Vita Vea Pitching In
March 10th, 2023
Reworked contract?
Hey, you may have heard: The Bucs are crushed on the salary cap.
Yes, this, Joe believes, will be the overriding theme of the 2023 season. But that doesn’t mean folks aren’t trying to help the Bucs out.
For your salary cap cultists, this is for you: Bucs stud defensive tackle Vita Vea is going to rework his contract to help give the Bucs breathing room, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Joe knows who Rapoport talks to so Joe thinks this will happen.
Joe wonders which other Bucs will redo their pacts?
The #Bucs are working to get under the cap, doing a cap conversion with DT Vita Vea to clear about $9M in space, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 10, 2023
March 10th, 2023 at 12:12 pm
Yes, extend.
March 10th, 2023 at 12:12 pm
Thats right, BIG V!!
Ya’ll know why I was pushing so hard for us to draft him…not just his talent on the field, but also his character off the fiels.
Thanks Big V, you the man!
March 10th, 2023 at 12:13 pm
We need to clear even more space for Lamar!!!!
March 10th, 2023 at 12:14 pm
Lamar is not coming Upstate NY BUC………
March 10th, 2023 at 12:20 pm
“For your salary cap cultists, this is for you: It seems Bucs stud defensive tackle Vita Vea is going to rework his contract to help give the Bucs some breathing room”
I’d like to see Vita Vea to rework his diet and exercise program this year to drop 10% of his body mass and give himself “some breathing room” so he can play a full set of snaps. As a part time player, he’s not earning his paycheck. He needs to get into better shape, so he can play a full set of snaps (with occasional breathers).
March 10th, 2023 at 12:22 pm
Lamar would be a disaster. We already are going to have so many holes to fill and will need at least a couple years to be competitive again.. wed have to sacrifice a lot more to fit him in.. by the time we built the roster around him he would be damage goods I’m afraid.. with his style of play only makes sense for win now
March 10th, 2023 at 12:26 pm
Joe, by the title, I thought you were going to say that Vita was pitching when R. White went to batting practice the other day, LOL. Speaking of baseball, I’ll bet Vita would KRUSH that ball right outta its skin! (Presuming he can hit, of course).
March 10th, 2023 at 12:27 pm
He got what was left. Lousy draft area. BUT that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have made a different choice. Perhaps a different area of need with far more impact full players. As far as I can tell, he’s had 2 lousy, back to back first selections of late. His record is waning. He MUST hit on this next first pic or else….
March 10th, 2023 at 12:32 pm
I think I posted on the wrong article. Oops…
Vea, A STUD! But I agree with getting into better shape and getting a whole lot more snaps in. He’d probably produce another 2 or 3 sacks per year in better shape.
March 10th, 2023 at 12:38 pm
Here is the restructures the Bucs should do and what they will save in 2023.
Vea – $8.85M
Godwin – $14M
Jenson – $8.5M
Gage – $4.46M
Davis – $6.7M
Total – $42.7M
The exact amount the Bucs need to clear in 5 days…
One down – four more to go.
Get’er done Licht!!!
March 10th, 2023 at 12:40 pm
Doesn’t this just spread the $9M pain out to future years?
Also, doesn’t this mean he swaps non-guaranteed future money for guaranteed immediate money? I mean, thankyou for helping us out, but of course he’d agree to that.
March 10th, 2023 at 12:48 pm
Wow. I made a comment on Facebook regarding this issue… Basically saying he should extend and lower the cap hit considering he barely plays half of the defensive snaps.
I immediately got attacked by a few people. LOL
I mean, the guy is not taking a pay cut. It’s just extending it out more.
But… If he wants to be in the same breath as a Sapp, he needs to play 80% of the time or more. It’s not like he’s a pass rusher and that’s why he’s taken out, it’s purely stamina.
March 10th, 2023 at 12:49 pm
@ Dungy
“Doesn’t this just spread the $9M pain out to future years?”
Yes.
“doesn’t this mean he swaps non-guaranteed future money for guaranteed immediate money? ”
Yes and No… The Bucs will add 2 VOID years – each will be worth $4.5M to the end of the current contract.
Both VOID years will come due if Vea is traded/cut or retires or once his contract is done.
But in general it does convert non-guaranteed salary into a guaranteed money…
March 10th, 2023 at 12:50 pm
DungyDance Says:
March 10th, 2023 at 12:40 pm
Doesn’t this just spread the $9M pain out to future years?
Yes….there is always a price for restructuring and it’s usually borne by the team
Sometimes a player restructures at his cost in order to avoid being cut….but that’s rare.
Pushing the cap down the road until there’s no road.
March 10th, 2023 at 12:59 pm
we have to restructure some deals for the cap but we have to cut players too. push as little money to the future as possible. this team is not a super bowl contender this year. fix the cap now and 2024 with our core we can go for another super bowl for sure
March 10th, 2023 at 1:09 pm
TBBF … ‘Pushing the cap down the road until there’s no road.’
Well played. Never quite heard it put that way, but that’s exactly what happens. The key is to ‘reinvent yourself’ BEFORE you run out of road.
In the 2023 Bucs’ case, we had no option but to push most of our negative salary CAP to future years. Cutting Donnie saved around $10 mil, but most of the other high-earners have CAP hits that are very close to their Dead CAP values, thus there are no savings by releasing them (not to mention that we then have to now fill the vacant hole). Chris Godwin for instance has a Dead CAP value of $35 mil and a CAP hit of $23.8 mil; thus we’d OWE $11.2 mil IF we cut him (not gonna happen anyways).
