It’s Worth It
March 22nd, 2021
Win now, pay later.
So, let’s say things are a little different in 2024.
Park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring, down-forgetting, handshake-stiffing, jet-ski-losing, biscuit-baking, tequila-shooting, waffle-grilling, trophy-throwing, Bucs-Super-Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady is no longer here, nor is Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians. But the Bucs are coming off a playoff appearance, their third straight NFC South-winning campaign. Tampa Bay has been to the Super Bowl twice in that span, winning once.
And the moment Brady walked out the door of One Buc Palace and called it a career, the Bucs found themselves in a pinch with the salary cap.
To this Joe says, “So what?”
If the Bucs have three more outstanding seasons with Brady and another Super Bowl win, Joe doesn’t give a damn if the team stinks for four to rebuild and reload.
And per Albert Breer of SI.com, that is sort of the thought process into how the Bucs have attacked keeping the Band of Bucs together this offseason.
And Tampa Bay, without question, has followed their lead organizationally. Forever, [the Bucs have] been lauded for doing contracts in a balanced, pay-as-you go way that keeps the team out of cap jail (or cap hell, if you prefer that term), and that’s part of what allowed for the Brady pursuit last year. This year, the team has done a 180 on that—using void years to push cap charges past the years on players’ contracts. Between Brady ($24 million), Shaq Barrett ($3.75 million), Lavonte David ($3.6 million) and Rob Gronkowski ($5 million), there’s $36.35 million in cap charges lined up for years those four won’t on the team, and it’s certainly possible bringing guys like Ndamukong Suh and Leonard Fournette back could add to that bill. But you know what? It’s 100% worth it. If the Bucs have to eat it for a year down the line cap-wise, so be it. Getting to pursue another championship or two would matter more than responsible accounting to me, too.
Joe fully agrees. If the Bucs can have three more excellent years of football, it is 100 percent kosher to have to pay the bills in five years.
Wins now and pay later? Sounds like a plan to Joe when you have Brady for only a handful of years.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:06 am
I agree. Get the Super Bowl wins now while we can. We live with a rebuild after.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:07 am
The other option was perpetual losing……been there, done that as a fan. I’ll take a few competitive yrs, then deal with rebuilding down the road. I really think if we can get a young guy behind Brady now, that formula tends to give your future QB the best shot at success. There’s a long list of Hall of Fame QBs that sat for their first year or so. With a little luck, we may not see a huge fall off. I feel like we survived Licht’s growing pains and he’s hit his stride with drafting. That alone can keep you competitive
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:08 am
100% agree!
The feeling of having your team in the playoffs is fantastic.
The feeling of having your team in the Super Bowl is electric.
The feeling of having your team win the Super Bowl PRICELESS!!!
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:13 am
When I was younger, I had a rule on spending money….If I couldn’t feel it 10 years down the road…..do it.
When I got older…..that changed to 5 years…
And now, it’s 1 year….
Go for it now….Licht….don’t worry about next year or the year beyond.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:16 am
I have no doubt that the NFL and the country at large will rebound economically.
Fact is, our formula wasn’t working because we chose the wrong talent. Whether we pay now or later, it’s about WINNING NOW.
One thing is for sure, Buc fans know about suffering. It’s not like we haven’t been there before.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:17 am
This is the way things are.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:19 am
This is an all around great coaching staff. Why we need Bowels to take over at HC when BA leaves or Bowels gets any offers. BA doesn’t do much except talk and I don’t trust Byron at HC without Brady. Whether you want to believe it had anything or not, fact is we had dumpster fire coaches throughout the dumpster fire decade.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:27 am
True…although after Brady we will have Aaron Rodgers as QB, so we should keep some weapons.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:40 am
Didn’t Brees just do something with his contract so NO didn’t have to pay him $20-30M as a part of his retirement? Thought he agreed to accept $1.5M to help get them out of a bad cap situation. Maybe Brady, LVD and Gronk would consider something similar.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:44 am
My eyes jump immediately from park-violating to Brady… I agree but don’t dismiss the booming of salary cap. We can take the hit and doesn’t necessarily means cap hell down 3-4 years. Plus you’re almost picturing a worse case scenario and maybe we do win 2 or more. Definitely worth the dice. When Brady goes we will have a rookie in place and probably 13 and 14 will still be around. Only problem is for guys who want to get paid next year and the year after that. Some players will get replaced in the draft and get paid elsewhere. Candidates are 76, 24, 27… Eventually we will lose some cogs but I am so excited to see more games with the Brady bunch. What a time to be a Bucs fan! The biggest risk down the line is not cap hell but losing our coaching staff out of winning. Very unlikely we keep Byron L and Todd B next year. Arians maybe has to reach an agreement to pass the torch to Bowles given that he doesn’t want to coach without his staff. Maybe promote Arians within the organization but this is only a problem if success happens… again!
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:52 am
@Joe … “If the Bucs have three more outstanding seasons with Brady and another Super Bowl win, Joe doesn’t give a damn if the team stinks for four to rebuild and reload.”
Couldn’t agree more Joe; go for it while we’ve got the proven starting talent. Would love to believe that we have 3 more outstanding seasons with Brady, but gut feel is that we’ll be lucky to get 2 more seasons with him at the helm. That’s OK though in my book; we should be competitive for both 2021 AND 2022, providing we can re-sign Suh, pick up several quality backups/rotational guys, and have a couple of good drafts so that ‘inexpensive replacements’ are on-board when our vets finally retire.
