after Brady. The apathy is setting in. Bucs fans know the drill. Have a good team for three years and suck for 20. Bucs fans are rightfully concerned that history will repeat itself. Licht is tasked with not letting the Bucs crawl back into ineptitude and irrelevancy. Good luck, Jason. Don't let this happen again.
Trading/ signing Derek Carr should be priority number one. If we can get Derek Carr in here with Evans/ Godwin/ Otten/ Lenny & White/ with healthy Oline, WE HAVE A CHANCE. Draft Oline/ Dbacks and we need 1 speed WR.
Sign and trades are not common in the NFL, but sign and trade Brady to the Raiders for Carr. This way the Raiders will have to eat Carr's signing bonus as dead cap money and we can send them a 4th or 5th rounder? Might be a pipe dream but Raiders showed their cards by not playing Carr last two weeks of the season. They have less leverage then if they just let Carr play the last two games and finish the season. Carr has already posted a good bye to Raiders fans on social media and left the team after week 16.
Good luck signing any experienced starting QB when we're currently 43 million over the cap. We can't pay anybody 30+ million per year until we trim 73+ million from next year's cap. How many vets will we have to cut and how many contracts will we have to restructure to accomplish that? It's a tall order.
One other thing I forgot to mention that Licht has to do is deal with next season is expiring contracts of guys we need to keep in the fold, namely Wirfs and Winfield and Devin White. Devin White is debatable and has already been debated on this board, but not the first two. Those two guys are essential, and there's still only one franchise tag. Licht has to get something done before the end of the season to extend those guys. Wirfs would obviously get the franchise tag if it came to that, leaving Winfield and White as free agents. So, Licht has to get some work done on that front as well.
BuccaneerNW, I think Derek Carr is who you are talking about and he is a pipe dream. There are so many teams looking for QBs and not a lot to choose from. His current soon to be cancelled contract has him going to $43 mil for 2024 and 2025. He'll get something similar IMO. You'd have to pay him over $40 mil per year for perhaps four years. Now that money can be structured to minimize the cap hit in 2023, but then you ar.e in the same boat as Denver or Arizona. What if things don't work out? Much as I like Carr, you are taking a chance on a guy who hasn't been in your organization. It's a big risk. Is Derek Carr so good that you put the whole organization on the line to get him? I don't think so.
dont let what happen again?
in the Brady era, they have made the playoffs 3 years in a row and won a Superbowl. Use that credit card baby - do what the Rams and Saints do and turn that $50M in over the cap to $40M under by restructuring contacts into guarantee bonuses or whatever the heck they do.
it's simple really - if Brady returns. You reload!
if Brady doesnt return and management decides to try and get a QB like Derek Carr - you reload!
if management wants to do what many posters on here foolishly want, and you rebuild with Gabbert/Trask essentially tanking 2023 - then yeah....worry about the "cap" and gut the team.
this franchise was absolute butt checks for it's first 20ish years of experience. a few years of competitive ball with Dungy and won a Superbowl in 2002 with evil orange man (sorry Gruden)
After Gruden, from 2009 to 2019 - the team made the playoffs a total of zero times and was one of the worst franchises in the league. We really want to have a repeat for the next 10 years.
for those that are saying the "rebuild" method. how long have you been a buc fan? As shitty as this year was, it still ranks as a top 5 season for the Bucs in the last 15 years. If you really want to put things in perspective....say a prayer at night that Brady returns next year to keep us relevant.
dont let what happen again?
in the Brady era, they have made the playoffs 3 years in a row and won a Superbowl. Use that credit card baby - do what the Rams and Saints do and turn that $50M in over the cap to $40M under by restructuring contacts into guarantee bonuses or whatever the heck they do.
it's simple really - if Brady returns. You reload!
if Brady doesnt return and management decides to try and get a QB like Derek Carr - you reload!
if management wants to do what many posters on here foolishly want, and you rebuild with Gabbert/Trask essentially tanking 2023 - then yeah....worry about the "cap" and gut the team.
this franchise was absolute butt checks for it's first 20ish years of experience. a few years of competitive ball with Dungy and won a Superbowl in 2002 with evil orange man (sorry Gruden)
After Gruden, from 2009 to 2019 - the team made the playoffs a total of zero times and was one of the worst franchises in the league. We really want to have a repeat for the next 10 years.
for those that are saying the "rebuild" method. how long have you been a buc fan? As shitty as this year was, it still ranks as a top 5 season for the Bucs in the last 15 years. If you really want to put things in perspective....say a prayer at night that Brady returns next year to keep us relevant.
Spoken like a true, long-suffering Buc fan.
dont let what happen again?
in the Brady era, they have made the playoffs 3 years in a row and won a Superbowl. Use that credit card baby - do what the Rams and Saints do and turn that $50M in over the cap to $40M under by restructuring contacts into guarantee bonuses or whatever the heck they do.
it's simple really - if Brady returns. You reload!
if Brady doesnt return and management decides to try and get a QB like Derek Carr - you reload!
if management wants to do what many posters on here foolishly want, and you rebuild with Gabbert/Trask essentially tanking 2023 - then yeah....worry about the "cap" and gut the team.
this franchise was absolute butt checks for it's first 20ish years of experience. a few years of competitive ball with Dungy and won a Superbowl in 2002 with evil orange man (sorry Gruden)
After Gruden, from 2009 to 2019 - the team made the playoffs a total of zero times and was one of the worst franchises in the league. We really want to have a repeat for the next 10 years.
for those that are saying the "rebuild" method. how long have you been a buc fan? As shitty as this year was, it still ranks as a top 5 season for the Bucs in the last 15 years. If you really want to put things in perspective....say a prayer at night that Brady returns next year to keep us relevant.
