Embarrassing Cap Busters
March 7th, 2019
Less than a week from free agency, at least a dozen NFL teams have 10 times more available salary cap room than the Buccaneers, winners of five games in each of the last two seasons. And that’s assuming the Bucs even have any cap room.
One reliable tracker says the Bucs are over the cap now.
It’s humiliating.
The Bucs spent a lot of money to suck.
Following the Donovan Smith contract-signing party yesterday, the Bucs currently have $3.553 million in salary cap space for 2019, per OverTheCap.com. Reliable Spotrac.com says the Bucs are indeed over the cap now. Keep in mind their draft class likely will require at least $7 million for next season.
Even if the Bucs do the smart thing and cut guys like Beau Allen ($5 million) and DeSean Jackson ($10 million), that doesn’t leave a lot of room to bring in more than one culture-changing free agent to One Buc Palace, although Jackson leaving would represent a culture change in the right direction.
Of course, the Bucs would have plenty of room if they also traded Gerald McCoy ($13 million) and part-timer Cameron Brate ($7 million).
In that scenario, the Bucs likley could add two Tier 1 free agents, retain Adam Humphries and buy a quality kicker, and have plenty of ammunition to move back up in the draft for an additional first-round pick.
But general manager Jason Licht loves Brate. And Bucco Bruce Arians was adamant last week on radio that McCoy can rush the passer. Joe doesn’t know many head coaches other than Chucky, Greg Schiano and Bill Belicheat who let legitimate pass rushers walk out of their building.
Regardless, major change should be expected in one form or another, and Bucs fans should embrace it. This team needs a lot more than a new coach.
March 7th, 2019 at 9:53 am
Jackson and Allen will be cut. Matthieu and a veteran MLB will be brought in. That’s all that’ll be happening. We’ll draft DE in the first and then OL and CB on day 2. It’ll be alright.
March 7th, 2019 at 9:59 am
Allen, D Jax, and Brate need to be traded to clear up space! GMC needs to restructure!
March 7th, 2019 at 10:00 am
As long as Litch is the GM, Bucs are doomed.
March 7th, 2019 at 10:01 am
It’s gonna be mostly CRICKETS from now till April 26th, after the first night of the draft. This Licht fool, I strongly suspect, has convinced BA that he can do some wheeling and dealing with DJax and GMC in the first round, and insisting that he doesn’t want to tip his hand. It just wayyyyy feels like it. Maybe Brate also to DET or someone else. But definitely DJax and GMC. Because….it that wasn’t the case, then he could be “agreeing in principle” to a trade now for either one, to be effective next Wednesday the 13th, HAD SOME slick Rick conversations at the Combine actually bore fruit!
This is GONNA SUCK!
April 25th this fool had better pulled something off. Much, much better idea of where all the CAP really is, only on April 26th.
Go Bucs!
March 7th, 2019 at 10:03 am
Licht is basically saying the roster is good and putting the blame on the previous coaching staff. It’s still early in the process but I don’t envision a lot happening this off season. A lot of pressure on Arians and his staff, hopefully they make some moves though, only time will tell
March 7th, 2019 at 10:06 am
The stooges at Spotrac….can’t very well BE OVER the cap, if you haven’t drafted the kids in the draft to THEN BE signed, accounting for the rookie pool. It hasn’t happened yet, and THEY DON’T know where the Bucs end up actually selecting in the first couple rounds, which directly and accurately affects the exact dollar amount for the total rookie pool. (i.e. stay at #5, trade back once, or twice, move back up from 2nd round to late 1st perhaps, etc.)
THAT’S…why you don’t include it. Stooges.
Over The Cap. Just account for what HAS happened.
Go Bucs!
March 7th, 2019 at 10:08 am
But but JBF member Justin Polowski told us repeatedly we shouldn’t worry about cap and Glazier money! I remember this was his mantra all last summer!
March 7th, 2019 at 10:10 am
It’s a Bucs’ life. Thanks Licht.
March 7th, 2019 at 10:12 am
All this is either trade smoke for GMC. If they do pay him and keep him on, I will be very upset. 31 years old, 6 sacks, 28 total tackles in 2018
March 7th, 2019 at 10:13 am
cap problems while living in the basement. that’s like section 8 housing residents driving HUMMERS!
bucs are a laughingstock whether its o the field or off the field. the incompetence year in and year out from the glazers is mind boggling. You have try really hard to suck this bad for this long…
March 7th, 2019 at 10:13 am
Aside from my posts…..nobody is talking about the 23 FAs from last year’s roster that are unsigned……we will have 6 draft picks so that is reduced to 17 roster spots to fill…
Even at a minimal $500K per spot……that is $8.5 million……and that includes a Kicker, Peyton Barber, Backup QB……lots of luck reaching the half million average.