Our only options on all by a couple of players is to restructure their contracts, which means pushing whatever we need to push forward to 2024 & beyond to get under the salary CAP this year. Stinks for us, but we were the ones who dug the hole.
March 10th, 2023 at 1:20 pm
@ DR
“Chris Godwin for instance has a Dead CAP value of $35 mil and a CAP hit of $23.8 mil; thus we’d OWE $11.2 mil IF we cut him (not gonna happen anyways).”
I believe $20M of that $35M is due to the guaranteed salary. If we trade him wouldn’t the other team be paying that $20M? I believe so…
If that is the case – then trading Godwin would result in a $5M savings ($20M – $15M = $5M)… We would save $20M but still owe him the remaining $15M signing bonus.
Either way – at this point we should just restructure Godwin and save @ $14M in 2023 rather than trade him and only save $5M while creating another huge hole to fill.
March 10th, 2023 at 1:24 pm
Marine Buc … That almost $43 mil will get us to the break-even point, but we need to do considerably better than that to sign any FAs in the coming weeks & then our draft class. How much more I don’t have a clue.
Also, I wouldn’t restructure Gage. I like him, but he looks to be too fragile. Keep him this year, but draft his replacement next year.
March 10th, 2023 at 1:28 pm
Marine Buc … Godwin’s one of those ‘core Bucs’ that we have to keep. I feel the same way about Evans, LVD & Jensen … they’re core players, the guys you build around (as much as anything because we need their leadership on the field as we rebuild).
March 10th, 2023 at 1:41 pm
Marine Buc … ‘If we trade him (Godwin), wouldn’t the other team be paying that $20M (guaranteed money)?’
Possibly some of it. Here’s what I found regarding trades …
‘For the team trading the player, a trade is pretty much treated the same as the release of a player – the team is relieved of paying all FUTURE base salaries, but still must account for the bonus money that has ALREADY been paid to the player’.
Best I can figure, there are 3 different types of guaranteed money, and it depends on when the money was or will be paid to the player. No matter what else happens though, the player WILL get his guaranteed money.
March 10th, 2023 at 1:43 pm
Vita might consider wearing a manzier. Might help his game day stamina.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:10 pm
we are going to need more than just get under the cap. Don’t we need money to sign rookie deals and a little extra just in case we need to pick up players through the season.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:11 pm
No reason players wouldn’t restructure their deals – they literally get more cash up front, they’re not taking less money or extending the deal, it’s literally just some accounting tricks where the players get millions of dollars in cash right now instead of in a few years. I’m not sure who would turn that down.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:27 pm
@ DR
“That almost $43 mil will get us to the break-even point, but we need to do considerably better than that to sign any FAs in the coming weeks & then our draft class. How much more I don’t have a clue.”
Well – we have a few options bud…
#1 – Extend Mike Evans – possible savings = $10.67M
#2 – Extend Devin White – possible savings = $8.5M
#3 – Trade Devin White – possible savings = $11M
#4 – Cut Ryan Succop – possible savings = $3.25M
Those are the only options after restructuring –
– Vea
– Godwin
– Jenson
– Gage
– Davis
I will add one more option –
– Reach an injury settlement with Shaq Barrett…
March 10th, 2023 at 2:31 pm
@ Rod
“No reason players wouldn’t restructure their deals”
If a player doesn’t want to continue playing on the team asking him to restructure – the player probably wouldn’t want to restructure…
Other than that – you are correct.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:36 pm
@ DR
“For the team trading the player, a trade is pretty much treated the same as the release of a player – the team is relieved of paying all FUTURE base salaries, but still must account for the bonus money that has ALREADY been paid to the player’.”
Thanks. Good info.
It is my belief that if we trade Godwin the Bucs would still have to pay the remaining signing bonus – which is $15M.
Godwin’s new team would be responsible for the $20M guaranteed salary in 2023 – however – the new team would probably rework his current deal anyways and just put most of that into a few VOID years and attach it to the back end of the deal.
March 10th, 2023 at 3:43 pm
Cut godwin- the fumbler
Cut Jenson- age
And Davis
March 10th, 2023 at 4:44 pm
brooks must have gotten drunk, hit his head really hard, and drank more to dull the concussion.
Right. Just cut the best players on the team without trying to get any value for them and eat their dead cap money. Brilliant.
Try paint thinner next time.
March 10th, 2023 at 5:20 pm
Vea should rework his conditioning program too. Dude is great but is not earning his salary playing 50 to 60% of snaps. He needs to be playing 80 to 90% of snaps effectively to be the beast everyone saus he is and the bucs need.
March 10th, 2023 at 6:34 pm
People who say this isn’t a Super Bowl team and that we are going to have a couple of down years are wrong. We are the Division Champs until someone knocks us off. Division Champs always have a chance to win it all.
March 10th, 2023 at 8:04 pm
Stud DT or out of shape and takes off plays VV… Thankfully Shaq will come save the day, but I’m calling 3 wins next season why Tom is going to the SB with the Dolphins
March 10th, 2023 at 9:28 pm
I just want Bowles gone. I know some will hate me for saying this but with him at the helm this team has no hope. I truly just want this upcoming season to be over. I still think Bowles is here for at least 2 seasons even if we have what we all expect to be a shit season. They will use the excuse well he couldn’t help he inherited this cap hell. Truth is dude gave Brady his only losing season ever. Truth is he has never been successful as a head coach. Truth also is I can’t stand watching him show no passion or fire. The team looks and plays just like he carries himself. They both put you to sleep!
Don’t extend guys. Cut guys and restart. We need to resign Winfield next year and possibly White. Those aren’t going to come cheap.
March 11th, 2023 at 9:00 am
Vita needs to see the field a lot more every game, rather than sitting on the bench.