Alex Cappa And The Salary Cap
February 11th, 2022
Ranked.
Bucs right guard Alex Cappa is one of the many bright spots of Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht’s solid drafting, especially on the offensive line.
How small of a school did Cappa come from? The school no longer has a football program. #Sad. \
At worst, Cappa has blossomed into a solid right guard. That’s what winning teams do, they develop the mid-level picks.
Cappa, 27, is a free agent this offseason. In fact, of all the free agents this winter, Sheil Kapadia of The Athletic has Cappa ranked No. 41.
41. Alex Cappa, OG, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
He started 17 games at right guard last season and played well. Cappa has not been a Pro Bowl-caliber player, but he’s been solid and has started 46 of a possible 49 games over the past three seasons. Matt Feiler signed for $7 million per season with the Los Angeles Chargers last offseason, and Kevin Zeitler signed for $7.5 million per year with the Baltimore Ravens. Those deals could represent the floor for a potential deal with Cappa.
Joe would love for the Bucs to keep Cappa but $7 million is a bit rich. And Joe thinks the Bucs may have a cheaper option.
Aaron Stinnie replaced Cappa when Cappa went down to begin the playoffs last year. Cappa was lost for the season with a fractured ankle. Stinnie (also a free agent) started the rest of the playoffs and you hardly knew Cappa was off the field.
If Cappa is looking for $7 million a year, Joe might turn to Stinnie (who made $1 million a year) and ask Stinnie if a few million a season will work?
Joe would love to bring Cappa back. But who is more important, Chris Godwin or Cappa? Playoff Lenny or Cappa?
February 11th, 2022 at 3:47 pm
We need them both, an offensive line is a lot more than just the starting 5.
r
We not only need them both, we need Licht to use some more magic and find so more depth for the O-line. When you replace an injured lineman with some who is only slightly less injured it hurts the whole team
February 11th, 2022 at 3:58 pm
Licht is a OL drafting machine. I could easily see us drafting a G in the 2-3 rounds. A question I have seen overlooked.. Can Robert Hainsey play guard and we just sign Jensen? Hainsey played RT in college at ND so its not like he hasn’t played anything outside of C along the OL.
February 11th, 2022 at 4:03 pm
My preference would be to keep Cappa and let Jensen walk. Slip Hainsey in at center. That would save some dollars. Love Jensen, but he’s getting long in the tooth and his asking price will be too high.
February 11th, 2022 at 4:04 pm
In my book we need Cappa & Stinnie…….but may not accomplish that…..
Either way, we need a strong Oline……I think if we don’t sign Jensen, Cappa is a lock to be signed.
February 11th, 2022 at 4:04 pm
7 million for a quality starting guard seems like a bargain.
February 11th, 2022 at 4:18 pm
Without a line, it doesn’t matter if we have Jerry Rice or Walter Payton they won’t do anything. We need to retain our O line, let’s face there’s a reason Stinnie is a back up.
February 11th, 2022 at 4:29 pm
Might need to decide between Capps and Jensen.
February 11th, 2022 at 4:30 pm
I agree with Sasquatch … ‘7 million for a quality starting guard seems like a bargain.’ Heck, Ali Marpet’s making $10 mil in base salary & another $3 mil in bonuses in 2022, counting almost $13 mil against our salary CAP. You’d be talking HALF of that for our OTHER starting Guard.
Probably our biggest strength right now is our OLine, BUT … we only have 3 of the 5 starters under contract. And oh ya, we don’t have any REAL salary CAP $$$ to speak of … right now. But I still remember when the Saints traded super-star TE Jimmy Graham to Seattle back in 2015 because he cost too much (Saints launched several other players back in that timeframe too to get their salary CAP under control). Bucs MIGHT have to do something similar to maintain a competitive TEAM. Expect the unexpected?
February 11th, 2022 at 5:33 pm
@ DR
A. Stinnie can also play center and R. Hainsey has been playing some center.
Perhaps the move is to re-sign Cappa, let Jenson walk and let Hainsey and Stinnie compete for starting center job.
February 11th, 2022 at 5:34 pm
DR
We really don’t have to launch players….simply can’t resign some…..I don’t think we have many or any players under contract that we can trade……
Devin White?
Brate?
Marpet?
D. Smith?
M. Evans?
SMB?
Dean?
Winfield?
Vaughn?