Interesting to me how Bucs restructured Brady’s contract. He’s making only $9.1 mil this year, but the dead CAP is $50.0 mil. In 2022 he’ll be making $16.9 mil, but his dead CAP would still be up at $40.9 mil. So if Tom retires after the 2022 season, the Bucs would have to eat $24 mil in 2023 to finish out his contract. Folks forget that he’ll be 44 (this August) for the 2021 season, and 45 for the 2022 season. Sorta kinda means that we’d better be protecting him REAL GOOD if we expect him to 20-21 games each season.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:54 am
Absolutely agree. You never know when that next chance will come around… gotta take your shot when you know you have Brady at QB.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:58 am
Worth every penny of the Glazers’ money!
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:01 am
I’m in!
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:02 am
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:07 am
And it’s not like things are eroding on the back end. The Bucs have had some really good drafts lately and if they can continue to build a nucleus around their draft choices, the drop off associated with veteran departures shouldn’t be that great. Plus the young guys are building a winning mentality that will persist for many, many years, something the Bucs haven’t seen, in a very long time!
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:08 am
If you draft properly, there is no reason to stink after Toms gone
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:08 am
Absolutely it is worth it if it brings another run or two at Super Bowls. And I don’t believe it will hinder them as much as people think. They have some vets but they have a lot of good young talent and the new TV contracts are going to see the salary cap explode over the next couple of years.
So they’ll have some dead cap money but they will still be able to maneuver. The big key is drafting Tom Brady‘s successor next year
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:12 am
Why we need to trade 32 and start rebuilding immediately with more picks. Jason is Lichts out after the first round. Get future starters and depth to come sit the first year. Soaking up all this Bucs knowledge coming off that Super Bowl.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:23 am
Totally agree. Good cap management got us Brady, but that is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. It usually didn’t mean much else than a top 10 draft pick.
Keep the good times rollin’, even if it means paying the piper later.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:23 am
@SOEbuc — I disagree. The future is now. Draft people that help Brady win in this window.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:53 am
I think that’s why we haven’t drafted a qb, no point in wasting a pick that won’t be realized fire several years, after Arians is gone (That being said, Arians maintains that Gabbert is the heir-apparent)
March 22nd, 2021 at 12:01 pm
@Beej … “That being said, Arians maintains that Gabbert is the heir-apparent.”
And yet, Gabbert is a FA and still un-signed. Wonder if HE is truly convinced right now that he’s the heir apparent.
March 22nd, 2021 at 12:02 pm
Exactly my point joe some 🤡 here needs to understand this! When he stops being a biased butt hurt loser.
March 22nd, 2021 at 12:16 pm
Yup, good trade off. Dynasty now. Rebuild later.
March 22nd, 2021 at 12:21 pm
No one stays good forever, so if you can win championships during your run, go for it. Because no matter what, cycles of winning and losing happen to all teams. So you go for it now. At least the Bucs already have 1 championship, and maybe more from this Brady run. Who knows when they will exhaust this run, it might last longer than Brady, we will see. So like I said many times before about Shaq. Pay the man, all the talk about Jason getting worked is hogwash. Again no one can get around the 1 constant, every team will have cycles of winning and losing. And right now, IT IS A BUCS WORLD BABY IN 2021, GO BUCS!!!!!!!
March 22nd, 2021 at 12:47 pm
I think everyone agrees it’s worth it now.
Funny though, a lot of people look at our previous situation with McKay handing out huge contacts and jetting to a division rival, and decide to blame Gruden for running the team to the ground. Yeah, he had his faults, I just like pointing out the hypocrisy of some of the fan base.
March 22nd, 2021 at 12:52 pm
AMI_Chris
“I disagree. The future is now. Draft people that help Brady win in this window”
That makes no sense. Most of this returning team is a bunch of older vets with short term contracts and FAs in the future. We need to start rebuilding now. We don’t need a RB. We already have a good #1 RB and no one is giving Vaughn a chance when he has some potential. He was PFF best RB pass blocker rating 2020. That sounds like a third down back. Tom just said f#ck you to people said I need a receiver RB. We have Evans, Godwin, TJ, and hopefully AB. We have the WR to create screens.
Need to start rebuilding immediately with all the large rookie contracts we have the next four years. Seems no one thinks we can win after Brady when we have so much young talent now. That’s what building through that draft is.
March 22nd, 2021 at 1:09 pm
Having a mini Dynasty would be more than this old mans heart could take. Things seem to be falling into place. I expect a big jump in the Cap over the next few years, but then we will be losing players to age and the typical entropy that becomes inevitable. I do have one concern and please forgive my ignorance, but who is going to back up Brady next year. I have yet to read an article that seriously addresses Gabbert and Griffin re-sign or replacement strategy. I would like to have some Buc experience if Brady (heaven forbid) turns an ankle.
March 22nd, 2021 at 1:18 pm
If we get another sb this year and BA & brady both retire I’d be happy enough with just that.
Going for three just doesn’t seem reaistic.
March 22nd, 2021 at 1:58 pm
And the cap will most likely go up from here.
March 22nd, 2021 at 3:04 pm
I agree with @Espo. In 2002, the Bucs went all-in to get Gruden and win a Super Bowl. Many have complained about the post Super Bowl years but they gave up two 1st rounders and two 2nd rounders for Gruden and sent two 1st rounders to the Jets for Keyshawn in 2000. That’s 6 “premium” picks traded to win a Super Bowl. Was it worth it? Of course! A Super Bowl wasn’t guaranteed in 2002. Now, we’ve already seen a Super Bowl win. Go for as many as you can get while you still have Brady.
March 22nd, 2021 at 4:43 pm
I was almost to the end of my rope with this team. The Superbowl win came just in time to save me from walking away from football entirely. I had already found other things to keep me busy.
As to whether it is worth it…everyone here saying it is…remember that when Brady and Arians retire and Arians heir has to put up with a couple years of budget issues and losing records. Go easier on that head coach, whoever he might be.