Joe…..with all the articles of high priced free agents……how about one on this issue?
March 7th, 2019 at 10:17 am
It just boggles the mind to have back to back 5-11 seasons AND up against the cap.
Only the Bucs could vomit a mess like this.
BA was the only reason Glazers kept JL.
March 7th, 2019 at 10:18 am
Plenty of quality talent on the defensive side of the ball this FA season. Safety is packed with talent, maybe we can take a sniff at Jamie Collins, Kwon will be disappointed in his overvaluation of himself and may come back on a very friendly one year deal, we still have a major gap at CB (are we really depending on VH3?? Really??) not to mention RG.
Right now we got prahllems people.
March 7th, 2019 at 10:24 am
Brate actually still needs to be directly dealt with by close of business on March 16th. AIN’T NO WAY we can sit here in this cap situation (overall by season kickoff), and let Brate’s 2019 $7 million dollar salary become FULLY GUARANTEED on the 17th, and have escalators of “injury only” guarantees ALSO kick in on that date: 2019 $18 million for injury, 2020 $4 million for injury.
GOTTA cut Brate and re-sign him, or GOTTA TRADE him by the 16th!!
No if’s, and’s, or but’s…
Go Bucs!
March 7th, 2019 at 10:27 am
i dont think licht is going to make a big splash…..he’ll let, hump walk and cut some players but he wont sign many if any high priced FA’s….
no major turnover in store….the previous coaches could never develop talent and continued to try to fit a square peg in a round hole…..
#REALISTKNOWSNOTHING!!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!!
March 7th, 2019 at 10:30 am
I just don’t get the obsession over Hump or McIceCream.
March 7th, 2019 at 10:35 am
Joe why do you love Humphries so much? He’s a great guy but let him walk he’s easily replaceable
March 7th, 2019 at 10:35 am
AKickInTheBucNuts Says:
March 7th, 2019 at 10:17 am
It just boggles the mind to have back to back 5-11 seasons AND up against the cap.
I hear ya man!! It’s because the Bucs’ (actually Mike Greenberg, and likely the Glazers) insist on keeping the books so clean from year to year, with no “dead money” of note ever hitting the bottom line.
ALMOST all teams use “signing bonuses” which allow to pro-rate a large chunk of the total money paid to the player to be spread out over the life of the deal, and allow to bring down their salaries to next to nothing, essentially spending more on players, by overlapping dollars really. And it works, UNLESS you cut or trade a player DURING that pro-rated signing bonus amount. (See Saints, Eagles, Rams…and a whole lot of others that work their books that way).
Bottom line is…like you said….it “feels” a whole lot more empty, when keeping the books clean. Basically IT SUCKS!
But Greenberg and the Glazers, get their way, and it DOES CONTROL overspending. Sad!
Go Bucs!
March 7th, 2019 at 10:44 am
OverTheCap.com is wrong.
We had roughly $15m in cap space before Curry was released. He added around $10. Donovan gets roughly $13m of that.
$25m – 13 = around $12m.
Simple math.
March 7th, 2019 at 10:47 am
Tampabaybucfan Says
“Aside from my posts…..nobody is talking about the 23 FAs from last year’s roster that are unsigned…”
Mind listing those that we want to re-sign from your viewpoint? Because I come up with maybe 5 remaining worth signing.
March 7th, 2019 at 10:50 am
Most of our free agents we need to keep are RFAs.
March 7th, 2019 at 11:04 am
@Bonzai……..
Let me ask you a simple question, the kind who can handle….
Who do you think the JBF faithful are going to “side with” on this topic…..
ME..or.. YOU ?? 🙂
Food court’s calling killer….
Go Bucs!
March 7th, 2019 at 11:05 am
*you can handle…damn autocorrect
March 7th, 2019 at 11:14 am
joebucsfan needs to hire someone that understands the cap. every year teams like philly are able to solve cap problems, through restructuring, but you guys act like the only way to get to get under the cap is to cut guys. This creates false narratives, that we have to get rid of player A or b
March 7th, 2019 at 11:41 am
Sorry guys,
No one is going to trade for Brate’s 7 million a year contract at TE, especially when the rookie TE class is so strong this year. Not gonna happen.
