Adam Schefter: Antoine Winfield About To Cash In
April 10th, 2024
Cha-ching!
The thing that often folks forget about the franchise tag is that NFL suits often use it just to buy them time before they can get a player to sign a long-term deal.
That seems to be the case for Bucs franchised-tagged, All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield. Per uber-NFL insider Adam Schefter, Winfield is about to hit the lottery.
This couldn’t happen to a better guy and a better player than Winfield. He’s the heart and soul of the Bucs defense (along with Lavonte David).
Winfield is exactly the type of player, both on and off the field, that the Bucs want to build their future around.
Kudos to Winfield. He’s about to realize the dream of every young man whose goal is to get to the NFL.
April 10th, 2024 at 11:39 am
Pay the man.
He is actually one player I see getting better after his deal.
What a draft pick.
Hoping for more in 2 weeks.
April 10th, 2024 at 11:41 am
Love it . Love this kid. He excels on the field in spite of Todd’s failing coverage schemes.
April 10th, 2024 at 11:47 am
What a 2020 draft Jason Licht and his crew. All Pro’s Wirfs and Winfield Jr and who can forget snack Vaughn? Haha
April 10th, 2024 at 11:49 am
Good for AW31! Hope that kind of investment in a safety translates to wins for the team.
I believe this would indicate that Godwin is gone next season. Draft a WR!
April 10th, 2024 at 11:52 am
Godwin won’t be gone, that’s crazy talk.
April 10th, 2024 at 11:53 am
Money is just the reward for loving what you do & being very very good at it. That’s Antoine for sure. Pay the man.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Hell yeah you pay the man!
April 10th, 2024 at 12:02 pm
It will be next to impossible for him to repeat last year.
Can’t help but feeling like the stiffed him a bit….
April 10th, 2024 at 12:04 pm
@Dave Pear I don’t want to hijack the thread about Godwin because I know it annoys Joe. Let’s be happy for Antione here and disagree later. Sound good?
April 10th, 2024 at 12:06 pm
Well deserved!
April 10th, 2024 at 12:09 pm
A Bucs Fan … There’s an excellent chance now that Canales is no longer OC that Chris Godwin will blossom again & come close to leading the league in catches.
Bucs right now rank #31 in the NFL with only $495,798 in CAP space but with all 66 players on the current roster under contract. They’ll need to free up a tad more to pay the draft picks, but most likely less than $2 mil. It looks like Bucs really have only 2 contracts worth restructuring … Godwin & Vea, plus they’ll probably save on the CAP hit when they finally do a contract with Winfield. Since Godwin’s contract runs out after this year, I’m thinking Bucs will hold off doing a new contract with him until they see how well he does this season.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:13 pm
I was a little worried he might want to leave for a team with better national exposure after being so badly snubbed by the Pro Bowl voting. Hopefully this report is true and Licht is very close to locking him up a long-term deal.
He’s the best S in the league. Hopefully Bowles keeps him primarily at FS to limit his concussion risk. Whitehead and Izien can patrol the middle.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:15 pm
He’s only ever had great success in the slot, something that became evident last year. I’m sure he was bitching privately to his wife about it and, being a woman, she couldn’t stay silent very long
April 10th, 2024 at 12:16 pm
@ DR
I agree.
This move will help the Bucs shift some cap space and will hopefully provide enough room for the newly added draft picks.
Let’s hope a new long term deal for Wirfs is next.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:19 pm
I dunno how any fan can’t love Winfield. Best S in the NFL
April 10th, 2024 at 12:21 pm
No safety is worth 20 million a year. He should at least have to prove he can do it back to back.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:25 pm
Yeah, dump Godwin. In his “off year”’ under Canaries he still eclipsed 1000 yards receiving What a bum.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:27 pm
Marine Buc … I definitely see Winfield as a cornerstone for the Bucs (much like John Lynch was) for years to come, as well as Wirfs, Kancey & most likely Diaby (I have high hopes for him). All will get paid handsomely.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:33 pm
Go Bucs
April 10th, 2024 at 12:35 pm
Godwin – 3 consecutive 1000 yard seasons. He’s have 5 in a row if not for the dirty Saints hit during the Super Bowl season.
Dump the dud.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:40 pm
And it’s too bad Godwin blocks like a fierce tight end and is a beast running bubble screens with the ball in his hand. Glad Jason runs the show and not idiot wannabe general managers who think they have salary cap savvy.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:57 pm
Good for him! He was the only dependable DB they had last season.
April 10th, 2024 at 1:04 pm
Can’t wait to see Winfield and Jordon Whitehead playing side-by-side again.
April 10th, 2024 at 1:23 pm
I don’t think Godwin is here next season either and I’m pretty sure most fans think he is a good player its not about the bucs thinking he is a bum or unproductive its about how the bucs are going allocate their money and just like @abucsfan I just don’t think they are going to renew that contract.
April 10th, 2024 at 1:38 pm
Tucker you should also give Jason a call, I’m sure he would appreciate your salary cap expertise.
April 10th, 2024 at 1:41 pm
In my best Teddy KGB accent:
Pay that Man his money!
April 10th, 2024 at 2:30 pm
Get it done!
April 10th, 2024 at 2:30 pm
Happy for him!
April 10th, 2024 at 2:57 pm
@BOSS – Why are you always so negative about everything to do with our Bucs ? Oh, I forgot, you’re not a real Bucs fan ! Go back to your AINTS site and live in the wasted glory days of Drew Brees.
