“That’s Almost Unconscionable”
June 19th, 2019
Appalled with Bucs’ salary cap.
Who and where is the capologist for the Bucs? Bill Polian wants to know!
Last night on “Late Hits” with co-host Alex Marvez, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, the Hall of Fame general manager was going through a team preview of sorts with each club in the NFC South.
Polian saved the Bucs for last but what he neither saved nor hid was his outright disgust at who is handling Team Glazer’s loot at One Buc Palace.
Listeners could almost see the sneer on his face when Marvez mentioned the Bucs, a team that hasn’t seen the playoffs since 2007 and hasn’t won a playoff game since January 2003, reworked Mike Evans’ contract to provide a much-needed $3 million cushion as the Bucs struggle to stay under the salary cap.
“First question I would ask is, why is a team that has not been to the playoffs in 10 years have to clear cap space to sign their first-round draft choice?” Polian said. “That’s almost unconscionable.”
Joe has a more pointed question: Why is a team that has lost 22 games in the past two years having to clear salary cap space to sign Devin White?
More and more it is as if the Bucs are buying billboard space on Dale Mabry Highway and U.S. 19 and U.S. 301, announcing to the free world that coaches the past two years were glorified high school bums who couldn’t land a job at Middleton High School.
On defense, Joe won’t argue that one bit. But here is the catch: If the Bucs had that rotten of a collection of coaches, then why the hell was the coaching staff brought back virtually intact after a 5-11 season in 2017?
If fans could see Bucs defensive coaches were rotten to the core, then why the hell couldn’t the shot-callers at One Buc Palace see this?
June 19th, 2019 at 8:45 am
Polian should probably worry more about repaying the debts of the AAF then what the Bucs are doing with their money. And btw we have 60+ mill in space next year.
June 19th, 2019 at 8:58 am
“If fans could see Bucs defensive coaches were rotten to the core, then why the hell couldn’t the shot-callers at One Buc Palace see this?”
Because we ALL KNOW the Glazer Boys have NO FOOTBALL IQ.
June 19th, 2019 at 8:59 am
It isn’t a great spot to be in but there is very obvious reasons for our cap situation. Our caps have been in great situations for a decade the one bad year and they want our cap guys head? Winston, JPP, Evans take a whopping 53 million this year by themselves. Next group is the offensive line with the LT, RG, C all making over 10 million each. That is 80 million between those 6 players… Of these positions named there wasn’t much that could be done. 20 million for a starting QB is the going rate, regardless of what you think of Winston. Evans is outstanding, JPP got hurt due to unforessen circumstance and the OL isn’t exactly getting overpaid as a whole that is the going rate for OL. Did anyone see the Raiders Brown contact for example? All in all if I am Licht and survive the season I would spend a lot of draft capital on my OL next year to upgrade and cut on cap costs along the OL. RG/RT are stand out needs even heading into this year. (I like Dot but it is just a matter of time).
The silver lining here is if BA doesn’t do well and bucs decide to blow this thing up next year we will have that option. Just about all those contracts I just mentioned can be eliminated after this season.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:03 am
Why doesn’t Joe blame the bucs gm?? he is in charge of a bad team with no money ??? The bucs gm signs the players to contracts and also coaches …
June 19th, 2019 at 9:11 am
@ben
Because, giving the GM a pass ensured that the fold like a lawn chair QB would remain on the roster!!!!!! And not blaming t’the horrible GM would mean bringing in a coach to fix the lying QB!!!!!!! One of the biggest unwritten rules of the comment section is not blaming the qb or you will end up in deep comment mo der ation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So no matter how many slappies the gm brought in, or over a third of the defense not playing due to injury, or forcing the DC to play schemes that gmc wanted and building around her, They would rather place blame elsewhere!!!!! Can wait to see the same result with all the new coaches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And watch out ben!!!!!! you are asking the right questions, but it might just get you on super, secret , double, probation are here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2019 will reveal answers to the sheep, that the “real” fans already know!!!!!!!!!
June 19th, 2019 at 9:11 am
This is the first year Jason Licht has faced Salary Cap issues.
Think about that. All GMs face them, but this is Licht’s first time. And if you think about it further, he’s done some very team friendly contracts for the most part.
The Bucs could have easily freed up lots of cash this off season, but Bruce Arians is the one who said they did not need much new talent in free agency. He is the one who decided to roll with who they’ve got. He had the option of cutting salary.
So those blaming Jason Licht for cap issues are ignorant of the reality at best.
If Winston were not making $20m this year, there would be no issues. This is a new experience for Bucs fans. They have never, in the history of the team, had a QB who might earn a top dollar contract.
Teams with QBs like that always have cap issues.
