Bucs Might Have To Spend, Spend, Spend
June 15th, 2011
Stats are for losers, Raheem Morris tells us, but among those that stand out is Team Glazer being a very low spender on player salaries for a very long time. The numbers don’t lie.
Last year was no exception, as the Bucs were super young and the salary cap disappeared freeing up teams to spend as much or as little as they wanted. Team Glazer ran a mean and lean 10-6 ship.
Today, ProFootballTalk.com guru Mike Florio shares that the owners are proposing teams must spend mass quantities of cash and the divide between the salary cap floor and ceiling is likely to tighten with an increasingly likely new labor agreement for 2011.
The offer made by the owners on March 11 included a commitment to spend 90 percent of the salary cap in cash. This would prevent teams from relying on “dead money” arising from trading or cutting players with large contracts in order to meet the minimum, and it would require all teams to spend a lot of money.
If this provision makes it into the final deal, it means that teams on the low side of the spending equation (and several were millions below what the cap floor would have been in 2010) will have to spend a lot of money in 2011.
If this happens, and the football gods seem to be happily warning it will soon, Team Glazer is going to be sitting on a mountain of money it will have to spend — literally many tens of millions of dollars this season.
The Bucs could dive into free agency to meet their new financial demands, but they could decide to find creative ways to extend deals of younger players with some up front cash and stick to their new stated core beliefs of building through the draft — call it the post-Haynesworth era.
Joe thinks of guys like Mike Williams, Legarrette Blount, Geno Hayes and others making peanuts by NFL standards, and Joe wonders whether the Bucs would rather reward those guys as their first option.
June 15th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
I”m pretty sure I read one of your articles where MD stated that if this happens we’ll be rewarding our current roster in the form of contract extensions, etc.
We need to land Nhamdi!
June 15th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
I can see Blount and Williams getting raises. Why not?
June 15th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Need to give Blount an extension…….
June 15th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
…and the Glazeers are looking into selling ManU stock on the Hong Kong market… hmmm…
June 15th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Need to sign Josh to a ten year $120 mil deal, 60-80 mil guaranteed, that will take a huge chunk right there.
June 15th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Hugh Culverhouse was the stingiest master of them all. Bucs rev in the 80’s was only 2nd to the 49ers.
I agree Flmike. I hope Free retires a Buc.
June 15th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I believe the Glaziers have been cheap in recent years because of the cap trouble from earlier and in prep for the lockout. Once its done they will spend.
(posted from phone)
June 15th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
too soon to spent on the young guys but alil raise wont hurt
June 15th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Rather than spend a bunch of dough on FA’s I would expect the Bucs to re-work contracts for existing players and reward certain players like they did for Donald Penn.
Can anyone say Barrett Rudd…Davin Joseph….Josh Freeman….LeGarrett Blount?
Dont forget people we still have to SIGN the 2011 pcks as well.
June 15th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Oops I forget Mike Williams signed to a new 4 year 20 million deal
June 15th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
If the lockout comes to an end it will be by a negotiated settlement. Don’t be surprised if the settlment includes a provision that says the owners do not have to fully meet the cap until next year
June 15th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Did Mike Will really already get a raise? I do think he deserves something, but I didn’t hear about him signing that 4 yr 20mil deal at all? Like I said I don’t mind if he got a raise, I just didn’t know about it
June 15th, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Pay one of our divisional opponets millions of dollars to take Ruud off our hands. It’ll improve our D and our running game against that lucky team.
June 15th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
It is way, way too soon to renegotiate Blounts and Williams contracts. They still have to show they are not 1-year wonders. That’s why rookie contracts exist…so that teams have enough time to evaluate properly.
Even Freeman, who has been great, has not earned a bigger contract yet. He’s only started for one complete season so far.
No…the more likely scenario is Dominick will restructure some hard to achieve incentives into the contracts so that they are added back next year.
I agree with Lucas Jackson though…this year a cap will likely be tabled or at least under pre-existing rules than next year the new cap stuff will kick in.
I also think that if the owners get a rookie cap teams should have to cap floor lowered so that they have to spend more on veterans.
June 15th, 2011 at 6:05 pm
That was the seahawks mike williams not ours Mr Lucky
June 15th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
I’ve been saying this for awhile now…
Expect a lot of guys to get extensions.
June 15th, 2011 at 6:48 pm
blount, williams, and even freeman will have to wait for their paydays. that would set a very dangerous presedent for the future to extend them right now.
