Up Goes The 2022 Salary Cap
December 5th, 2021
Ring the bell! The Bucs — and everyone else — will have a lot more cash to spend on free agents and in-house players next season.
Per NFL.com, the salary cap is expected to be $208 million in 2022. That’s a whopping $25.5 million bump from this season. And as Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com noted, it’s likely going higher than that.
A faction of Bucs fans is obsessed with NFL accounting and all the fuzzy math for which NFL general managers are responsible. Joe’s interested but hardly a lunatic with a calculator at all times.
Chris Godwin will be the Bucs’ top-dog free agent this offseason. He’s currently playing on the franchise tag and certainly will be seeking $20 million per season with a load of guaranteed money. Ryan Jensen will want to get paid again, and so will Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh (if he doesn’t retire).
Will Rob Gronkowski want a fat raise? He might deserve one by the time 2021 is in the books.
The Bucs also are going to have a huge decision to make on Alex Cappa and Carlton Davis, who has missed 14 games in his four NFL seasons. Joe suspects the Bucs would love to select a cornerback with a premium 2022 draft pick.
December 5th, 2021 at 10:07 am
Can’t we just give all that extra Glazer loot to Durable Donnie?
I mean he’s really trying hard this year and 15 million seems like an insult.
December 5th, 2021 at 10:12 am
This team will look totally different next season. The 2021 draft was a complete waste other than Tryon. Gonna need to bring in more free agents & not pay Cappa & Carlton Davis. I’d rather keep Godwin & axe Mike Evans but they won’t do it. Godwin, Suh & JPP obviously gone. Ithink TB12 retires, then Gronky is gone too. Sign Stinnie. AB gone. ROJO & LENNY gone b/c Bruce will retire when Brady’s done. Gio Bernard gone.
December 5th, 2021 at 10:14 am
JPP isn’t looking good for a big contract, Suh’s play seems to be slightly about average–his current season grade is 50.1
December 5th, 2021 at 10:17 am
I remember when everyone hated Donnie. I’m glad we got him. He might not be in the top 5 or even the top 10 but the dude just doesn’t miss games. I agree with you doooshlarue he needs a raise. As much as I love CG14 we should prob use that money for our secondary. We all saw what happens when the injury bug hit our DBs. We lost some games because of it and some games were really close because we just can’t cover. Our offense can still put up a lot of points without CG14 again I don’t want to see him leave but we have bigger issues on defense then offense.
December 5th, 2021 at 10:39 am
@ #1, If TB 12, Gronk, and 13 and/or 14 are gone, then our offense will have bigger problems than our D, IMO. If we retain the secondary, they’ll be healthy by next year.
December 5th, 2021 at 10:55 am
Let jpp walk after the season
December 5th, 2021 at 11:03 am
re sign playoff lenny please jason?
December 5th, 2021 at 11:31 am
Dont forget, cap increase equals ticket prices increase, too. Soon attending a game will be exclusive to wealthy folks only. Then its all going to pay-per-view. Crap always rolls downhill; landing on the little people. Never fails.
Go Bucs!
December 5th, 2021 at 11:37 am
The TV deals are in place through 2033 , so the NFL will be readily available.
December 5th, 2021 at 12:44 pm
Hopefully Mike Florio is right & the 2022 salary CAP ends up being more than $208 mil. A LOT more.
o Just our top 5 highest players (ME13, Shaq, D Smith, Brady, LVD) are projected to earn $92.8 mil in 2022 … about 45% of next year’s projected salary CAP.
o The next 5 highest paid players (Marpet, White, Vea, Brate, Wirfs) are projected to earn another $41.7 mil … bringing the total our Top-10 players to $134.5 mil, or 65% of our salary CAP for less than 20% of our roster. And all those are players who, assuming that they choose not to retire, will surely be with us next year.
o Bucs have another 22 players under contract for 2022 whose contracts total $33.1 mil. Gut feel is that all but maybe 2 of them will be here next year, so that brings our 2022 contracts total to $178 mil, leaving us with roughly $30 mil to sign the remaining 20 or so players for our 2022 roster.
Unfortunately, included in those players to be signed are (hopefully) names like Godwin, Davis, Gholston, Whitehead, Fournette, Jensen, Cappa, Stinnie … the list goes on & on (Bucs have a total of 25 UFAs in 2022). Somehow it looks like there’ll be some BIG changes in our 2022 roster. Just a guess though.
Bucs went all-in for 2021. Let’s enjoy the ride & not worry about what’s around the 2022 corner. Super Bowl or bust!
December 5th, 2021 at 1:05 pm
@ DR
I agree. Not to mention we will need another $5-$6 mil to sign our draft picks…
I would be surprised to see JPP, Suh, Gronk and Fornette back next season given our cap situation.
We will probably use the franchise tag on Davis. Perhaps they let Godwin walk?
December 5th, 2021 at 1:26 pm
If they can’t draft Gardner or McDuffie next year I think I’d go DE DT or OL 1st round then CB. Since Stingley will be gone by the time they’re picking. I think I’d pass on Jobe & McCreary. Jobe gets too grabby at times & at times McCreary doesn’t get his head turned around to look for the ball & of course they’d get called for penalties in the NFL. If they have to go CB 2nd round or so Bryant with Gardner from Cincinnati wouldn’t be a bad option either.
December 5th, 2021 at 4:17 pm
They need to SIGN a solid free agent corner (or two). No more drafting corners, it’s the hardest position to draft.
Let Davis and JPP walk.
December 5th, 2021 at 4:25 pm
If you guys can show me when any of your prognostications have come to pass before, I’ll consider what you say.
December 5th, 2021 at 4:50 pm
Oh, Mecicated, now I understand why everyone hates you ☺️ There’s no way Godwin is gone. Did you not hear the cap is going up almost 30 million?!?
December 5th, 2021 at 5:14 pm
Godwin is a must sign at this point. Carlton Davis? He’s maybe a top 10 corner when fully healthy, but I’m obviously a homer and probably pushing it. Unless he comes cheap, I’m guessing that we may franchise him, but is he even worth it?Gronk deserves more money and Suh does too. Great problem to have in my opinion. Good luck Licht!
December 5th, 2021 at 5:28 pm
I love Godwin
But 20 mil?
Nope
Let him walk
Keep AB at a discount and let
Scotty play every down
With Brady, — he has won
several SBs with less
December 5th, 2021 at 6:01 pm
Youngbucs I agree with you on that let JPP walk next year . I think he’s done !!
December 5th, 2021 at 6:04 pm
I did like the defensive tackle out of Georgia but he gets tired to quick . But the Defensive end out of Michigan I would love to have . I hope we keep building the defense and the offensive line.
December 5th, 2021 at 8:02 pm
I agree with BradyBucs on how they should definitely consider going out & sign at least one FA CB next year. Somebody that they know they can rely on as a starter & let the others learn from. I’d still consider letting Donovan Smith go because the dude gets called for too many penalties & gives up too many sacks. Even if they have to go out & sign a FA OL or draft somebody to put with Wirfs. He’s been around long enough now to where he should’ve picked it up by now & cut down on the penalties & sacks.
December 5th, 2021 at 8:14 pm
They should use Bernard more, too! Resign him & Fournette next year & let Jones walk. There would be no room for him anyway of they resign Bernard & Fournette because they just drafted Vaughn, too! When they give Bernard a chance he plays pretty good for them. They should just keep him with Fournette. They don’t need Fournette getting worn out before the playoffs either. They wanna keep him as fresh as possible, too!
December 6th, 2021 at 2:28 pm
Fornette and Antonio Brown if he is still with us will need some.