Polian knows that, but he;s had a hate on for Tampa since Dungy was fired. Same as Sims.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:13 am
Weapons for Winston sounded good on paper but neglecting the D to the point of being completely useless was not a wise decision. You could compare it to Dungy except the fact that his D was good enough to get us to the playoffs. Same concept though if you ignore one side of the ball to the point were they are last in the league it makes it very hard to win games.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:16 am
@El Buco Realisto
Spewed like a run of the mill, trolling hater.
You cannot deny the facts:
• Kickers cost us 5 games in the past 2 years.
• Defense cost us 12 games in the past 2 years.
And just to be fair…
• QBs (Winston and Fitz) cost us at least 4 games the past 2 years.
Clearly, it is not all on the QB, no matter how much you try to make it seem so. Not very realistic of you.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:23 am
We could easily gain $5 million in cap space by restructuring our QB’s contract just like we did with Mike Evans. Winston can just make up the difference in endorsement money. Hell, Cam Newton is making $26 million in that tiny Charlotte market area…
June 19th, 2019 at 9:23 am
Good lord, this again?! Just because crusty Polian speaks on it, doesn’t make the topic new or different. WE’VE ALREADY covered this prior! Stupid.
Joel and Ed Glazer sat down and told Mike Greenberg 6 years ago that the payroll would from here on out be run this way, Licht has no say in it. The Glazers gave the direct interview to Pewter Report earlier this year saying EXACTLY that. Plus, Jameis’ 5th year option amount is unusual that does create issues (but Glazers want prove-it year for him). QB future salary would be solved with large signing bonus like all other new QB contracts.
Enough already on the subject.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:23 am
Bucnjim Says
“Weapons for Winston sounded good on paper but neglecting the D to the point of being completely useless was not a wise decision. You could compare it to Dungy except the fact that his D was good enough to get us to the playoffs. Same concept though if you ignore one side of the ball to the point were they are last in the league it makes it very hard to win games.”
I agree…however the Dungy example can be taken a step further. Dungy went to coach the Colts because they had a fantastic offense but could not win a Superbowl. It took him very little time to improve their defense.
Same thing with the Broncos under Peyton Manning. They made it to the Superbowl but could not win it without a better defense. The following off season they fixed the defense and won a superbowl.
They point I am making it that building a defense takes less time than building an offense.
The Bucs did right by focusing on the offense first. They just waited a tad too long to start on the defense.
And Arians CAN turn the team completely around this year. We COULD go all the way. Anything is possible.
2017, kicking cost us 2 games. Defense cost us at least 4 games. Flip those games and we would have been 11-5 instead of 5-11.
Matt Gay is looking very good. He MIGHT solve our kicking issues. And the defense might be vary much improved. It does not have to be light’s out great, but at least average and we can do it.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:23 am
Joe – Your last question is the main one. I do think the D coaches were the biggest problem. Lots of folks on this page agree. Good reason for optimism now that that has changed – in a big way.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:26 am
Bucnjim how exactly are we ignoring the defense. 3 out of are last 4 first round picks have been defensive. How many second round corners have we drafted last two years 4. A safety in the second third and 4th round. Second round defensive end in last 4 years. A 3rd round linebacker. Traded a 3rd round last year for a pro bowl defensive end. Added one of those supposed best defensive end free agents last year. Brought in two defensive tackles last year one this year.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:27 am
AllwayzzHere Says
“Good lord, this again?! Just because crusty Polian speaks on it, doesn’t make the topic new or different. WE’VE ALREADY covered this prior! Stupid.”
I don’t think you quite understand what this website is.
Think of it as a stream of things said about the Bucs by other media, coaches and players, with view points and comments added by the Joes. That is mostly what the website does.
Having Ira and a few original articles done by the Joes is a bonus.
But it never ceases to amaze me how readers blame the Joes for telling us what others are saying, and blame him for words that someone else is quoted as saying.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:27 am
Buy some running backs…
June 19th, 2019 at 9:29 am
I’ve been saying for the past couple of years that the Glazer’s should sell the team, since they have no idea what the hell they’re doing. They are so clueless. Which doesn’t help that they keep putting up with Licht’s nonsense. In the end I just don’t think they give a damn.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:30 am
Jim
” Winston can just make up the difference in endorsement money.”
The endorsers haven’t been, and aren’t likely to start lining up.
