First, we know the Bucs are not going to take the total hit in 2023 and tank the season and get free for 2024. You guys need to think about how the Bucs operate and who is involved. Licht isn't going to do that to Bowles or the veteran players on the team like Mike Evans and Vita Vea. You can think we should do it, but we aren't going to so why even bother to talk about it?
Second, Licht won't push it all into 2024 and try to kick the can down the road. He could do that, but why? He took his shot at the Superbowl, and it didn't work out. He can't go into 2024 with a shitload of cap debt and still be screwed. He has to dig the Bucs out of this. Moving on from Smith is only going to save about $8 mil off the cap. That's a small chunk of what needs to happen.
What Licht has to do, if he can, is make moves that can reduce the cap through multiple years. Making trades to pick up draft picks would be a way to achieve that.
In another thread someone suggested trading Godwin. He has $20 mil salary each of the next two years plus $15 mil of signing bonus left. So to trade him would only save $5 mil off the cap this year unless you do it after June 1. But either way they are saving the $40 mil of salary off the cap for those two years. A Godwin trade would help the cap situation for both 2023 and 2024. That's what Licht is going to have to do to get out of the cap hell.
Another trade could be Ryan Jensen. They owe him $10 mil in roster bonus plus $9 mil of his $12.5 mil 2023 salary is guaranteed, so to cut him you are taking a $19 mil cap hit. That makes no sense. But if you trade him you would take a $10 mil hit, but you'd save $23.5 mil in salary over two years.
Carleton Davis and Vita Vea could be trade bait if you were just looking at the money, but they just aren't guys we can afford to lose on the field with the free agent losses we are probably going to take.
Shaq Barrett has a hodgepodge of bonuses which would come due, and I don't think anybody is going to take on his $30 mil in salary over the next two years. So I don't think he's a good candidate to do anything with.
Mike Evans we owe over $20 mil in restructure bonus and only $13 mil in salary. So to trade him would only make things worse. So good news for Mike Evans fans because he won't be traded. Russell Gage has $5 mil of his $10 mil salary guaranteed plus he's still owed $4.2 in bonus. It doesn't make sense to get rid of him.
So to sum it up, Licht has to be looking at moves he can make to reduce the cap for both 2023 and 2024. Moving on from Smith takes $8 or $9 mil off the cap, and that will probably happen. Trading Godwin and Jensen takes $63.5 mil off the cap over two years.
I don't see the team moving on from Godwin IMO. But Jensen? I can see for sure because there is no longer a Super Bowl window. Now, what may be the surprise is the team chooses not to resign LVD.
That might happen.
Even taking 63.5 million off the salary cap doesn't allow the Buc's to sign any high priced FA for 2023 season.
Even taking 63.5 million off the salary cap doesn't allow the Buc's to sign any high priced FA for 2023 season.
Why would we?
I wouldn't, but there are some commentators who think the Bucs should sign Lamar Jackson, or Jimmy G or David Carr or even Aaron Rodgers. No way to sign any of them.Even taking 63.5 million off the salary cap doesn't allow the Buc's to sign any high priced FA for 2023 season.
Why would we?
I wouldn't, but there are some commentators who think the Bucs should sign Lamar Jackson, or Jimmy G or David Carr or even Aaron Rodgers. No way to sign any of them.Even taking 63.5 million off the salary cap doesn't allow the Buc's to sign any high priced FA for 2023 season.
Why would we?
No, they won't. The Bucs will wait it out and see who falls through the cracks and offer them a two year deal most likely. The Bucs are screwed for 2023, but as I said the Bucs won't tank. This is what happens when you sign Brady for $35 mil and only count him $11 mil against the cap... or something like that, pushing the rest into the future. We have to pay the piper now. I can only wonder what they were planning on doing if Brady had decided to come back to the Bucs. The question is will they be able to get a handle on things for 2024? Guess who is the highest contract in 2024 (pre-Wirfs)? Godwin. The more I look at it, the more I realize Godwin has to be traded.
this team is 2009 again when the Bucs brought in Raheem......strip the salaries, start getting ready for a stretch of high draft choices and maybe find a franchise QB (again).....and hopefully it's not the second-coming of Winston.
