Here Comes The Cash

March 16th, 2022

For those slaves to the salary cap, here is news for you.

It seems both Bucs sack king Shaq Barrett and tight end Cam Brate have reworked their contracts to help the Bucs comply with the salary cap and to free up more Team Glazer loot.

The details are on NBC Sports Edge. So next up to sign, foot-rubbing tight end Rob Gronkowski, and perhaps Playoff Lenny too?

And maybe, just maybe, Honey Badger?

Hey, Joe can dream too!

43 Responses to “Here Comes The Cash”

  1. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    You’d have to squeeze every cent from Brate & Shaq to afford all of the above…..
    but, it helps…

  2. Ash Says:

    Would rather them try to sign Za’Darius Smith than the honey badger if they were going to do a splash signing I think we are good at safety with who we have and we can draft another

  3. LOL Says:

    Bucs need 2-3 D lineman still. Gholston, Suh & another edge Pass rusher are necessary IMO

  4. LOL Says:

    Zadarius Smith or Von Miller please.

  5. Rod Munch Says:

    We haven’t seen the one thing you’d sort of expect, that would free up a lot of money… a new deal for Brady.

  6. HC Grover Says:

    That pic is just funny!

  7. Its a Bucs Life Says:

    If Brady adds years to his deal, then I’ll be confident about adding more talent. If not the rumors of his unhappiness might have more merit

  8. SaintsFan59 Says:

    Aren’t you losers thrilled to be “relelvant” for another year due to Tantrum Tom’s Favre-esque flip-flopping. Guess staying home with his super model wife wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

  9. Steven007 Says:

    Saints, aren’t you losers thrilled to be losers for the foreseeable future? And who’s your quarterback again? Jealous much? Haha, of course you are!

  10. Marine Buc Says:

    Bucs can clear @ $12M of dead cap space by re-signing Suh and Gronk…

    Hopefully soon.

  11. SC Bucs Fan Says:

    Steven leave him alone. The offseason is the only time Saints fans will be happy. Once the season starts they aren’t relevant.

  12. gbobucsfan Says:

    wish Godwin would sign the tag or agree to a deal….d@mn dude

  13. Jersey buc Says:

    Pass rusher please/ Z.smith or Miller!

  14. Rod Munch Says:

    Marine Buc Says:
    March 16th, 2022 at 3:57 pm
    Bucs can clear @ $12M of dead cap space by re-signing Suh and Gronk…

    ————

    Those are ‘void’ years, and I don’t actually know if you resign someone, what happens to those void years. I’ve been trying to find the information, but I don’t see anyone going over that.

    My understanding, from what I read, is that at the beginning of the new league year, you get hit with those void years, so if that is true, then you’d have to resign them before the league year begins. BUT I’m not sure I actually buy that, iit doesn’t make much sense since it would make resigning guys who agree to void years almost impossible, so why would agents take void years on their deals?

    Anywho, JOE, if you happen to see this – could you get someone to explain what happens to void years? If Gronk resigns, are you hit with his full new contract plus the void year hit that’s already on the books – or can you push that back?

  15. JGhotier Says:

    AWJ is our own homegrown version of Honey Badger. They are very similar in ways and physical attributes. We don’t need another safety like that. We need a different breed of safety than what we have. No to Honey badger. I sincerely hope we draft Jalen Pitre this year. Guy is a player, a dog, can play inside at nickel or outside, both safety spots, play deep or in the box, zone, press or man, can blitz, has Star backer/Dine backer capabilities as well. He can do it all.

  16. JimmyJack Says:

    Joe the only contract Im following for today is Tom Brady. Do you think he will extend today? 3 more years sounds pretty sweet.

  17. SOEbuc Says:

    Where the hell is Donnie showing some appreciation. He would still be sh!t with a large contract without Brady.

  18. Steven007 Says:

    SC, I typically do not feed the trolls. But occasionally I partake. Knowing he’ll check for a reaction, see my comment, know it’s true, feel the burn, and then go on with his miserable life posting garbage on a blog for a team he hates.

  19. DoooshLaRue Says:

    ndog59,

    Don’t you worry about us Bucs fans.
    JayMiss is gonna show the world this season, what you know to be true.
    😂

  20. BucEmUp Says:

    Id take lenny over gronk right now but nice to have them both back

  21. Leopold Stotch/BuccaneerButters Says:

    Rumor is that Watson will choose between the Aints and Falcons this week.