Nope…..maybe Brate….but what’s he worth?…..and then we would have zero TEs.
February 11th, 2022 at 5:37 pm
Cappa signing for anything less than $7.5 million is team-friendly, as I think his market is somewhere between $7.5 million to $11 million. The problem is that Cappa is coming off of his rookie contract and will most likely want a healthy payday.
Licht does have a tough decision to make. Jensen is gone. If Cappa leaves, 2 out of 3 interior offensive linemen will need to be replaced. The problem is that keeping Cappa will strengthen the OL, but it will come at the expense of a weakened defensive secondary.
February 11th, 2022 at 5:40 pm
Love the way Cappa has developed…But RG about 2/3 way down the priority list of Bucs Needs, given the long list of UFA & limited funds to play with.
As BA has stated before, he loves signing aging OL Vets…They have family & mortgages & kids in private schools…And will play their ass off for a $2M deal to stay in the league a little longer….When guys coming off the rookie deal want the big pay raise & long yrs.
While Jason Licht is known to fall in love with small school OL out to prove something at the Senior Bowl.
So, I’m looking for the FO to follow that plan again…Sign a low cost VET “Earl Watford type” FA …Then draft a new bull moose small school OL or two.
Small School OL like Trevor Penning-N.Iowa, Matt Waletzko-N.Dakota, & Cordell Volson-NDSU all really stood out in Mobile.
February 11th, 2022 at 5:57 pm
I agree. Cappa may be a victim of the salary cap. If so, then Licht should seriously looks at Fafalele from university of Minnesota. Big kid with tons of upside. He will be available late in the 1st round. Have him play guard as he is still learning the game.
Wpuod free up money to sign a CB and he is more of a sure thing than any of the CB’s that will be available in the draft.
February 11th, 2022 at 6:00 pm
Cappa and Lenny are not coming back Chris Godwin probably gets a long term deal
February 11th, 2022 at 6:07 pm
Inflation is messing up the caps. Inflation will be 20 PERCENT at least.
February 11th, 2022 at 6:55 pm
Licht has done an excellent job at drafting guys, so I’d trust him to be able to draft someone.
But really it just depends on the QB. If you’re going with Trask, when you’re tanking anyways, so no need to bring back Jensen or Cappa, you play the Notre Dame kid at center and just draft a new guard, and hope for the best — not that it really matters.
But if you’re going to get a real QB and try to win, then you’ll want back Jensen, and ideally Cappa, but that would really be a luxury. The Bucs have an expensive offensive line as it is, although you suppose that Licht will be picking a new LT, so that salary will come off the books after next season, so maybe that’s how you justify keeping Cappa if you go young.
February 11th, 2022 at 7:02 pm
Folks the salary cap is a mostly fictional. Take a look at the Rams. How are they able to afford all this talent? It’s fairly simple. GM’s across the league value first round picks like first born sons. The Rams have realized that the inexact science of drafting has made these valuations incredibly compromised. So they’ll need to reset in a year or two. That punishment known as cap jail, only lasts for two years at most. Most teams reset rosters based on player age, and real dollar budgets. It has very little to do with the cap. To make the Rams model work, you do need to draft well with the limited ammo you have. This was a problem when rookie QBs and others were getting sixty million dollar deals. Ownership did away with that. For Christ sake Disney is prepared to pay hundreds of millions for Sunday ticket. Don’t be fooled by the cap
February 11th, 2022 at 7:12 pm
Bqen green Says:
February 11th, 2022 at 7:02 pm
Folks the salary cap is a mostly fictional.
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Mostly, is the correct word. However, it is still real, and while you can do all sorts of tricks using things like void years to bring down cap hits, you do eventually have to pay up (see the Saints). I have no issues with that if the Bucs are going to get a real QB and try to win this year. But if they’re going with Trask, then they’re going to be like 3-14, so you might as well clean up the cap as best you can, then get ready for a big 2023. I have zero issues with that, it was always the price to pay to get Brady and keep him for 2021. But worst case would be to kick the cap hell bucket down the road while resigning old guys, then not having a legit QB option.
February 11th, 2022 at 7:21 pm
Agreed Rod. But you can’t deny how owners use the cap hell argument, to justify not spending.
February 11th, 2022 at 7:27 pm
It’s a foregone conclusion. Revenue is going through the roof, and isn’t a representative reflection of the cap. Blame the “union” for that one. Giving away trinkets for real money is a fine way to run a sport.