Too much baggage and bad public perception, that and way to much risk that he’ll do something stupid again.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:31 am
Licht has never had full power as a GM..Lovie called the shots and Koetter/Smitty together called the shots and now Arians is calling the shots. The ownership has been in over their head ever since they took over..Arians is the only hope fans have
June 19th, 2019 at 9:31 am
realist
all you do is make excuses!!!!…lol….no one forced smitty to do anything….and in case you forgot, we went 2-1 while winston had to sit so that excuse is invalid…..
after back to back 5win seasons you wanted to see this staff return for a 3rd 5win season and give them contract extensions……….LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
TheBucRealistSays:
June21st,2018at6:48pm
Huge pass to the coaching staff issued by the “real” Buc fans!!!!!!!!!
GO Bucs!!!!!!!
The Buc Realist Says:
September 19th, 2018 at 6:47 am
So if Joe and those, that say JW3 played “great” those last 5 games, and now the explosion from Fitz-magic, When do we start saying that its the coaches!!!!!! And the Bucs need to lock them up!!!!!! Extend those contracts!!!!!! It was a minefield this off-season, with local media and so-called fans and potential distractions!!!!!! And they navigated thru almost perfectly!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!
stop making excuses for sh!tty smitty!!!!!!….hold him accountable for having the worst defense in the NFL for 2 1/2 seasons…..and hold dirk accountable for not developing players….
GO BUCS!!!!!!
June 19th, 2019 at 9:43 am
What’s going to happen when they are forced to pay a QB @ $30 million per season? Perhaps the Bucs have already decided to let Winston go after the season…
June 19th, 2019 at 9:43 am
When your average QB is being overpaid
When your sometimes average LT is being overpaid
When your average LG is being overpaid
When your below average Center is being overpaid
When your DE is getting paid but will miss most of the year
When your backup TE is being overpaid
You have cap issues, awful GM and a badly run organization
June 19th, 2019 at 10:02 am
Any corporation that is owned by incompetent owners who know nothing about the product or service they are trying to sell are doomed to fail.
That goes for sports franchises as well asillustratedby the Blazer owned Bucs.
June 19th, 2019 at 10:03 am
Auto correct….pfffft
June 19th, 2019 at 10:11 am
Loyaltotheend spot on 100%
June 19th, 2019 at 10:17 am
Bonzai
If kicking cost us 5 games in 2 years. 2 in 2017. Then you’re left with 3 games from last year.
How did you arrive at the 3 from last year? If we lost one, 1 game by 3 pts, and in that game 1 kick was missed that would have tied the game . So it’s not possible to place that loss on the kicker. Unless you assume had the game gone into overtime we would have scored. That’s not sound reasoning.
Please explain.
Last, the one tried and true method of extrapolating wins vs losses from a single stat is turnovers. Fact that winston averages over a turnover and a half a game isn’t it more feasible to acknowledge the impact of the turnovers margin first and foremost before you begin anywhere else.
June 19th, 2019 at 10:22 am
JeffBuc,
I wasn’t referring to this year (2019) since we had to go all D and we don’t know what this group will rank at the end of the year. In 2014 we went ALL OFFENSE and in 2015 we Drafted one Defensive player. These guys would be in their prime right now. Now more recently we have evened it out but the quality just hasn’t been there unfortunately.
June 19th, 2019 at 11:06 am
Rayjay1122 Says:
June 19th, 2019 at 10:02 am
Any corporation that is owned by incompetent owners who know nothing about the product or service they are trying to sell are doomed to fail.
That goes for sports franchises as well asillustratedby the Blazer owned Bucs.
——————————————————————
Doomed to fail? The NFL teams all share the main source of income which is TV revenue. Also, the team value has probably more than quadrupled since their family bought the team so I’m not sure how you consider this doomed to fail. The owners probably know a ton about the product or service they sell, or at least the financials.
Now if you said doomed to suck on the field, you might have a point. For whatever reason, the owners have made some of the worst decisions in terms of putting a winning team on the field in the last ten years.
June 19th, 2019 at 11:10 am
Joe asks why Koetter & Company were brought back after 2017. That is a great question that should be asked of the brain trust at One Buc. Smitty should have been jettisoned after 2017 at the minimum. Perhaps the Bucs made a run at Chucky but realized they could not keep up with Baby Davis and a 10 year $100 million contract and then were stuck with the garbage staff for another year but that is water under the Skyway and the Bucs have to put their faith in BA and Bowles…….. Allowing Koetter to retain Smitty is one of the most idiotic decisions made at One Buc in recent history and that is saying a lot when you look at the numerous questionable decisions that have been made by this organization since they said bon voyage to Chucky a decade ago…..
June 19th, 2019 at 11:17 am
Realist!!! Hit em up with another realist narcissistic repost and show these dudes what’s up
June 19th, 2019 at 11:49 am
I’m guessing the Glazers are probably reluctant to force coaching changes on a coach after they made Dungy run Clyde Christensen off and it didn’t sit well. Koetter stuck up for his friend and it cost everyone their jobs.
