Monday Is “Accountants Day” At One Buc Palace
February 16th, 2024
Key deadline Monday.
This is one way to save a few extra bucks of Team Glazer loot that could be used to help pay for an edge rusher. (Yes, Joe is always thinking ahead and focused on real problems.)
Per Jonathan Jones of CBS, it seems Feb. 19 is important to someone at One Buc Palace. Within the contracts of Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans and Antoine Winfield, it seems if Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht can somehow get them signed by Monday afternoon, the team will save some $11 million off the salary cap.
Jones has the details.
Here’s why: Each of those key players have void years in their contracts to help with previous cap situations. While all are, in reality, pending free agents, their future fake years automatically void Feb. 19. That means that money that was pushed out into future years would come due against the 2024 salary cap. But if deals can be reached before Monday afternoon, that money can be saved against this upcoming season’s salary cap and pushed out into future years.
According to sources, it is improbable that all three would get deals done with the Bucs in the coming days. Winfield Jr. appears destined for the franchise tag at around $18.2 million next month unless the two sides can reach an agreement on a long-term contract that would pay the first-team All-Pro safety top-of-the-market money. The Winfield savings on a pre-Monday deal would be less than $1.2 million against the cap, so it’s not a huge deal for the Bucs.
Jones admits getting all three to sign by Monday afternoon, unless the Bucs grossly overpay them, is pie-in-the-sky talk. Besides, Jones points out, if Mayfield and Winfield do not sign Monday afternoon, it would only ding the Bucs’ 2024 salary cap by less than $2 million each.
However, Jones states if the Bucs can get Evans to put pen to paper by Monday afternoon, it would save some $7.387 million under the 2024 cap.
How many OK players could that buy, if only for depth? Two, three? For example, safety Ryan Neal’s base salary was a hair above $1 million last season, per Spotrac.com.
Joe is sure the Bucs could find another safety to replace Neal, an unrestricted free agent, for $2 million. Former Bucs safety Mike Edwards signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs last March for $3 million.
So yeah, if the Bucs can get Evans to sign, that $7.4ish million could go a long way.
February 16th, 2024 at 3:52 pm
Ryan Neal is a bad example of an “OK” player…..
February 16th, 2024 at 3:59 pm
Signing Evans early would also go a long way to getting Mayfield back.
February 16th, 2024 at 4:01 pm
LOL That’s why Joe typed in the next sentence or two buying a $2 million player.
February 16th, 2024 at 4:01 pm
If I am Evans I would say all the more reason you should pay me top dollar to sign because it will save you money.
February 16th, 2024 at 4:21 pm
Unfortunately Evans is the least likely to sign early unless the Bucs are so high in their offer there’s no chance he will see better in free agency.
February 16th, 2024 at 4:28 pm
Isn’t Jordon Whitehead a FA? He might command too much. There is a safety from MInn if go draft one. Him and Winfield could be the Minnesota Twins safety tandem.
February 16th, 2024 at 4:29 pm
Joe … ‘if the Bucs can get Evans to put pen to paper by Monday afternoon, it would save some $7.387 million under the 2024 cap.’
Might be wrong Joe, but I think Jones made it more simplistic than it really is. Yes we would ‘save’ that amount against the 2024 salary CAP, but we’re still responsible for those VOID YEAR amounts in 2025 (and beyond). We’d just be allowing the can to stay kicked down the street.
More importantly than the $7.4 mil is that doing a deal with Mike NOW allows JL to structure the 2024 CAP Hit for Mike’s new contract however he wants. Evans still gets all his money. I believe that the CAP Hits for the VOID YEARS under his previous contract are really just accounting with the NFL; Mike’s already gotten all that money. If we could get his 2024 CAP Hit down to say the VOID YEAR amount for 2024 plus maybe another $8-$10 mil for the new contract, we still come out waaay ahead.