Teams are not going to give up a Day 1 or 2 pick and the necessary 11 million in cap space to trade for DJax and his career of being a malcontent and not winning.
GMC might draw interest in the vein of a 3rd or 4th rounder (remember, JPP was deemed only worthy of a 3rd), but he is the one actually worth keeping.
March 7th, 2019 at 11:50 am
Just a fan,
I think that’s a great idea. Only issue I see is who is that person.
The cap discussions on the jbf site are , no insult intended, simplistic. Basically for the 99% it’s as complicated as elementary school arithmetic. But that’s not an accurate view of the cap. There’s plenty of individuals who could help explain the policy and rules but that’s just the starting point or arena in which the GM’S compete. They all start with the same rules but the solutions they employ are varied and often unique.
Note, there’s no false narrative being generated with this subject. I believe that you meant , a false premise. There’s a distinction between a false, narrative and premise. And I will agree wholeheartedly if you’re scrutinizing the premise.
March 7th, 2019 at 11:55 am
@Tony…
Pertaining to your DJax comment….
Overall no one said anything about a day one or day two pick, for his $10 million (not $11 mill) contract. A 5th would be more than fine to unload his full salary and pick up at the same time. BUT…as someone wise previously said on here, not sure if it was @SOE or someone else…let’s say Gruden does not get Antonio Brown in FA, and Quinnen Williams makes it to #4..somehow. If Gruden had other plans along his defensive line, and has a very high opinion of DJax (see Hard Knocks for Bucs which he was on play Jay’s knowledge having DJax), would Gruden move down from #4 to #5 with us, in exchange for DJax??
It’s a very plausible scenario. Gruden could still get his DE at #5, and we would get Q!
Go Bucs!
March 7th, 2019 at 11:59 am
Hey @D-bag1….
Lol. Ok. 🙂
Premise this!
Go Bucs!
March 7th, 2019 at 12:16 pm
Why would anyone want to trade for any player on this losing roster. There’s a lot of madden type trading going on. No one is this league would pay Geraldine and d jack what they are making this year. D jack is an idiot that’s trying to talk himself out of a payday he’ll never get again. Geraldine is no legit pass rusher any longer. Look at how much this division throws the ball and 5 sacks is his ceiling now. Get rid of the high dollar low production guys, it’s bad but not as bad as paying all this money to 5-11 type players. Where’s your dignity licht, if this team goes 6-10 or 7-9 your history dude
March 7th, 2019 at 12:49 pm
Stout,
Lol f off…
I hate being that guy but the use of slogans, especially if they’re inaccurate, is something that, yeah I agree, puts me in d bag territory. That said, I still answer ……the same.
Go Bucs. .
March 7th, 2019 at 12:52 pm
Stout,
You bring up a great point, bonuses could be used to free up some space. When I say great..it’s just a narrative. .
March 7th, 2019 at 1:51 pm
I’m the one who said Gruden could switch picks 5 to 4th with us for DJax. It was kinda a joke. But you never know with Gruden.
I don’t think DJax, McCoy or Brate with their current production & current contracts have any trade value. Maybe a late round pick for McCoy maybe. .
March 7th, 2019 at 1:51 pm
Free agency acquisitions are over-rated. See “Lovie Smith tenure”.
March 7th, 2019 at 2:02 pm
I thought our clear slate no dead money Greenberg style cap management was supposed to keep us out of cap trouble. It seems the low dead money aspect of it that saves money was the important part. We were also told this style cap management gave us flexibility, this will be tested this year.
March 7th, 2019 at 2:07 pm
Not there yet you say no one will pay McCoy or Jackson what they are making right now. Sammy Watkins just got 16 million a year last year. Jackson is one of the most explosive receivers to ever play the game. They are saying humphries and Cole Beasley will get almost 10 million a year this year. Jackson is due 11 million and if he was released would be signed quickly for 12 million plus a year. And last year suh got 14 million for one year. And he only had 4.5 sacks last year playing beside the two in a row defensive player of the year who gets doubled and tripled teamed every play. So Gerald and his 6 sacks at 13 million someone would jump all over that also. So why would no one pay those two players there reasonable salary and they would just be renting McCoy for one year he has a couple years remaining on his contract and can be cut at any time with no cap penalty. And suh is one year older than Gerald
March 7th, 2019 at 2:18 pm
Don’t see the Bucs going after to many FA. Takes money which the Bucs don’t have. At least right now. Actually I don’t care one way or the other.