  22. Marine Buc Says:

    @ Rod

    “Those are ‘void’ years, and I don’t actually know if you resign someone, what happens to those void years”

    Same here. I know I read it somewhere that most but not all of the dead cap space money can be restructured into the new deals.

    We owe Suh $6.8M – Gronk $5M.

    Perhaps the incentive bonuses will need to be paid this year and the other bonus money can be added to a new deal and pushed back another year… It’s something like that.

  23. BucTheNoise Says:

    Would love Julio

  24. Cobraboy Says:

    So Barrett and Brate did new dealios to get under the cap.

    Gonna need some more to fill out the roster for another run.

  25. Rod Munch Says:

    Still waiting for that Brady restructure and extension. I was sort of mocking the idea of people saying if Brady doesn’t sign an extension its proof he hates Arians, but really, if he doesn’t do something, you are left thinking he wants out of his deal at the end of the year. I mean enjoy it while you can – but man a restructure would free up cap space and end any speculation.

    AT the same time, maybe the Bucs don’t want to do an extension. No QB has EVER done what Brady has done after 40, and it’s not even close, and while people are now getting used to the idea that Brady is ageless, at some point he will really fall off a cliff in terms of play. I don’t see it coming, but Manning’s best year by far, was followed by a very good season where he still looked good, then the next year he fell off a cliff losing his job to Brock – but the team still winning a SB. But if I’m the Bucs, I’m riding Brady straight to the glue factory, and giving him anything he wants until that point.

  26. Goatfarmer Says:

    OJ Howard gets his chance at a fresh start with Josh Allen and the Bills, who just gave Von Miller a huge 6 year $120 large deal. Kind of shocking. Look out for the Bills.

  27. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    I’m thinking they already spent that money with the recent signings.

    Also…only a year into Shaq’s contract and already re-working it? Not a good sign.

  28. Marine Buc Says:

    @ Goat

    Wow… 6 year $120M for VM? I can’t wait to look into the contract details…

  29. Cobraboy Says:

    @Rod: I suspect some negotiations are taking place with guys they want to determine exactly how much cap shenanigans has to be played to sign them all plus the rookie class.

    If Licht and his capologist pull this off they’re geniuses.

  30. Cobraboy Says:

    @Bonzai: Hell, Vea’s contract hasn’t even dried yet and it got reworked!

  31. Edward Kerber Says:

    So long O.J. Howard

  32. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    We absolutely, positively need to work something out with Godwin…

    So who do we have left to restructure…..D. Smith, LVD, Evans (for the 5th time) Brady if he extends…..maybe even a restructured deal with our new Guard, Mason…..
    Am I missing any big $$$….

  33. Rod Munch Says:

    Tampabaybucfan – That’s everyone, but there’s a lot of cap space to be made if they want to. Spotrac has a team management tool you can play with, which will do restructures for you, it shows restructuring Evans, Smith and Mason gives you another $16m.

    Brady and LVD can’t be restructured as they only have one year left, so you’d need to do an extension. Signing Godwin to a deal would free up a bunch of space, likely needed to resign Gronk and Suh.

    Here’s what I did to free up some cap space. Could still free up more with lower figures for Brady and LVD.

    Total Savings:
    $62,580,188

    TRANSACTIONS LOG

    Restructured Mike Evans
    (Saved: $6,440,000)

    Restructured Donovan Smith
    (Saved: $7,315,000)

    Restructured Shaq Mason
    (Saved: $2,690,000)

    Released Ryan Succop
    (Saved: $2,500,000)

    Released Bradley Pinion
    (Saved: $2,900,000)

    Tom Brady cap hit changed from $20,270,588 to $1,000,000
    (Saved: $19,270,588)

    Lavonte David cap hit changed from $14,785,000 to $7,500,000
    (Saved: $7,285,000)

    Chris Godwin cap hit changed from $19,179,600 to $5,000,000
    (Saved: $14,179,600)

  34. Rod Munch Says:

    Oops, I mean to change Brady to 10,000,000, not 1-mil, so knock that savings down to $53-million.

  35. SKBucsFan Says:

    Restructuring is just deferring the expense to a later year. I want to win too but this is going to hurt 2 or 3 years from now. Brady has won with a lot less resources. It’s time to trade Godwin and free up some real cash.

  36. Defense Rules Says:

    Marine Buc … ‘Bucs can clear @ $12M of dead cap space by re-signing Suh and Gronk’.

