It Appears Lovie Kept His Word
October 26th, 2014
We need to get our new general manager in here, but just as a general rule, you know there’s a reason why there is a salary cap. And we want to use all of our resources to get as many good football players in here. It’s kind of as simple as that. … We want to be right up; we don’t want to have a lot of money in reserves. No one does. I mean you want to use money to get as many good football players. And it takes money to get good football players in here. So that’s our approach. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith, January 2014
In one of Lovie Smith’s first interviews after being hired by your beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Lovie said there was no reason in the world not to spend all available salary cap money.
It was a telling take and one he never repeated again. And Joe was perplexed because the Bucs left a lot of salary cap room on the table entering this season. The only logical reason was that it was put aside to spend on contract extension/restructuring for Gerald McCoy.
And yes, McCoy’s new deal included cash loaded on to this year’s salary, and cap. The NFL salaries site OverTheCap.com broke it down with the figures made available by NBC Sports. Here’s a snippet:
That should mean that the Buccaneers increased his salary by about $7.267 million to reach his reported guarantee. I’d say there is a very good chance his effective salary for this year is now $20 million.
So there you have it. Lovie and the Bucs apparently gobbled up nearly all their available salary cap cash for this season to accommodate McCoy and not bog them down too much in the future.
Frankly, give that the NFL salary cap is supposed to explode in the next few years, and the fact the Bucs used this year’s lost-season cash on McCoy, Joe thinks the Bucs got a heck of a deal for their defensive tackle. Considering his massive rookie contract, McCoy didn’t even snag that big of a raise.
October 26th, 2014 at 8:47 am
The sad part is Joe, Look at all the Guaranteed Money for the D-line, then look at the production, stats, and tape! it has not even looked close. Its not good to have one of the highest paid D-line’s when they are ranked bottom of the NFL. See The O-line from last year for example.
October 26th, 2014 at 8:59 am
Giving a hefty raise to someone on a team that’s 1-5 does not look good at all. If the player that was awarded the contract was playing great ball I can understand. But he isnt. $hit the whole team isn’t. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think Gerald will ever play up to the billing. I personally think they should drop some of that dead weight instead. Goldson, Koenen, etc… Addition by subtraction.
October 26th, 2014 at 9:01 am
You people quit trying to bum me out before the game even starts.
October 26th, 2014 at 9:31 am
We pay him like he dominates and takes over games, which he does not yet. If he plays like he has been he’ll make 20 million for six or seven sacks. Great work if you can get it.
October 26th, 2014 at 9:33 am
Now all Cullen has to do is demand his money’s worth from these bums.
And they are a bum unit.
October 26th, 2014 at 9:42 am
Whassup with Gholston?
Before the season, many posters (and Joe as well, to a degree) touted him as the Next Coming. Schiano was roundly criticized for keeping him on the bench too long. He would prosper and dominate, being alongside GMC, we all heard.
He has not.
Is he still a year away in learning his craft? Does he suffer from some technical or physical flaw? Is he just not upper grade material?
Inquiring minds want to know.
October 26th, 2014 at 9:43 am
Yea what a bum, they just hand those 1st team All-Pro awards to anyone, right?
October 26th, 2014 at 10:32 am
The problem on the defensive line isn’t McCoy, it’s the 3 guys they put on McCoy because the rest of our line stinks.
October 26th, 2014 at 10:37 am
@ buccfan37 – Tough defensive scheme to master and Johnson playing with high ankle injury shows us being right on track with the history of the Tampa 2. If we win today, Lovie is right on track with his 1st season in Chicago were they started 1-5 and won the next game.
All is UGLY but right on track.
Go Bucs!!!
October 26th, 2014 at 10:58 am
McCoy is literally the only good player on either the offensive or defensive line. Everyone else is either bad, poor or terrible. But yeah we should have let him walk so we could only have terrible players and see how that went.
October 26th, 2014 at 11:14 am
Gholston plays like a rookie. He really stands out on some plays, and others he is completely lost out there.
He is really bad at keeping the edge and teams take advantage of it. He gets blocked straight up by the tight end too often.