Right now Bucs are $55.7M over
1. Defer $24M of Brady's cap hit to 2024
2. Release Donovan Smith with a 6/1 designation, save $15M
3. Release Russell Gage with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
4. Release Leonard Fournette with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
5. Release Cam Brate with a 6/1 designation, save $4M
6. Trade Devin White and Shaq Mason, save $21M
These moves put the Bucs $18.5M under the cap without any restructures yet.
But then you have to go out and sign players to replace all the players you traded or cut.Right now Bucs are $55.7M over
1. Defer $24M of Brady's cap hit to 2024
2. Release Donovan Smith with a 6/1 designation, save $15M
3. Release Russell Gage with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
4. Release Leonard Fournette with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
5. Release Cam Brate with a 6/1 designation, save $4M
6. Trade Devin White and Shaq Mason, save $21M
These moves put the Bucs $18.5M under the cap without any restructures yet.
But then you have to go out and sign players to replace all the players you traded or cut.Right now Bucs are $55.7M over
1. Defer $24M of Brady's cap hit to 2024
2. Release Donovan Smith with a 6/1 designation, save $15M
3. Release Russell Gage with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
4. Release Leonard Fournette with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
5. Release Cam Brate with a 6/1 designation, save $4M
6. Trade Devin White and Shaq Mason, save $21M
These moves put the Bucs $18.5M under the cap without any restructures yet.
Only ones that will hurt are Brady and Mason. But Mason/Jensen cancel out I suppose. Everyone else is addition by subtraction. It's not hard to replace players who were playing at a very low level.
Right now Bucs are $55.7M over
1. Defer $24M of Brady's cap hit to 2024
2. Release Donovan Smith with a 6/1 designation, save $15M
3. Release Russell Gage with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
4. Release Leonard Fournette with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
5. Release Cam Brate with a 6/1 designation, save $4M
6. Trade Devin White and Shaq Mason, save $21M
These moves put the Bucs $18.5M under the cap without any restructures yet.
you lose me at #6
all else i can agree with.
Right now Bucs are $55.7M over
1. Defer $24M of Brady's cap hit to 2024
2. Release Donovan Smith with a 6/1 designation, save $15M
3. Release Russell Gage with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
4. Release Leonard Fournette with a 6/1 designation, save $5M
5. Release Cam Brate with a 6/1 designation, save $4M
6. Trade Devin White and Shaq Mason, save $21M
These moves put the Bucs $18.5M under the cap without any restructures yet.
you lose me at #6
all else i can agree with.
#6 is how we gain cap room to get a starting QB. And what's your attachment to those players? Mason is fine but too expensive and we have replacements already. And White flat out sucks.
Gage is an interesting case. His production was hampered by the hammy issue all year. I believe his performance in the future could warrant his cap hit if he's healthy. He's still a young player and there's no reason to think he's going to be injury prone going forward, but if you want to lower his number a bit this year, you could renegotiate. I guess the question is whether he will actually get enough touches to warrant keeping him in the new offense with an unknown QB.
He's a good player and a nice #3. Is a pricey 3rd receiver a luxury we can't afford? I'd hate to see him get the axe.
I could be talked into keeping Gage.
He's not worth 10m a year...more like 7.
Shaq Mason we should keep, you high as hell.
Smith can go. Fournette can go. I didn't even realize we still had Brate on contract. What the flying fuck was Licht thinking?
Brate hasn't been good in like 4 years
Gage is an interesting case. His production was hampered by the hammy issue all year. I believe his performance in the future could warrant his cap hit if he's healthy. He's still a young player and there's no reason to think he's going to be injury prone going forward, but if you want to lower his number a bit this year, you could renegotiate. I guess the question is whether he will actually get enough touches to warrant keeping him in the new offense with an unknown QB.
He's a good player and a nice #3. Is a pricey 3rd receiver a luxury we can't afford? I'd hate to see him get the axe.
I won't include his rookie numbers for the sake of a legit discussion. But in years 2-4 he averaged 667 yards and 3 TDs per year. This year he had 426 and 5. So down 200 yards but up 2 TDs. Guess what.... this is exactly who he is. It's a bad contract. The perfect #3 to go with Evans and Godwin is already on the team but they had him covering kicks all year.