June 15th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
If there was anybody to risk an early long term contract on it would be Freeman. His character and leadership in this off season stands out like few others. I’d have no problem giving him a long term deal at this point.
June 15th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Yeah, yeah, I’m pretty much down with all of it. Whatever it takes to win, especially the Nnamdi part. But if the Bucs want him they’ll have to be aggressive. It makes a lot of sense. Give that Poz guy a try too, yeah sure, anything. Just make it happen, sign the deal, get on with it already, wasted enough time.
June 15th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
The reason I said to read that article is because they make him sound like what most of us call Ruud
June 15th, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Pete Dutcher wrote: “I believe the Glaziers have been cheap in recent years because of the cap trouble from earlier and in prep for the lockout. Once its done they will spend.”
I agree 100%…..say what you want about the Glazers, but they’re clearly brilliant businessmen. What created more “uncertainty” for NFL owners that a looming lockout?
June 15th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Pete Dutcher, I could be wrong, but I think a Glazier is a window glass worker or maybe a doughnut maker and they use a lot putty/dough to get their jobs done. I’m pretty sure a Glazer is a frugal football team owner that tries to use very little dough to get the job done. Like I said, I could be wrong!
June 15th, 2011 at 10:03 pm
Bucs can throw a little money around now to tack an extra year on Mike Williams and Blount. … Odds are in their favor that it’s good business, plus it gets them a ton of goodwill from those guys.
June 16th, 2011 at 12:47 am
ASO!!!ASO!!!ASO!!!
June 16th, 2011 at 6:36 am
Raheem Morris said the Bucs will major players in FA this year, as soon as the collective bargaining agreement is signed( March 28th interview with” The Sporting News”. He says that this is like 2001- 2002. We have acquired solid talent thru the draft, now is the time to delve into free Afency. He says” like in 2001- 2002, when Management signed Simeon Rice, Brad Johnson, and Kennan MacCardell.” As I keep saying. We have the most money to spend, faced with largest and most talented Free agent Class ever. And a core of young Players that are already proven winners. We will be busy signing Free agents. And this will just further Prove Dominick is a great GM, for having the most money at the best FA market in NFL history. Hopefully we fix our LBs, OGs, and Safety positions. AFTER we sign Nnamdi- which should be a given
June 16th, 2011 at 9:45 am
I like Raheem, but come on. It’s not like 2001-2002! Too funny! Our defenses, from now to back then, don’t even come close to comparing! 2001-2002 was exactly the time our SuperBowl window was closing. Dungy should have won a couple of SuperBowls, with the way our defenses were playing, prior to that 2001-2002.
I don’t think we are even close to that, not yet!
June 16th, 2011 at 10:56 am
Our defense, No. But our offense is twice ad good as the one back then. This will be an offense driven team. Not defense
June 16th, 2011 at 11:21 am
CaptTim
Sorry, but DEFENSE wins championships! Besides that, defense is our grass roots, even back in the-worst-to-first days!
BTW our offense still needs to grow too! Looking forward to it, too!
June 16th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Personally, I would think they reward many of their own first.
Second: just my opinon, but the CBA could let teams well under the cap like the Bucs (or even teams way over) take 2 years to get within the limits so there isn’t a big rush to overpay or dump players.
June 16th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Defense can win championships. It didn’t win the SuperBowl for the sSaints! Or the Patriots! Or the Packers. Their QBs won those SuperBowls, Oar. The league has become much more QB driven. With all the new sissy tackling rules, it will become even more of a QB league.
Glad we have Josh Freeman!!! We are ready!
June 16th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
CaptTim
Sure the Saints scored 24 points(7 was a 4th qrtr INT, hmm?), but not sure, if I would say holding Peyton and the Colts to 17 points was Brees’s doing? And, I don’t think Brady was the reason, the last time the Patriots won(beating the eagles 23-21), either. I have to agree with the Packers though.
But, I still say, QB driven league or not, defense wins championships!
BTW I’m glad we have Freeman, also. I hope he keeps me eating crow every year!
June 16th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
You all ought to read that interview
“buccaneers ready to add FAs to complement kids”. It is a different opinion than you’ve heard elsewhere., and agrees with what Joe has been saying!
June 17th, 2011 at 12:12 am
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE spend the money to bring over that stud DB from the raiders!!1 Aso would rock with raheems coaching and his skill set would push our wideouts in practice to become better.. he could also shut down roddy white we need that desperately!