Fun With The Salary Cap

December 12th, 2019

Projected 2020 salary cap.

Joe isn’t much of a salary cap guy like some fans. Why?

Well, when someone can document a pattern that shows money spent equals number of wins, then Joe will start paying closer attention to the cap.

Oh, sure. You need an idea about how much cash the Bucs have to toss at prospective players. It’s just that Joe is not a slave to salary cap figures. Simply put, Joe’s not a capologist.

However, Joe understands the subject helps pass the time between the end of the season and when the free agency dinner bell rings in March.

NFL owners had meetings in the Dallas area this week, and Tom Pelissero of NFL Network shared info on what owners briefings in relation to the potential cap number for 2020 (the final year of the current collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA).

So there you have it. Basically, the salary cap is going up enough to afford Cam Brate’s salary, if that’s the way you want to look at it.

26 Responses to “Fun With The Salary Cap”

  1. LaMarcus Says:

    Whoever starts adding and subtracting a NFL salary cap needs to spend more time with their family and if they dont have family ….get a life. Aggravating when ppl go : “oh we x amount money and this player is worth x amount of dollars” drives me crazy. If your that person maybe you can apply it to a real job

  2. 813bucboi Says:

    thats why i say sign JW to a 2year 50mil deal guarnteed with a 3rd year option at 35mil….

    thats a pay raise and it allows us to re-sign everyone on the defense(shaq,jpp,suh,minter,nassib)

    sign a FA FS and RB…..

    draft trenches….

    consistency is key…..bucs need to try to keep everything consistent…..

    GO BUCS!!!!!

  3. ODY LEAN Says:

    Hoping we can snag Chris Harris or Bradberry from the Panthers! Maybe even Breida (RFA) or Eckler (RFA) . That would be nice

  4. lowercaseg Says:

    inflation

  5. stpetebucsfan Says:

    I’m with you Joe. I’m not a giant cap guy either. It all seems like funny money to me.

    Big contracts get announced…generally with a modifier…$$$ are guaranteed…the actual numbers announced are usually meaningless unless you’re a capologist able to translate all the gobbledy gook.

    Plus what are the actual penalties for exceeding the cap? Honest question I do not recall a team being disciplined.

  6. LordCornelius Says:

    I’ve never been that worried about the cap. We should be able to sign basically everyone back next year, but not be in the market for the bigger FA’s.

    Which is fine with me. The vast majority of big FA deals are huge busts. This last year was one of the worst if you go look up the top 10 deals. Only a few semi-worked out and the rest were colossal failures or injured all year.

    I think this offseason may be the one of the most cohesion between the fan base on what we want.

    Bring back Shaq/JPP/Nassib/Suh/Minter & get Winston on a short extension.
    Sign a vet CB & vet S & possibly RB or O-line.

    First 2 picks draft an OT & DT in BPA order. OT that can play RT immediatley and potentially LT down the road. a DT that is a disruptive penetrator/quick/speed guy that can also play the run.

    Rest of the picks get another RB or 2, plus another versatile O-lineman, and S or pass rush.

    From then on you start drafting in anticipation of aging or expensive players that will need to be replaced:

    i.e. 2021/2022 = pass rushers to replace JPP/ another LB to replace Lavonte / maybe a C to replace Jensen if we didn’t find it in this last draft / maybe WR or TE depending on how we are handling ME/GOdwin/Brate/Howard

  7. Dewey Selmon Says:

    Could it be possible to keep Nassib, Barrett, JPP, Suh and pay Jameis? Work your magic Mike Greenberg!

  8. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    I’m reminded of the saying: “Nothing is worse with money”…..

  9. Allbuccedup Says:

    Joe you can get a tight end in the 5th or 6th round that can catch the ball and fall down like Brate for a lot less money.

  10. JimmyJack Says:

    Lord Corn. Nice post. Agree mostly except don’t be shocked if we draft a high RB. That one might be in the cards.

    Not really sure about your DT idea though. Think Bowles bigger & more physical guys playing that position, more about collapsing pockets. MLBs & Safetyies hitting the gaps. Passrush coming from the OLBs.

    Also would add to my wish list to draft DBs an/WRs late. Keep depth strong with added bonus of Special Teams contributors.

  11. Robert Says:

    pay shaq, give JPP a Ronde / lynch…older guy deal and some days off

    sign JW ONLY if it’s a prove it deal. I.e. penalties for picks, bonuses for spreading around…..

    not sure we should not trade ME, he’s at his peak. when will anyone learn from billicheat?????

  12. Defense Rules Says:

    Lord C …You and I literally agree 100% on what we SHOULD do. Unlike Joe though, I’m convinced that salary Cap drives the show from management & coaches perspectives.

    Example: We started off this season with the 2nd highest paid team in the NFL, with ZERO $$$ to play with. There were plenty of FA corners & safeties available at one point, but how many did we sign? Zip, zero, zilch that’s how many (well, except for Andrew Adams to take Justin Evans place). Same thing with our OLine. Same thing with our RB stable. There were PLENTY of FAs available to help us strengthen our team and WIN more, but we picked up NONE. Why? No money.

    How’d we get ourselves in that pickle? Simple, we OVERPAID for talent AND our GM couldn’t figure out this thingie they call TEAM-BUILDING. Remember Swaggy Baker? Yup, $6 mil down the drain for 1 year (hasn’t played since leaving us). Remember Mitch Unrein? Uh huh, total of $4 mil for, oh ya, zero games. Bucannon? Heck, he only cost us $2.5 mil … for 5 games. And unfortunately the list goes on & on.