June 19th, 2019 at 11:55 am
why is it that UDFA , Waiver wire acqusitions and players plucked from practice squads often fit in and play better than high priced free agents signed?
June 19th, 2019 at 12:01 pm
There is a true question that Bucs fans know and most of these guys don’t. Baby Glazers turned this team into a parachute made out of lead. Even when Malcolm had dementia he was running this team better. They have NO CLUE how to find quality GMs and office people, coaching staffs, or use their cash correctly.
June 19th, 2019 at 12:02 pm
*true answer
June 19th, 2019 at 12:11 pm
Andrew Adams a waiver wire acquisition , probably had more INT’s and passes defensed than the entire secondary. Just one example how bad the talent was in the secondary. Mike Smith had his own issues on defense. ,but Jason Licht did a great job of handicapping him to start the season.
June 19th, 2019 at 1:32 pm
@Bonzai … “He (Bruce Arians) is the one who decided to roll with who they’ve got. He had the option of cutting salary. So those blaming Jason Licht for cap issues are ignorant of the reality at best.”
Not close Bonzai. We obviously don’t know yet what the final 53-man roster will look like, but it’s a safe bet that there will be MAJOR turnover from what we started last year with. Especially on DEFENSE & S/Ts. BA’s plan from the git-go has undoubtedly focused on FIXING the defense & S/Ts FIRST … no way we could afford to do it all in one fell swoop. All you have to do is look at our FA acquisitions AND our draft to see that.
Jason Licht’s primary failure is that he … as our GENERAL MANAGER … has done an overall poor job of TEAM-BUILDING. thus the MAJOR rebuilding of our defense & S/Ts this year. IMO Bruce Arians has done an incredible job navigating a very delicate situation (new coaching staff, a large number of ‘holes’ in a number of position groups, and very little money to ‘buy your way out’). The real encouragement to me right now is that BA’S IN CHARGE.
June 19th, 2019 at 2:17 pm
@ really_bruh.. well said brother!
June 19th, 2019 at 2:29 pm
LMAOH. BAM! Thank you Mr. Polian. You hit that nail square on its head here sir. WHY..is a team that has not..been to or in the playoffs the last 10 yrs having salary cap problems? Hello? Paging Mr Licht and out former GM..Anybody home?
June 19th, 2019 at 2:37 pm
Our lack of Success has been a combination of: lack of Execution by the players AND semi-poor play-calling and schemes, combined with multiple big-money personnel misses.
It’s as simple as that.
We currently have a ton of talent on roster, though, and hopefully we have WAY better coaching now, so things are looking up Bucs Fans!!!
June 19th, 2019 at 3:27 pm
The answer is simple. Licht never met a F.A. he didn’t overpay for, and few ever pan out. Look at Jpp. We took on his huge salary, even tho he’s past 30, and gave up what became a high 3rd round pick. Hey we got a double digit sacker for one year, but our D still stunk, and we still finished 5-11. In a draft loaded with D talent, that pick would’ve saved us 14.5 million.
June 19th, 2019 at 3:28 pm
the answer to the question is Jason Licht.
I continue to say the man is incompetent. And the Glazers are incompetent for allowing it to occur.
If Joel SR. were alive, this would have never happened.
June 19th, 2019 at 4:39 pm
When this team went 9-7 it should not have taken a step back when adding veterans then going 5-11 two years in a row, that’s not a talent issue that falls square on the coaches.
June 19th, 2019 at 5:59 pm
Loyal…. nailed it.
June 19th, 2019 at 9:21 pm
The capologist for this team is the hot Hooter’s waitress that our idiot G.M. visits every Thursday night during happy hour. She hands him a napkin with a figure and Licht says “looks good to me.”
June 20th, 2019 at 12:58 am
The same Bill Polian who said Lamar Jackson should be a WR yeah um ok…. I think the game has passed you by ole Billy boy.
Please fix the AAF’s cap issues you had a good thing going and we do need more football just not 18 “NFL” games.
Go Bucs!!
June 20th, 2019 at 10:52 am
@D1
You forget multiple missed field goals in one game. So kicking can cost a game even if more than by 3 points.
June 21st, 2019 at 10:32 am
As far as Licht having put out lots of cash for Free Agents, that is an expected expense for any NFL Cellar Team. Most Free Agents want to go with a team with a shot at the Super Bowl. And the type of player who chooses a team based on who pays the most and joins a losing team are not likely coming there to play hard. Now with BA here we picked up good players for decent prices because they see BA as a successful Coach who can make the playoffs—totally different kind of Free Agent expecting to play hard and will. Now Licht has overpaid some of our own players to keep them here and has let go some players he should not have, so he is not totally blameless, though.