Jason Licht Names “Perfect World” Approach For 2022 Free Agency
March 2nd, 2022
Bucs cornerback Carlton Davis
The Bucs remind Joe of heading to a concession stand at The Licht House with a crisp 20-dollar bill at halftime.
Joe wants a big beer, a pretzel and nachos, but that’s going to run well over the 20 bucks.
What does Joe do? Does Joe go with a water instead of the beer and savor the nachos and pretzel? (Don’t be ridiculous.)
You get the idea. This year general manager Jason Licht is heading into free agency without enough salary cap room. Yeah, he’ll craft more space with restructured deals to veterans under contract, but Licht will still fall significantly short of his goal.
So what’s the approach? Is it retaining the most in-house free agents while leaning a little less toward quality, or focusing on your prized fish and figuring out the rest from there? Licht was asked that question yesterday on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
“I think in a perfect world you’d want to bring your best players back and do the best that you can to manage your cap that way,” Licht said, while refusing to prioritize his big names.
Joe found that very interesting. Would Licht pounce on keeping Ryan Jensen ($11 million per year?) if it meant that he lost Alex Cappa and Aaron Stinnie ($10 million combined?)? It sounds like he would.
What about cornerback Carlton Davis? Does Licht value him as the top-dog free agent on defense, so he’d be willing to sign Davis even if it meant losing Jordan Whitehead, Will Gholston and Ndamukong Suh?
Again, Licht is not prioritizing his free agents publicly, so these are pure hypotheticals, though Joe thinks it’s obvious Chris Godwin’s return is Priority 1 at One Buc Palace.
Licht acknowledged that it’s all a big jigsaw puzzle and “interference” will come into play when other teams outbid the Bucs.
March 2nd, 2022 at 11:31 am
I found it interesting yesterday – when BA was asked about the future of JPP he answered with “Oh ya – I’m suree JPP will be playing somewhere next season”…
All the other FAs he was asked about (Gronk, Suh) he said “I hope they will be back here next year”
But JPP – “he will play somewhere next year”
Notice the subtle differences in those two answers?
March 2nd, 2022 at 11:46 am
They’re gonna let CD walk.
March 2nd, 2022 at 12:01 pm
Godwin at 45%….is that normal at this stage of recovery?
March 2nd, 2022 at 12:15 pm
Joe… what did you end up ordering at the concession stand?
March 2nd, 2022 at 12:17 pm
Low expectations. LOL. We are gonna be The Bucconeers this year. Embrace the suck. It will be fun anyways. Predict a 1-4 start to season.
March 2nd, 2022 at 12:18 pm
I don’t think it’s that simple. Keeping Cappa and Stinnie for a price less than Jensen might be more bang, especially if they feel Hainsey is ready to be a more than adequate replacement at center. You can’t take these statements and make a monolith out of them. The calculations are usually more complicated and have to be evaluated case by case. There’s always multiple variables in the calculation.
March 2nd, 2022 at 12:31 pm
Patriots find success by finding guys that want to be there. Bucs should follow the same line of thinking. Anyone looking for the big payout obviously doesn’t care about the ultimate goal, a ring.
March 2nd, 2022 at 12:59 pm
With all these questions unanswered hopefully let will schedule us a stiff for our first game in Germany, maybe Houston.
March 2nd, 2022 at 1:07 pm
The New England Patriots success related to keeping Gronk and Brady underpaid compared to production and value which kept the rest of the teammates unable to demand massive salaries. So they would play hard ball and tell people to leave for money knowing they would likely be a major losing franchises.
They also brought in many off the field problem guys, players whom had bad situations on another teams or college and wanted a chance to rehab career by winning with Tom.
They also would take back failed players whom left for money flopped and returned for pennies on dollar to keep playing and seeking bonus money.
And they kept a core long term starters Hightower, Gostokski, Mccourty, Slater, Edelman, Wilfork, Gronk, and Sebastian Vollmer for a decade, and supplemented the other positions via draft and rental players for one year.
Other than Brady Gronk the third most important Patriot of that era was Gostkowski as he was always me of the best kickers for 16y.
If I was building a new team getting a young amazing QB, a franchise Weapon and a top 3 kicker would be my key priority. As a good QB and Kicker will remain good for 15y.
March 2nd, 2022 at 1:11 pm
Love the word ‘interference’. Apparently that’s a pseudonym for ‘some other team is gonna pay some of our FAs a lot more than we will’? Cappa & Stinnie are good cases in point. Spotrac has Cappa listed at a $10.7 mil Market Value based on a 5-year contract. I would think that Stinnie would be somewhat less (maybe $7-$8 mil)?
And yet we read … ‘Would Licht pounce on keeping Ryan Jensen ($11 million per year?) if it meant that he lost Alex Cappa and Aaron Stinnie ($10 million combined?)? ‘ So instead of $18-$19 mil for Cappa & Stinnie combined, we’re gonna get a hometown discount for $10 mil total? Me thinks that Alice just tumbled down another rabbit hole leading to Wonderland.
March 2nd, 2022 at 1:25 pm
Jensen, Cappa, and Stinnie combined will probably cost in the neighborhood of $25-28 million. One or two of those three are going to be playing somewhere else next year. They won’t sign all three.
March 2nd, 2022 at 2:20 pm
Well if Cappa’s price tag is over 10 million, I’d say bye bye and sign Stinnie for half the price. Pretty much same results. I wonder if they still see Hainsey as a worthy replacement at center. You hate to see a guy like Jensen go, but it’s moneyball. Get a reasonable replacement for far less money, you have make choices. With our cap situation, you have to consider letting Jensen walk.
March 2nd, 2022 at 2:34 pm
The offense will be priority 1 for the most part. So that’s Godwin, OLine, Gronk and Fournette.
I believe will be drafting heavy on D replacements from there with a few possible on the offense such as WR and TE.
March 2nd, 2022 at 3:08 pm
Give me guys that can play and stay healthy like Gholston and Suh any day over talented, but injury prone dudes like Davis.
March 2nd, 2022 at 4:40 pm
Davis, Whitehead, Cappa, Stinnie, Gholston, Godwin … in that order.
March 2nd, 2022 at 5:20 pm
This is how you know that New England Patriot Fan doesn’t know football.
Vince Wolfork was one of the greatest Nose Tackles in the history of the NFL, and New England Patriot fan just lumps him in as being a good core player on the Patriots team.
Bless your heart, you northerners don’t know football.