February 16th, 2024 at 4:59 pm
Defense is right. We are just kicking the can down the road. We need to clear all this dead money off the books so when we are close for that super bowl run we can spend. This Bucs team isn’t there yet.
February 16th, 2024 at 5:08 pm
Chiefs have practically ZERO “kick-the-can-down-the-road” debts
February 16th, 2024 at 5:23 pm
@ DR
The Bucs will have a ton of “dead cap space” to deal with this off-season and they are still ranked #10 in available salary cap.
What does that tell us?
All the teams (except a few) have already run up the salary cap credit card and are all kicking the can down the road.
I don’t think we will ever be out of the dead cap woods – especially if we give Winfield, Evans and Mayfield big contracts full of guaranteed money.
I guess it is the new normal.
February 16th, 2024 at 5:31 pm
I just sit back and let the cap chips fall where they may. It’s too complicated to dive into this…..
We will likely resign all three players……how we do it is not that important.
I do agree that it would be good to try to live within our cap means and stop mortgaging our future as much. It really is costing us.
What really has been bothering me is our inability or unwillingness to extend top player contracts thus leaving it to FA status.
It is easier to give a player a raise in their final year and save on future salary.
February 16th, 2024 at 5:55 pm
Here’s an idea…….let bake and mike walk and save
FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS!
We could then draft a #1 WR, get Gabbert back, start Trask and build the f&*k out of the trenches.
If we stop thinking mike and bake are the only way a whole new world opens up.
February 16th, 2024 at 6:05 pm
Sign Mike first then…Baker will surely follow to have his stud receiver back…and the freed up money can at least Sign Mclaughlin who is extremely important and forgotten in all this
February 16th, 2024 at 6:16 pm
We have spent a ton of draft capital on d linemen
Missing these picks is like fumbling at the goal line
February 16th, 2024 at 7:04 pm
Eh, who cares about perpetual can kicking with dead cap money. The thing with debt, the longer it’s outstanding the cheaper it is to pay off.
February 16th, 2024 at 7:10 pm
(Interest free debt)
February 16th, 2024 at 7:11 pm
That would be ideal if we could get Mike signed first. If Mike signs then Baker will take what he gets. I don’t see him wanting to go anywhere if we keep the HOF wideout. No tag on Baker. He’s not worth top tier loot. I would much rather put the tag on the kicker and sign Winfield to a 5 year deal.
February 16th, 2024 at 7:12 pm
Marine Buc … ‘I guess it is the new normal.’
Perfect way to put it IMO … the ‘new normal’. For us, and probably over half of the NFL. Several teams though haven’t bought into that, and they seem to be doing quite well at the moment.
Chiefs are an interesting case. They rank #17 with $23.7 mil salary CAP space for 54 players signed. It seems irrelevant to me because of WHO they have under contract, and WHO are UFAs this year (they have 25 FAs right now). However, they’re only have ONE player on a VOID YEAR contract in 2024 (Chris Jones for $4.3 mil). They have plenty of expensive contracts (Mahomes, Thuney, Taylor, Kelce, Reid & others) who they can restructure to increase salary CAP. And for 2025 (as of now) they have only ONE VOID YEAR contract (Chris Jones for $1.4 mil) and only ONE VOID YEAR contract (Chris Jones again for $1.4 mil). IOW they’ve got a ton of flexibility to work their salary CAP situation.
Not so the Bucs. We’ve got slightly more salary CAP available for 57 players under contract, Unfortunately several of our high dollar players are UFAs (20 all together, with at least 6 of those being starters). BUT … we’ve also got 6 VOID YEAR contracts this year to deal with. And that goes UP to 13 VOID YEAR contracts in 2025, stays at 13 in 2026, then increases to 14 in 2027. That’s the impact of mortgaging the future.
February 16th, 2024 at 7:15 pm
@ DestinJ
I don’t believe Vea and Kancey were misses.
JTS is an OLB and I still don’t think he is a bust.
The jury is still out on Logan Hall but he has improved every season – I’m willing to give him another season of development before I label him a “bust”.
