Vice Got Tighter On Idzik’s Privates
April 10th, 2013
Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik, seeing the virtual wasteland of free agent corners, decided to play hardball with one already on his roster, Eric Wright, and got him for a considerably less money for another season.
As Joe wrote yesterday, the reworking of Wright’s contract was a shot across the bow at Jets general manager John Idzik. In so many words, the signing told Idzik, “You need to trade Darrelle Revis more than I need him on my roster.”
For a while there, it appeared Idzik, knowing how desperate the Bucs were at cornerback, was trying to shake down Dominik in return for Revis. Shoe’s on the other foot now.
Dominik is really boxing Idzik in a corner to lower his price, and Joe would really be thrown for a loop now if Dominik gave up the No. 13 pick in the draft this month.
Though some have speculated a Revis trade would come down the week of the draft, roughly two weeks from now, Joe isn’t as convinced.
If Dominik drafts a couple of corners in the draft, he could use one of those corners, maybe even Wright, as trade bait to the Jets, thus lowering ransom demands of draft picks.
In short, the vice on Idzik’s privates got tighter last night.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:04 am
The vice has always been tight but he hasn’t felt it until now. Expect things to start to happen soon. Revis will be a Buc. Eric Wrigt will play for his career and we will have one or two CBs in development. Ronde will also return.
I am hopeful that we get Revis so we can draft DT in the first round.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:18 am
Joe,
We were significantly under the cap last year, about $15 million if I remember correctly. We are about $30 million now. What happens if we go into this season $20 million under in terms of the new CBA?
April 10th, 2013 at 8:18 am
I agree, the vice is tight. But it is even tighter on Rex Ryan. Don’t think he wants to lose his best defender- in a year that will decide if he stays employed.
The trade might happen. Think it is more likely that it doesn’t. About 45/55.
The free agent market was so bad, that our best option was our drug using/ suspended CB, who was a major contributer to the worst Pass defense the league has seen in Decades!!
Yeah, right.
That is the exact kind of block headed decision making- that has made us a lock for NFC south cellar . Cheap and bad.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:24 am
@J 2.0: Nothing.
The Bucs are only so far under the cap because they have banked money from previous years. In terms of dollars spent they’re actually right in line with other teams.
The CBA only specifies teams have to spend 89% (in cash) of the cap over a four year period. And the Bucs spent probably over the cap last year in cash once they gave bonuses to Nicks and Jackson.
In short, there are basically no ramifications to the Bucs current spending: they’ll roll the money over to next year and we’ll use it to help sign our core guys to long-term extensions.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:27 am
@ Fatmosh
Good to know. Makes sense then as to what they’re doing. In theory they could then afford to sign Revis and draft picks, then roll $10 million over to next year to help with Freeman, McCoy, and Williams. Seems like signing Revis isn’t neccessary at this point.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:45 am
My concern isn’t the draft picks, it’s the cap hit we are going to take when and if we sign Revis, he’s not going to take 6-8 mil per season, he wants a million per game, thats a big cap number each year unless we front load the hell out of it and take the cap hit all at once.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:51 am
I truly hope we don’t give up this years 1st round pick. We are in good position to be flexible in our approach the first 2 rounds of this draft to address CB and DL help. Re-signing Wright to a team friendly contract was great for us. If I’m Dominik I keep trying to drive the price down. If the Jets won’t trade at a reasonable price (not this year’s first), then screw them. I understand Steve White’s point on leverage in the Revis deal, but I still think we take a run at him next year when he’s a FA – we have the money and can be aggressive.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:53 am
I don’t understand how this impacts the Revis trade at all. We already had Wright, he’s just cheaper now. We still have the same corners from last year that were historically bad except we lost Biggers. I just totally fail to see how this impacts the leverage over the Jets at all.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:59 am
To hell with Revis, he is 27 years old, with a shredded knee. Aside from a quarterback, no player is worth what he expects to get paid. He has also held out twice over the past six years. Greedy. Stay the course Dom and build through the draft.
April 10th, 2013 at 9:03 am
This doesn’t impact the Revis trade at all. Just more undeserved and misguided slobbering over Dumbinik.
April 10th, 2013 at 9:04 am
Nice one joe great read LOL sucks to be the new jets GM
April 10th, 2013 at 9:05 am
Huh?? Wasn’t Wright already on the team? How in tarnation does keeping a player already on the roster tighten anything? Now if our great GM was a good poker player and signed another CB not on our team then we would have leverage. Saying we are in the drivers seat due to Wright is just silly.
April 10th, 2013 at 9:07 am
@ Meh
The slight difference in leverage now is that the Bucs will definitely have Wright on the team in 2013. Prior to this restructure, it was widely assumed that Wright would not be back on the team. This shouldn’t be a huge difference in how the Bucs manage this trade, but there is now a little more depth in the defensive backfield.