February 11th, 2022 at 7:40 pm
Bqen green — the cap goes up dramatically last year, that’s one of the reason you can resign everyone, if you get tricky and backload the deals. But, also remember, the cap goes up for everyone, so players don’t nessacarly want to sign a long term deal right now. For example, Godwin might be a $17-mil player this year, but next year he might be a $22-mil / yr player, that could make Licht trying to sell guys on doing longer deals, that are needed to get the cap hit down for this year, might be having a hard time.
February 11th, 2022 at 7:48 pm
Godwin, Fournette, Evans will all be irrelevant without a quality OLine.
February 11th, 2022 at 7:53 pm
Alanbucsfan Says:
February 11th, 2022 at 7:48 pm
Godwin, Fournette, Evans will all be irrelevant without a quality OLine.
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Really? Because Evans was good with even a worthless QB like Mike Glennon throwing to him behind a terrible offensive line.
February 11th, 2022 at 8:06 pm
Its so hard to guess anything the Bucs will do without knowing who they get at QB……If we go after a big name QB then you are gonna want guys like Jensen and Fournette back.
If we go with a cheaper QB then you wanna get younger at those positions.
It makes way too much sence that we drafted Hainsey and converted him to C right after we drafted Trask to play behind him.
February 11th, 2022 at 8:22 pm
Rod, the line wasn’t terrible in those days, the QB held the ball for, like, days before tossing an interception.
February 11th, 2022 at 8:53 pm
Rod Munch-
Didn’t say they wouldn’t be good, just wasted talent on a sub 500 team
February 11th, 2022 at 11:15 pm
If we want to stay relevant, we must keep the offensive line intact.
$7m is not that big of a cap hit…especially when you consider the fact that Brady, Gronk, JPP and Suh will be off the books. That alones frees up over $60m.
February 12th, 2022 at 12:46 am
brady, gronk, jpp, suh off the books.
not so sure. brady has a cap hit for next year.
gronk is currently undecided …
jpp may recover
and suh may want to return
and just because a player goes off the books you still have to replace them
at some cost so this big lump of money will mostly go to replacements it’s not like it’s free money and not budgetted
jimm
February 12th, 2022 at 3:45 am
Have Bowels of Todd pay half his salary to Jensen and Capps. In cash, in a suitcase, secretly.
February 12th, 2022 at 3:45 am
Alanbucsfan – Then I misunderstood what you meant, in that case I agree with you. But that was the deal with signing Brady. You’re doing so knowing when he goes away, the team is going to have to pay for all the things we did to win a SB, which I’m fine with. Hopefully it’s a very quick rebuild — assuming we can’t just reload with a top tier QB.
February 12th, 2022 at 4:42 am
Make Alex Great Again….MAGA
February 12th, 2022 at 8:23 am
If the Bucs trade for a Wilson, Watson, Rodgers, which is fantasy, they wouldn’t have enough cap to sign Stinnie. When we resign Gabbert to a team friendly deal, we’ll have more cap space to keep players like Cappa if we want. That’s why it makes sense to sign, and start Gabbert with Trask backing him up. The money we save not paying big money to a QB will allow us to stay competitive. A vet with four years in the offense, and a young QB in waiting backing him up makes me feel better about next season.
February 12th, 2022 at 3:30 pm
I wouldn’t automatically make Gabbert the starter. Let the competition begin with Trask, Gabbert & even Ryan.
February 13th, 2022 at 8:58 am
I think the only defensive player we have to sign is Carlton Davis. We focus on offensive free agents. Resign Godwin, Jenson and maybe Lenny but he will probably demand too much money for us to resign him. Then draft a running back, and defense early. Try to get a corner and a D-Linemen. Then see if Licht can work his magic on an offensive guard in the late rounds. Maybe pick up a couple of cheaper free agents for depth on the online, defensive line and secondary. I don’t even know what we are going to do at quarterback, but if you had to trade for a quarterback maybe package SMB, a defensive coordinator and money. I know Defensive Coordinators are not part of the deal but how can a guy come up with such a great game plan to help win the Super Bowl and then be so horrible in the Divisional round of the playoffs.
February 14th, 2022 at 2:19 am
Cappa can probably play quarterback better than Goobert or Trashk.