The GMC Question
April 14th, 2019
Decision time nearing?
Bucs fans are wringing their hands over trying to figure out who Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht will draft at No. 5 next week in the draft — next week!
The answer may be found in the Batcave.
What will the Bucs do, or more importantly, what will Gerald McCoy do? Bucs officials on the record are refusing to commit that GMC will be on the roster come September. And for a guy like GMC who prides himself as a team guy, skipping offseason team workouts and conditioning drill is foreboding.
That moves Brett Sobleski of Bleacher Report to type who the Bucs draft at No. 5 all depends on what happens with GMC.
Sometimes the draft isn’t about whom a team acquires; it’s about whom the team lets go.
Gerald McCoy has been the face of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization for the past nine seasons and made six successive Pro Bowls from 2012-2017.
But he turned 31 in February, and his skills are declining.
Joe is pretty confident the Bucs already know what they are doing with GMC and perhaps GMC does, too. Are the Bucs hoping GMC agrees to renegotiate his contract in an effort to keep him? Or is GMC putting his foot down and has already instructed his agent to play a game of chicken with Licht?
Joe has a hunch by the end of next week, when the smoke begins to clear from the draft, we will then learn what GMC’s future is in Tampa Bay.
April 14th, 2019 at 12:43 am
Gmc putting his foot down ? Now that is laughable..
April 14th, 2019 at 12:54 am
cancer93 has held this franchise hostage for too long. let this soft career loser walk now… give the young guys a chance.
April 14th, 2019 at 1:03 am
Joe… When I read your articles, this one included… Are you part of the game? How much I wander?
April 14th, 2019 at 1:37 am
Fragile
April 14th, 2019 at 1:38 am
Wouldn’t be surprised if aftwr picking a replacement round 1 he was dealt om draft day or maybe shortly after draft.
April 14th, 2019 at 3:48 am
Gut feel is that the Bucs have moved on from GMC & that GMC knows it. Truly his ‘skills are declining’ like you said Joe, but not because of fewer sacks (they’ve steadily decreased each year since 2013, from 9.5 sacks that year to 6 sacks last year). No, the biggest ‘decline’ was in GMC’s number of SOLO TACKLES … his 17 last year was barely half of the 33 solo tackles he had in 2017). And it coincided with a rather dramatic decline in our rushing defense over the past couple of years IMO.
Surely ‘Old dogs can be taught new tricks’ … but why bother when that old dog is making $13 mil a year? And oh ya, when you desperately NEED that money to fix other problems. And besides, GMC probably feels very disrespected right now, and surely he has been. This ‘game of chicken’ was very poorly handled by the Bucs.
IMO Bucs will take Quinnen Williams IF he’s there at #5, then draft the best MLB remaining in Round 2. IF Williams isn’t there at #5, we’ll either select Devin White at #5 followed by the best DT available in Round 2 … OR trade down & grab an extra pick (situation dependent).
Like Oliver Hardy used to say to Stan Laurel … “Dear Jason, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into”.
April 14th, 2019 at 5:35 am
I think if McCoy wanted to play this year, he’d have not only showed up to workouts, but he’d also be talking re-structuring by now. If he is thinking $13M or nothing, then he is planning to retire as a close second option. he who cares least, wins. Worst case is GMC would take a $9M gig for a year somewhere else, making him leave or move his family, and that’s not his style. The best the Bucs can hope for is to have a trade taker but who wants him at $13M? No one. So the Bucs need to plan on drafting a DT and cutting GMC when he doesn’t come off his price. We’ve seen the Glazers part ways with big money players before when it was thought they were past the their pime (Brooks and Lynch).
April 14th, 2019 at 5:39 am
“Joe is pretty confident the Bucs already know what they are doing with GMC and perhaps GMC does too.”
Disagree.
I think there is scenario in place, but it is based solely on the first round pick. Then the Bucs will know what they are doing with GMC–not before. If Williams is there at #5, it’s time to move on from GMC. If not, then I think the Bucs will try to work with GMC to lower his 13 million cap hit. At this point I’m sure GMC feels slighted, but he has kept his mouth shut. Props for that. He loves it here. Wouldn’t be surprised if he does stay for less, provided he gets an offer.
Defense Rules–I harken back to the previous paragraph. If they were set on taking the best available tackle in Round Two (if Williams is off the board @ #5), they would have already let GMC walk. Apparently he is un-tradeable as Joe has stated they were “shopping him hard.” And don’t hold your breath for a draft day trade. Most teams trade picks, not players on Draft Day. Even the renown Cowboys-Vikings trade for Herschel Walker didn’t happen near the draft. In other words, I don’t see GMC being “packaged” for a draft day pick.