April 10th, 2024 at 3:44 pm
The best news of the day! So happy for Antoine. Well deserved.
April 10th, 2024 at 3:48 pm
Winfield is a winner!
April 10th, 2024 at 4:18 pm
Winfield is the best safety in the league imo but idk about Tampa paying him 20 million a year. Not my money but these teams get into these massive contracts and then gotta lose out on other great players. Something’s gotta give and no not 25$ beers at the stadiums
April 10th, 2024 at 5:06 pm
Winfield is probably the best safety in the Game.
But.
Safeties are the least payed “players” on the team for a reason.
They are payed more than only Punters, kickers, and long snappers.
Why.
Because Safeties are directly involved in only 15-20% of all defensive plays.
Too deep to help on most running plays. Only if the RB gets past the line, Lbers,and CB.
Years ago,safeties used to cover TEs. Not anymore. Usually TEs are covered by Lbers( or uncovered if its Devon White)
Almost every defense starts 3 CBs. Two outside, one slot.
So Safeties help the CBs if the WR go deep. The guard the seldom attacked deep centerfield.
Not involved in 80-85% of all defensive plays.
Just though we might need a reality check here.
Loving a player for playing hard, doesnt mean the team commits 20 million to a guy who is mostly a Spectator.
April 10th, 2024 at 5:30 pm
Winfield is a playmaker period and playmakers get the bag, he deserves what he is going to get from the bucs maybe you need to reconsider who needs the reality check.
April 10th, 2024 at 6:43 pm
Everyone is generous with the glazers money now? All the hand wringing about Baker. Do not pay the man. Defensive players are a dime a dozen. Screw the man. Next man up.
April 10th, 2024 at 6:55 pm
Tucker.
Meybe. Or perhaps you could look nofurther than this offseason, where alot of the top safeties in the league all got cut- because teams had overpaid them.
No position dumped all of its best players, except Safety.
If you were pin touch with reality, You would have seen the league wide Safety dump, as soon as teams needed Cash.
Safeties, because they have little affect on the game
Justin Simmons
Justin Poyer
Quandre Diggs
Eddie Jackson
Jamaal Adams
Reshawn Jenkins
Kevin Byard
And thats just a few. Alot of those guts were multiple time probowlers.
Not traded. Just cut. Given up for nothing.
Hes a reality Check for you Tucker. Name any other position, where numerous of the very best guys at the position are cut- just to free up money.
Good luck!
Still probowl safeties out of work, looking for a minimum salary job.
But pay Winfield 20 million. We’ll cut him next spring, and another team will sign him for peanuts.
Did we all learn something new?
April 10th, 2024 at 8:15 pm
Winfield is different, Captain.
He affected games and accounted for at least two extra wins by making timely extreme plays. I think that was Tucker’s point. Were it not for Winfield, Jason would have hired a new head coach in January.
Right now he is franchised, I’d be shocked if he gets $20 large a year long term because of what you state. We shall see. I trust Jason.
April 10th, 2024 at 10:06 pm
Yup, that is exactly it, Dave.
April 10th, 2024 at 10:23 pm
He is probably going to be paid more than Derwin James which is going to put him at 20 mil, we will see though.
April 10th, 2024 at 10:37 pm
I agreed he is probably the best safety in the Game.
But a few weeks ago, the cut guys that were 3 or 4 time all pros.
They make a difference too.
If the sign Winfield for a huge contract, they will cut him next spring.
Just like they cut EVERY SINGLE SAFETY WHO SIGNED A BIG CONTRACT TWO YEARS AGO.
you just cant justify paying a safety big money.
April 11th, 2024 at 12:26 am
They will justify it but how versatile he is he is a chess piece that is so good in so many positions. Bowels utilizes him so well and he is just elite, it is very hard to let a player like that go.
April 11th, 2024 at 12:29 am
Those other safeties are good I agree but I just think Winfield is a superstar and you want as many of those as you can get on your team.
April 11th, 2024 at 6:37 am
“”Can’t wait to see Winfield and Jordon Whitehead playing side-by-side again.””
Hell yeah!!
April 11th, 2024 at 10:37 am
Winfield is great. Personally, I prefer a player prove he is consistent before paying him.
Capt raises a very good point too.
I prefer to keep the tag on Winfield…but if the Bucs do a deal, and he proves consistent and healthy, I do not see Licht cutting him in 2 years. I think the team will keep him long term.
It’s just a deal I think they will live with.
Also, odds are it will be $20m on paper, but actually end up being less in reality.
As to Godwin…
…there was a 3-4 game stretch, after his wife ran her mouth, that his effort dramatically changed last year. It could be seen when he was at the line. If he had a relaxed stance, he wasn’t getting the ball. If he had a tense stance, he was getting the ball.
This made it easier on defenses when they realized this. He just wasn’t putting in the effort to sell himself on off plays. This was noticeably corrected toward the end of the season.
I don’t know what was going on behind closed doors, but he clearly had issues. At the time, I thought he was going diva, but now, looking back, it could have been his was of making a point.
Maybe he and his OC were not getting along?
April 11th, 2024 at 10:44 am
If Dave Canales was rubbing Godwin the wrong way, could others have felt the same and we just aren’t hearing about it?
The team and players would never say so publicly.
And they could have found a way to keep him if the team wanted to. Just offer him a new title and a bump in pay, maye make a promise.
But they didn’t.
Of course, and I’m just spit-balling here, it could be that the Bucs did not want to make any promises in case Bowles doesn’t last.
April 11th, 2024 at 3:06 pm
Pay the man his money