March 7th, 2019 at 2:20 pm
DeSean Jackson has been to playoffs:
2008
2009
2010
2013
2015
Unlike loser acclimated Buc Fan, he wants to win, and could not care less about being a poster representative for “Gracious Losers “
March 7th, 2019 at 2:27 pm
Joe,
A new coaching staff was the No 1 item Bucs needed
Now if they add a quality LB, Guard and DLineman in this draft, that will go a long way to reaching playoffs goal
March 7th, 2019 at 2:34 pm
D1. Yes. Premise. I really just don’t like seeing fans pit 1 player against another player.
March 7th, 2019 at 2:38 pm
Bucs have plenty of cap space, they just need to start clearing out the trash.
Beau Allen, doesn’t free up $5, only frees up $3.5 as there’s a $1.5m hit. But he’s garbage, so dump him.
Gholston, $3.75m… I don’t know, if the Bucs do switch to a 3-4 he has more value since he’s a natural 3-4 end. But I’m fine cutting him in any case.
Mitch Unrein, $2.75m freed, but a $1m cap hit. Why did Licht sign this human garbage? Another million of the Glazers money for a 4th string Chicago DE…. Dumb signing at the time, still dumb today.
Bryan Anger, $3m… Team doesn’t need a $3m punter who had one good year, two years ago. Seeya.
Ryan Smith, $2m… if this team is still so devoid of talent that it keeps Ryan Smith on the roster then Licht needs to be fired.
Evan Smith, $2m… Complete waste of space (both cap and real life). Gone.
So those moves right there, which don’t hurt the team in the least, give you $17m. Also I’d trade Brate, I’m pretty sure at worst he’d net you a 4th, but might get you a 3rd rounder. That’s another $7m, so now you’re at $24m.
So with Brate the question is, is a #2 TE worth more to the team than a #4 WR? If I had to choose, because of the injury history with OJ, I’m keeping Brate. So if the idea of getting rid of Brate is to resign Hump… humm, I’m gonna pass. That’s no disrespect on Hump, just OJ has yet to make it through a season.
For Jackson I’ll let Arians figure it out, but if he thinks he can get this fixed there then fantastic. Jackson brings a huge amount to the table, and if we see Jackson out there returning punts then we’ll know that whatever Arians said is working.
Anywho the Bucs don’t have cap worries, they can always go to someone like David, who will be here for years still, and restructure his deal to free up space if they really needed to. They could try doing with McCoy to see if he’d take a bit less to stick around. They could even go to JPP and extend him a year at a lower rate to create space. There’s a lot of options if they need them.
March 7th, 2019 at 2:47 pm
@Bonzai … “OverTheCap.com is wrong.” Yes they are Bonzai. According to Spotrac right after the D Smith & Bond re-signings (yesterday), the Bucs now have $1.7 mil of salary CAP space AFTER dead money ($96.7 K), rollover CAP ($4.5 mil) & draft pool money ($9.18 mil) are taken into consideration. Again … that’s as of YESTERDAY, with the rookie pool accounted for.
Surely we’ll release Unrein ($3.75 mil) and DJax ($10 mil) soon. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Anger ($3 mil) also be cut. So just releasing those 3 could bring us to about $18.5 mil to spend on FAs (and up to $23.5 mil if GMC gets reduced from $13 mil to $5 mil).
Like TBBF says though, we NEED to snare quite a few FAs to flesh out our roster (assuming that 6 draftees make the final roster). Don’t know who’ll actually make the final roster obviously, but I’d say that 32-33 of the current 59 players under contract will make it (exclusive of the cuts just mentioned). Add 6 draftees and you get 38-39 essentially ‘paid for’. That means 14-15 still to sign and pay for. Pretty close to TBBF’s numbers, BUT … we’d actually have more than the $18.5 – $23.5 to play with because we’d have cut a bunch of players on the current 59-man roster (thus saving additional $$$).
Point being that this roster is a LOOONG way from being finished, and we’ve still got some room to maneuver in terms of the salary CAP. Personally don’t believe that the Bucs will be signing any high-priced FAs, but we’ve done dumber things, multiple times actually. At this point I hope that we retain Gholston & Allen & EDS, re-sign Barber & Adams & Taylor & Lynch & Minter & Griffin & Wester & Liedtke then add 7 more FAs … P, K, LS, Safety, CB, WR, G … and draft MLB (White), DE, DT, RB, OT, BPA. Only time will tell.