I don’t think of this as a fix. Even Stan and Oliver could pull this one off …
Voilà! Another JBF opinion from someone ‘out of the know.’
I do know this, however, it is time to get this comment moderated.
April 14th, 2019 at 5:40 am
@Defense Rules, good post and I agree with everything, with the exception on GMC being disrespected by the Bucs. They have paid him well over the years, and stuck with him particularly after his first two years when he was blowing out his arms. If he never works again, he probably he can probably pay himself about $2M a year for the rest of his life.
April 14th, 2019 at 6:40 am
Time to move on from dude who cares more about pro bowl than playoff appearances. Any defensive tackle in this draft can have that sorry stat line Geraldine put up last season. Who cares what HE will do but I hope it’s not restructuring. Can’t more years of mediocrity from the “leader” of the defense. The new leader has to emerge and it’s about taking over the locker room not just big stats, can’t happen with Geraldine here
April 14th, 2019 at 7:17 am
The time to trade GMC is long gone…..the same with Djax…..last year we may have gotten something for him.
GMC appears to me the type of player who manages his money well….if that is the case….he may simply retire if he can’t earn enough to make it worth his while.
Many assume the Bucs have not treated him well….but it could be GMC who gave the middle finger when it came to restructure.
April 14th, 2019 at 7:36 am
I haven’t had over 9 hours of sleep each nite worrying about it.
April 14th, 2019 at 7:38 am
He is super rich tax his ass and thanks for the sh!t career
April 14th, 2019 at 7:39 am
Even at 8mil, it is a cap space problem. Let us both move on and wish him well.
April 14th, 2019 at 8:02 am
GMC and his agent have zero leverage. He is overpaid and has under performed. The Bucs don’t have much to lose if he doesn’t renegotiate his deal he will be gone and the Bucs can pay for their entire rookie draft class by letting him go.
April 14th, 2019 at 8:05 am
Well at least after all this, Joe can’t be able to say that we got rid of him “for no good reason “……
April 14th, 2019 at 8:07 am
I begged for Licht to trade him 2-3 seasons ago when his value was high. Cleveland was the optimum partner when they took Miles Garrett. GMC would hav been a good partner to play beside him. The ship of fools at 1BP have zero
foresight. Jason Licht screwed up the cap so badly and either didn’t see it coming or didn’t care.
April 14th, 2019 at 8:13 am
GMC is one of the hardest worker’s in football, that goes without question, but however, he has never been a difference maker on the field, sorry to say.
April 14th, 2019 at 8:19 am
I think the Bucs are trying to figure out what to do
They wanted to trade him and have shopped him out to the other teams heavily if the reports are corrected BUT NO TAKERS
GMC thinks his value is 13 million and all of the attention he gets in Tampa lead him to believe this ….Most writers in Tampa have held me as An ELITE DT
The rest of the NFL has not obviously
So now the Bucs are stuck
I don’t believe we could get a 7 th round pick because of GMC contract
GMC wants to be cut so he can take some of the Bucs money AND sign with another team for less
TRUTH GMC cares more about the money than the wins
I don’t think he give to thoughts of not winning a SB
BUCS have to cut him NO ONE will trade for a DT who has 17 tackles for 13 million
April 14th, 2019 at 8:20 am
I will LOVE to see the change in the Lockerroom when he is GONE
I bet their is a difficult attitude when JPP IS THE SOLE LEADER
April 14th, 2019 at 8:26 am
Marine Buc … Neither GMC nor the Bucs have leverage in this situation any longer IMO. GMC for the reasons you mentioned … The Bucs because it adds 1 more starting hole to a defense that’s already got too many starting holes. At best we get 3 starters/key rotational players out of a draft. We did get FOUR out of the 2015 draft class, but that’s only happened once that I can remember (most teams are ecstatic if they get 2).
With that $13 mil I’m hoping that the Bucs can not only pay for the rookie class but also ADD a starting CB & MAYBE even a quality FA Guard or RB. Spotrac says our Top-51 Cap space is currently $1.7 mil (after Beau Allen’s contract was restructured). Rookie class would cost us $9.7 mil, BUT we’d save at least $4.5 mil by replacing our lowest paid 7 players in the Top-51 with the rookie class. So that’d leave us with almost $8 mil of salary Cap AFTER paying the rookies … money we could use to add at least 1 FA and possibly 2. I’d vote for a starting CB first & a RG second. But then again, Jason won’t let me vote anymore.