What about rebuilding the right way? Why is that not an option?
dont let what happen again?
in the Brady era, they have made the playoffs 3 years in a row and won a Superbowl. Use that credit card baby - do what the Rams and Saints do and turn that $50M in over the cap to $40M under by restructuring contacts into guarantee bonuses or whatever the heck they do.
it's simple really - if Brady returns. You reload!
if Brady doesnt return and management decides to try and get a QB like Derek Carr - you reload!
if management wants to do what many posters on here foolishly want, and you rebuild with Gabbert/Trask essentially tanking 2023 - then yeah....worry about the "cap" and gut the team.
this franchise was absolute butt checks for it's first 20ish years of experience. a few years of competitive ball with Dungy and won a Superbowl in 2002 with evil orange man (sorry Gruden)
After Gruden, from 2009 to 2019 - the team made the playoffs a total of zero times and was one of the worst franchises in the league. We really want to have a repeat for the next 10 years.
for those that are saying the "rebuild" method. how long have you been a buc fan? As shitty as this year was, it still ranks as a top 5 season for the Bucs in the last 15 years. If you really want to put things in perspective....say a prayer at night that Brady returns next year to keep us relevant.
What about rebuilding the right way? Why is that not an option?
But let’s not act like rebuilding the right way is easy to come by. Teams like Cleveland, Detroit, and Houston have been rebuilding their entire history.
some franchises luck out with franchise QBs like Green Bay and KC, but unless you land one of those which we tried for twice and failed recently (freeman, Winston) it’s all for nothing
the only franchises that repeatedly compete are a handful - Baltimore, Pittsburgh, philadelphia, etc
which bucket is Tampa more closely related too…the Baltimore bucket or the Cleveland bucket.
yeah…..there is no rebuild with this management/owner team that works out well
Rebuilding "The right way", IMO. That involves drafting the LT first and then the QB the next year. You don't draft a QB and stick him in there and have him running for his life. He's not learning on the job when he's getting chased and sacked and throwing INTs because of it. The Bucs need to get their O-line in order in 2023. That has to be the priority before getting the QB of the future. If I had to choose in 2023 between a good O-line and bad QB or a bad O-line and good QB I'd take the former.
Def on board with drafting OL.
76 is done, Monday should be the last game as a Buccaneer. Lousy run blocker and isn't the best pass blocker. Well what does he do WELL? Nothing, yet we paid him 14M a season. Get rid of that burden, draft a new T and revamp the trenches on the other side.
Def on board with drafting OL.
76 is done, Monday should be the last game as a Buccaneer. Lousy run blocker and isn't the best pass blocker. Well what does he do WELL? Nothing, yet we paid him 14M a season. Get rid of that burden, draft a new T and revamp the trenches on the other side.
Smith has been a good left tackle until this year when he did not play well. So you can't go into next year hoping he can regain his old form, unless there is some injury related factor we don't know about. I think Smith will be gone, but we don't have the cap space or inclination to bring in a highly paid free agent tackle. IMO we need to spend that first round pick on a tackle. You can't just put in a journeyman/backup type to be your Plan A for starting tackle.
Smith’s “old form” retired before the season
Smith has been a good left tackle until this year
No, he hadn’t. He consistently graded out poorly since he entered the league. The best thing he had going for him early on was that he was durable. But even that has waned.
I was insinuating Bucs should look for the replacement in the draft. read the last sentence for me in my previous posts.Def on board with drafting OL.
76 is done, Monday should be the last game as a Buccaneer. Lousy run blocker and isn't the best pass blocker. Well what does he do WELL? Nothing, yet we paid him 14M a season. Get rid of that burden, draft a new T and revamp the trenches on the other side.
Smith has been a good left tackle until this year when he did not play well. So you can't go into next year hoping he can regain his old form, unless there is some injury related factor we don't know about. I think Smith will be gone, but we don't have the cap space or inclination to bring in a highly paid free agent tackle. IMO we need to spend that first round pick on a tackle. You can't just put in a journeyman/backup type to be your Plan A for starting tackle.
There will be a handful of OT prospects to be had in the first round this year so Bucs will have options. We'd save more money if we cut Smith in June, I believe so we can have him on the roster until a replacement is found. Smith has been good for 1 year as a Buc, every other year he has been below average-average. We can't be paying guys good money for that type of play. We'd save ourselves $ down the road by moving Wirfs to LT and drafting a rookie tackle to play in that spot or RT - if Wirfs doesn't wanna move sides.
Bucs don't have to and more importantly can't wait until June to cut Smith.
1. You can release players before June 1st and still give them the June 1st designation with the same salary cap benefits.
2. Bucs can't afford to risk him getting hurt at OTA/Mini Camp and then all of the sudden his $18M cap number is locked in.
3. Bucs need to get under the cap and they gain $15M of cap space by releasing him with a 6/1 designation.