April 10th, 2013 at 9:17 am
Actually it’s Revis who holds both gms nuts tight with his outrageous contract demands. People forgetting he holds the cards.
April 10th, 2013 at 9:18 am
I’m not convinced this is the year we should be going after Revis. He may not be 100% all year and will spend most the time still rehabbing. Why give up the farm this year when we can easily outbid everyone next year. And he’ll have a complete year to spend on NY’s PUP list.
April 10th, 2013 at 10:04 am
1 million a year is straight up comedy. If Tampa pays him that, then there’s no one to blame but one guy. There is no way on earth, especially after the ACL, that he is worth twice as much as the other top players at CB.
Anyone consider how this will play out in the lockeroom, when one guy makes more than everyone else in the defensive backfield?
April 10th, 2013 at 10:04 am
ooops. 1 million a game.
April 10th, 2013 at 10:07 am
This article posted by another guy on here was a great piece for those trying to understand how the bucs work their cap and how we’d sign Revis. It details how Dominik/Bucs structure all our deals as basically 2 year guranteed contracts with team options past that. With the Wright restrucutre according to the article we could theoretically pay Revis $26mil in year 1, and 13mil in year two; and not owe him really anymore guranteed money past those two years. It would also still allow us to sign guys like McCoy/Freeman because Revis’s cap number would get so low in years 3/4 thus giving us the flexability to sign them. Thus if he’s injured or doesn’t pan out he doesn’t kill us 4 years from now. Great read for those intrested.
http://overthecap.com/the-buccaneers-eric-wright-revis-jets/
April 10th, 2013 at 10:18 am
@Matt
On paper, sure I get it. But, how many times have you seen players hold out later in their contracts, because their salary that year is low (due to what was discussed in the article). The player and the agent seem to disregard the signing bonus proration, and simply see the $ ahead of them them, not the $ behind them.
Considering how often has either held out or threatened to hold out in his brief career, what are the odds Revis would do that, if, per se, he is scheduled to make $3m in the 2015 year? I don’t trust players who demand more $ nearly every season. For him, I don’t think his ego could handle ANY season where he is not the highest paid.
So, to me, that is MASSIVE risk. So, in that case, I would expect Dominik to do it, since he seems to roll the dice consistently.
April 10th, 2013 at 10:51 am
Oil Derrick,
The point is though we don’t get hurt even if he pulls the hold out crap in 2015. First in any new deal the Buc’s will obviously right language in for penalties due to any hold out; second in your scenario if we only owe him 3 million in 2015 and it’s not guranteed the bucs can say fine Darrelle sit out, we don’t owe you anything and you won’t be making anymore money. It doesn’t keep the bucs from signing other guys long term and Revis becomes only a minor hiccup. I see it as minimal risk with massive upside so long as we don’t mortgage two drafts and structure the deal correctly.
April 10th, 2013 at 10:55 am
The link that Matthew posted above is actuall spooky to me. I really hope Bucs aren’t clearing all this cap room to take on a big Jets salary dump. Dom, just walk away.
April 10th, 2013 at 11:10 am
It’s not spooky if they get Revis without giving up a ton of draft picks. They wouldn’t take salary just to take salary, it would be to get Revis & reduce the draft pick compensation owed to NY. The article shows any salary dump would only be against 2013 and then all those guys come off the books. If we could get Revis by taking Holmes or a LB (who would add depth even if overpriced) and only give up a 2nd round pick or something like that; it’s a solid deal imo. The article just shows the Bucs are ideally suited to get a deal done on their terms and one that is favorable to our future cap situation.
April 10th, 2013 at 11:28 am
I guess it depends on your definition of hurt.
Paying one player 39 million plus draft picks for two seasons of work, to me hurts. I take that back, it’s insane.
On top of everything else, no person on the planet right now even knows if he will return to form after the ACL. For every Adrian Peterson, there’s a Derrick Rose.
No thanks.
April 10th, 2013 at 11:29 am
I guess there are 2 ways to look at it. It’s never good when you have to eat another team’s mistakes. However it makes perfect sense though because Bucs are clearing all kinds of cap space.
April 10th, 2013 at 12:05 pm
rhenry Says: April 10th, 2013 at 8:59 am
“To hell with Revis, he is 27 years old, with a shredded knee. Aside from a quarterback, no player is worth what he expects to get paid. He has also held out twice over the past six years. Greedy. Stay the course Dom and build through the draft.”
I agree 100%.
He isn’t worth signing next year either, not at the price he wants. He’ll turn 29 when next years season starts.
Matthew, no offense intended, but to shell out the kind of money you suggest is insane. Only a top 3 GB should get paid like that.
April 10th, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Sorry…top 3 QB I meant.
April 10th, 2013 at 12:32 pm
I agree with you Matthew. Nice posts.
He’ll be 29 in two seasons.. Deep stuff Lolz 😉