    The cost of just those 3 players … $12.5 mil … could’ve gotten us a quality veteran CB AND safety. And oh ya, our dead Cap money right now sits at $9.7 mil. That to me represents money we could’ve used to provide much better DEPTH (for more talented players not starting). And that’s what we’ve desperately needed for years because, oh ya, starters sometimes get hurt? Belicheck learned that lesson a long time ago. Bucs are still asking ‘What’s depth?’

  13. Tim Says:

    thats why i say sign JW to a 2year 50mil deal guarnteed with a 3rd year option at 35mil….
    thats a pay raise and it allows us to re-sign everyone on the defense(shaq,jpp,suh,minter,nassib)

    SAY WHAT??!!

    The franchise tag (which is the avg of the top 5 qbs in the NFL) is going to be about 25 mil, JW is NOT a top 5 QB and is not going to get anywhere near their market value.

    A fair contract for JW is a 3 yr 55 Mil $$ deal with about 30 in guarantees.
    YR 1 – 16 mil (14 guar.)
    YR 2- 18 mil (16 gaur.)
    YR 3 – 21 mil (0 gaur.) with a team/player option.

    If BA structures anything other than something along these lines he is nuts and should be fired on the spot. The open market will not bear much more for JW, you gotta remember Dak, Dalton, Brady, Tannenhill & others are going to be out there too. Many teams wont touch JW because his off the field issues and others feel he is too inconsistent.

  14. Pickgrin Says:

    ” the salary cap is going up enough to afford Cam Brate’s salary”

    You are overstating Brate’s salary Joe.

    Cam Brate is scheduled to make $6M in 2020.

    According to those #s listed – the salary cap is going up between $8.6M and $13M for the 2020 season. Likely closer to the higher # which means the increase can probably cover paying JPP next year.

  15. SirClicksalot Says:

    Bucs will have over 93 mil in cap space next year. That will be enough to get Jameis, Shaq, JPP, Nassib, and Suh all resigned with somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 mil left over (according to Sportrac’s estimates). I think people are sweating this cap “issue” too much; Bucs have the cash to bring back all our biggest free agents and then some. And could even make more room with a few cuts/trades.

    The real question to me is how active will we be in free agency? I think our top target should be Melvin Gordon, who is unlikely to resign in LA. Expensive for sure, but he could be the missing piece to get to the promised land. Excellent vision, speed, pass pro, and receiving. Maybe he could even teach Rojo a few of those things.

  16. Brandon Says:

    Y’all need to STFU about signing everybody else’s free agents. Sign three of four front seven free agents, preferably Shaq, JPP, and Nassib. Lock down Winston to a team friendly longer deal. Draft o-line, d-tackle, and RB. This team is close. With more experience and depth, plus a new starter at RT, and this team can contend.

  17. 813bucboi Says:

    tim

    thats the cost for a franchise QB in 2019…..in 2020 its going up…..franchising a QB in 2020 will be around 27-28mil…..

    GO BUCS!!!!!!

  18. neal Says:

    @LaMarcus lol. You sound like one of those low IQ types that couldn’t grasp simple math concepts so they try to put down those that do. If you think other need to get a life maybe you should get an education. I’m sure they have special classes for guys like you.

  19. ocala Says:

    Agreed 813

  20. JimmyJack Says:

    Tim those numbers you posted are totally unrealistic. Those are starting CB numbers or maybe a WR.

    Starting QBs cost more then that. Maybe check out what Joe Flacco is making or what Kirk Cousins signed for last off-season. Both of who are over 30 too.

    Enough with the nonsense. It dumbens the rest of the fanbase as they read it and believe it. Because we all know if you read something on the internet that means it’s true.

  21. miken Says:

    Cap goes up every year and means everyone gets more expensive. Typically, we have plenty of cash and no one to spend on so having talent and trying to figure out how to keep it is a nice change. My vote is jpp on a short deal and shaq on a long deal. A cheap vet rb and draft a rb high. Will be interesting to watch it unfold.

  22. DislocatedBucsFan Says:

    Let Jameis walk and that solves the cap issue. 😛

  23. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    813bucboi Says
    “thats why i say sign JW to a 2year 50mil deal guaranteed with a 3rd year option at 35mil…”

    I don’t think he will agree to less than 4 years. But…if you only guarantee 2 years and make the 4th year a club option he might go for it.

    Of course, part of it can be bonuses for winning and reduced picks.

    Keeping that in mind, make it $30m per year with all of the incentives included, and we’ll likely end up saving money in the end.

  24. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    DislocatedBucsFan Says
    “Let Jameis walk and that solves the cap issue.”

    That is how bad teams stay bad…by getting rid of the QB simply because he is making too much.

    Besides, CBA negotiations include allowing teams to exclude one player from the cap, which would mean Winston would not count against the cap if it goes through.

  25. George Rauh Says:

    I disagree, sign Winston to a long term contract with only the first couple years guaranteed. That way if he poops the bed we can cut him, if he balls out we have him under contract for future years.

  26. Sport Says:

    Defense Rules – being one of my favorite posters on JBF, I thought I’d share with you some credible unnamed source material regarding Mitch Unrein. I get your point about the money spent on him, but his issues could not have been predicted. Injuries affect everyone differently, especially concussions.

    If anything, I am happy he got paid, because what he is going through is not good.

    In BA I Trust!