March 7th, 2019 at 2:51 pm
Alabucsfan..we need a corner too. We were the number 1 passing team, even with a bad RG. Passing %, TD passes allowed are bottom 3.
March 7th, 2019 at 3:07 pm
Justafan-
If the results are similar next year, I will agree, but I think the main problem with secondary and Defense overall last year was pathetic coaching
March 7th, 2019 at 3:08 pm
It’s been reported that the Bucs now have $3.5M in cap left. The cap goes up another $11M this year and it will take $9.2M to sign draft picks. So unless contracts are restructured and D-Jax is dumped, not much money left for free agency.
March 7th, 2019 at 3:33 pm
🙂
You all are funny. And often times, like now, a giant f*cking waste of time.
Go Bucs!
March 7th, 2019 at 5:24 pm
Rod
Where are you getting these cap hits? You seem to be subtracting roster bonuses from the total of their salaries…but according to Spotrac if they don’t bring these guys back there is no cap hit and no roster bonus.
JP
You have said the most accurate thing on this or virtually all of our threads.
It’s still early in the process
March 7th, 2019 at 6:22 pm
The Bucs have usually avoided selling their tomorrow for today by signing FAs to limited guarantees and not constantly restructuring contracts. Arians probably isn’t in this for the long term. Neither is Licht who will almost certainly be fired if things don’t get better quickly.
With a strike/lockout coming in 21, though, I think you’ll see more creative restructuring this year than ever before for the Bucs–and everyone else.
Draft picks may lose their value as the most owner friendly part of the current CBA is the rookie wage cap. That and the franchise tagging system will be top of the list for the union. The owners will give in easily on commissioner power, suspensions and drug rules, but not on money issues. Everyone is pricing in a long strike, maybe a missed season or one played by replacement players.
Not matter what the final deal looks like, draft picks that have become so super valued in the current system will lose their value in future years.
March 7th, 2019 at 7:03 pm
stpetebucsfan – Those are the numbers from Overthecap, they show the pre-June 1st hit for cutting someone and the cap number that is freed up.
Someone else said Overthecap is wrong, it’s possible – the site is ran by single guy and I’ve sent him contract updates in the past when he’s had up wrong info. Overall he does a good job, but every once in while it can get out of sync or it takes him a few days to get everything current, in particular if there’s a bunch of news at the same time.
March 7th, 2019 at 7:57 pm
mccoy, djax, brate, allen will all be gone. Plenty of room
March 8th, 2019 at 1:14 am
Im sitting here laughing at everyone right now. How quickly we forget last season when people were pounding the table screaming “we didn’t do sh!t to fix the D-line!” Then came Curry (which seemed like a great signing before getting injured), then Allen who was a flop (but made people content), Unrein who never played a snap… and then JP mother F’ing P.
Maybe it didn’t have the results we wanted after 17 games, but Licht overhauled the D-Line on his time table while everyone was crying in their cribs. Everyone was content and some were pumped.
Relax guys, we will get OUR guys. Do you think BA came here to be cap strapped and not get any of HIS guys? Ya’ll are trippin. Let it unfold.
Probable Cuts:
DJAX – $10,000,000 (50/50)
B Allen – $3,500,000 (that dude is GONE)
W Gholston – $3,750,000 (that dude is GONE)
M Unrein – $2,750,000 (that dude is GONE)
C Benenoch – $2,025,000 (why keep him to back up RT when we could do that with Cappa)
That’s the potential for $20mm there, plus another $13M if McCoy ends up getting bounced. Doesn’t seem that lucky.
Hump or Brate is gone, we won’t do Jameis dirty and get rid of both but one is gone.
Some potential quality signings to watch:
T Mathieu – $7,500,000
Za’Darius Smith – $8,000,000
R Saffold – $6,500,000
M Ingram – $5,000,000
Then we draft best defensive player available at 5, and depth in the trenches on both sides of the mall thereafter.
March 8th, 2019 at 3:37 am
Free agents are definitely not free and when they come to the Bucs they get lazy and all of a sudden forget how to play with passion and effort. (LAZY)!!!!!!!!!!
March 8th, 2019 at 10:05 pm
If Brate’s a part timer and caught 6 tds with a torn labrum, I guess that means as a full timer he would catch 12 tds in a season? Just wondering where that concept of part timer came from? He played 5 more games than OJ. WTF?