April 14th, 2019 at 8:37 am
My disdain for GMC is well documented here on JBF. It is not because of the person (I’m sure he is a great guy) but because of the lack of killer instinct on the field. He is much more concerned with his public image than being the best player he can be and that has hurt him. For the sake of the Bucs and Gerald himself I hope he just goes away and puts all his energy into being a family man. That’s what he is good at not football.
April 14th, 2019 at 8:37 am
Hmmmm…anyone sign Suh yet?
April 14th, 2019 at 8:45 am
The two times we played AZ with B.A. as coach, and they kicked our defenses ass. B.A. knows from experience McCoy is a career loser, and saw first hand McCoy get handled twice. There’s only two places to get salary cap relief. McCoy, and JPP.
April 14th, 2019 at 9:08 am
I think Suh is the key to GMC’s future.
If Suh signs somewhere for $5M, that pretty much sets the market.
Licht should give Gerald’s agent permission to shop him. He will need some time to find a team, arrange compensation and renogotiate his contract.
If they cut GMC, it will be in September, too late for Gerald to play this year.
It’s beginning to look like Quinnen falls to #5.
April 14th, 2019 at 9:09 am
Why would you want Suh? He didn’t do anything for the Rams last year with way better players around him than McCoy has EVER had!!!! If this sorry Organization ever Built a defense around him he would be a hall-of-famer! One person can’t do it! The ignorance on this site amazes me including the owner!
April 14th, 2019 at 9:18 am
We go 5-11 with or without him
April 14th, 2019 at 9:28 am
So @Joe has a “hunch” that after next week when the smoke from the draft begins to clear, that we’ll know GMC’s future in Tampa Bay…??…lol. What’s the name of the Hotels.com spokesperson again? The guy in the red jacket with the Captain’s hat??…
Lol. Yeah, slick Rick Licht will reveal his weak poker hand during April 25th, maybe even thru the 26th after DT-needy teams know what they didn’t get during the first 3 rounds targeting DT’s.
Secure Q and bye bye to GMC.
April 14th, 2019 at 9:32 am
Is McCoy’s putting his foot down a move in “The Electric Slide”? Is he working this into a new sideline dance. I am all for team leaders Getting up off that thing and dancing and feeling better. But here is a thought how about our players do it when we are in the closing seconds of a dominate division win first. Then we can add additional venues.
If this is the end of GMC here I wish him well and thank him for his blood sweat and tears.
GO BUCS!!
April 14th, 2019 at 9:40 am
Disagree about GMC deciding… it is about what the Bucs decide with the 1st pick and GMCs massive cap #… drafting DT 1 st round and he is probably ….gone …
April 14th, 2019 at 10:12 am
Lets take out the guess work and look at probability. The Buc’s are trying to be respectful by being quiet. McCoy is being quiet because he still believes he’s worth $13 Million. Most likely scenario is McCoy has been told he and his salary no longer fit this team and they are moving on without him. A 3-4 defense is a terrible fit for him at any price!
April 14th, 2019 at 10:14 am
What skills like jumping into a gap regardless of where the play is going and creating a HUGE hole for running backs to run through?
April 14th, 2019 at 11:01 am
Let the game of chicken begin!
April 14th, 2019 at 11:50 am
You all do understand that the acquiring team in any draft night proposed trade for GMC gets approval from GMC’s agent on NEW contractual terms with probably guaranteed money at a much reduced rate (say $8 million guaranteed –none now–at least in the first year, plus some 2nd year, plus incentives, etc.)….BEFORE the trade terms are granted. You all get that, right?! The current $13 million remaining is irrelevant, cause GMC and agent know, his primary future only lies in trade (pissed at us) or restructure here…BOTH are lower, in exchange for some guarantees.
Gotta view it thru the right lens gang…
April 14th, 2019 at 12:00 pm
I don’t think GMC is the least bit worried. He’s smart and has figured it all out. If he stays, I don’t think he will be as media friendly as he use to be. And I really would not blame him. Wherever he lands, he will be just fine. GMC is a great guy and a class act. Whatever happens, I wish him the best. How quickly the human spirit turns on one. Thats why I told me wife..The more I see the Sh..people do and say to and about other people? The more I love animals!
April 14th, 2019 at 1:25 pm
“The Teflon Gump has and is still continuously destroying this franchise
But the sheep apologist still cant see
Dump this lazy pig and sign mo clairbone
How are we suppose to start a new regime with this ice cream cloud over 1 buc place
How are we suppose to win with FO leadership like this? This is elementary school level. AOC can run this franchise better than Jason Gump
We bought back a retired old man who likes to hear himself talk, 2 female coaches and one dude cheerleader and now we are going to start winning?”
Kobe Faker