    Just checked the latest salary CAP numbers & we’re not the worst in the NFL any longer; Rams & Chiefs now sit at #31 & #32 to our #30. We’re currently at MINUS $9.4 mil with 56 players signed. Key though is that those numbers don’t count Gage, Stinnie or Perriman yet.

    What it does count though is Dead CAP for Marpet ($7.2 mil), Suh ($6.8 mil) and Gronk ($5.0 mil). It also doesn’t include Brate’s reworked contract, plus we might still be able to restructure the contracts for ME13 ($20.6 mil), Brady ($20.3 mil), D Smith ($18.4 mil) and LVD ($14.8 mil). Godwin’s CAP hit ($19.2 mil) will probably sit on there for awhile me thinks (July 15th is a long way away).

    Still can’t figure out though why you say we can clear another $12 mil of CAP space by re-signing Suh & Gronk. Let’s say that Suh signs for $8 mil & Gronk for $10 mil, both on 1-year deals. We’d be in to the 2 of them for a total of $30 mil. Granted, we wouldn’t have to absorb it all in 2022, but we’d still end up eating a big chunk of it (say maybe 50%). So even if we defrayed $15 mil to 2023, we’d still have to eat $15 mil this season (as opposed to the current $12 mil they’re owed for last season). Seems like we’d thus be needing to come up with $3 mil MORE instead of saving $12 mil. Some bizarre accounting going on nowadays. Take a look at 2023 & you’ll see why.

  37. Defense Rules Says:

    SKBucsFan … Take a look at the Bucs salary CAP numbers for 2023 & you can somewhat see the impact of ‘kicking the can down the road’. Spotrac is using a projected 2023 salary CAP of $218.2 mil, and the Bucs are already sitting at $196.9 mil for only 28 players under contract. And that doesn’t yet count any Dead CAP or adjustments needed from this season. And oh BTW it also doesn’t count that we’ll have at least 21 UFAs in 2023. So I guess the bottom line is if we’re gonna GO BIG in 2022, let’s go REALLY BIG and enjoy the ride while the train’s still on the tracks.

  38. SKBucsFan Says:

    I guess if we are in rebuilding mode in 2023 you can release/trade some big contracts.
    Am looking forward to this season regardless. Keep the train on the tracks!

  39. Rod Munch Says:

    SKBucsFan – I don’t care at all about 2 or 3 years from now. Once Brady leaves you do a full rebuild anyways. Sell out the current, completely, if it buys us Brady for one, possible 2 years.

    The stupid Saints have been doing this for literally over a decade, and somehow they’re talking about trading for Watson and his $40m cap hit. You can push stuff down the road pretty much endlessly, and they’re the perfect example of it.

  40. Rod Munch Says:

    Defense Rules – the issue with Suh and Gronk is that the cap hit are void years, and they bring up a good point, can void years be pushed back with a new deal. For the life of me, I can’t find the answer anywhere. It’s a fair question however. I think you’re correct, you add the new contract to the void year, but as noted above, it seems like that would make agents a lot less likely to sign deals like that since it means almost certainly you’re not bringing that player back.

    Also I saw that -9m cap space number, but that can’t be right, since once the year starts you must be cap compliant. However, I don’t know if that’s a thing where you can be over the cap all day, but it at the strike of midnight you must be under it, or what the timing is on that, but those sites, I don’t believe, had the new Brate deal in or the Gage deal for that matter.

  41. Rod Munch Says:

    Update: I just read Greg Auman say void years count, even with a new deal. If the old deal expires, the new deal would be in addition to void years.

    So yeah, Gronk/Suh will cost whatever his void year salary is PLUS his new deal. But also keep in mind the Bucs could sign them again to a low base salary and just add more void years, basically pushing out the terms of the contract again.

  42. Defense Rules Says:

    Rod … ‘Also I saw that -9m cap space number, but that can’t be right, since once the year starts you must be cap compliant.’

    I’ve given up caring about the day-to-day CAP numbers. Without knowing all the rules, anyone’s guess is as good as anyone else’s guess. The ‘brains’ behind all of this CAP juggling is Mike Greenberg IMO. It’s beginning to appear like TB12 calls a player he wants, JL & BA sign off on it, and Greenberg tosses down another Big Storm & figures out how to juggle the books to make it happen.

  43. Rod Munch Says:

    Defense Rules – I’m fine with TB running the team, it’s worked well so far.