February 16th, 2024 at 7:17 pm
TBBF … It’s fascinating to watch how various teams deal with essentially the same ‘boundaries’. These GMs must be pulling out their hair at this time of year. It seems that what can look good in 1 year can really end up screwing you in future years. One gigantic juggling act I guess.
February 16th, 2024 at 7:17 pm
Jesus Christ we have $240,000,000.00 to pay 53 people a year and good players are lucky to only get $2 million?! We need to cut Joe Tryon sorry as, Russel Gage, Anthony Nelson, Shaq Barret to free up $35 million dollars in cap space so we can pay players who actually help us win games more money
February 16th, 2024 at 7:19 pm
This is a different world now its all about money I am pretty sure that Evans, Winfield and Mayfield would like to see what an open market would bring them. Especially Evans whose not getting any younger theres a difference between loyalty and common sense. Licht would not negotiate a contract at the beginning of the year please!!!!!!
February 16th, 2024 at 7:22 pm
@ DR
Yikes. I guess the Bucs and the other 20 or so teams are hoping the salary cap will continue to increase over the next several years…
I can’t wait to see what the Saints do this off-season – $83M below the cap at the moment coming off a 7-9 season with an overpaid mediocre QB.
LOL!
And they don’t have a single thing to show for it except for winning the division once in 2020 and being another stepping stone to our Super Bowl run that same season…
HAHAHAHAHA!
February 16th, 2024 at 7:26 pm
@ DR
Kansas City has done an awesome job at managing their cap while winning several Super Bowls.
Here in Tampa we experienced “The Brady Effect” – it’s the same now in Kansas City.
Good players will give a discount to win (or at least have a chance of winning) a Super Bowl and play with the new GOAT…
It makes me sick because I can’t stand KC – just like I couldn’t stand the Patriots when TB12 was winning 6 SBs.
But I have to give them respect…
February 16th, 2024 at 7:38 pm
Who CAN stand the Chiefs? Has anyone taken a close look at their mascot? It looks like a squirrel.
February 16th, 2024 at 9:27 pm
How much do they save to let Evans move on?
February 16th, 2024 at 9:42 pm
@T Magee
Not enough.
February 16th, 2024 at 9:59 pm
The Chiefs are about to hit the salary cap wall…
Yes – they have some room to restructure contracts if they want to get serious about can kicking….
But even a quick glance at their 2024 cap situation reveals that they are not in very good shape moving forward.
Start with the fact that only 6 players account for 62% of their entire salary cap allotment for the year.
And their current group of WRs leaves a lot to be desired…. Mainly because they lost Hill and couldn’t afford to pay a true #1
Chris Jones is not under contract (except for the $4.25M in dummy years tacked onto the end of his expired contract) – and will cost $28.5M according to spotrac.
The Chiefs have $23.7M available under the cap currently.
I mean – the Saints are in way worse shape for example – but lets not hold up KC as a team being in good cap shape because they are not.
But they have Mahomes (who by himself accounts for 25% of the cap at $58.6M) – so they are at least somewhat of a threat every year for the foreseeable future….
February 16th, 2024 at 10:17 pm
@Allbuccedup – Evans has already made over $120,000,000 in his career with the Bucs. He isn’t hurting for $$. He just wants to make #1 WR $$ , and I don’t blame him. I didn’t like that he demanded it last off-season, when our Bucs had ZERO $ to spend and had to climb out of the $86mil cap hell they were in. And they still put a Division and playoff winning team on the field. Give him 3 years for $75 mil or 4 for $100 mil . He’s worth every penny, and I don’t want to see him catching his 100th TD and breaking Jerry Rice’s record , playing with another team. Go Bucs
February 16th, 2024 at 10:26 pm
@TMcgee – GO root for your AINTS, who are going to be in the worst cap hell in NFL history for the next 5 years ! And the next person who says Evans is going to KC , then you must not follow football. KC traded Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey because they have a policy of not signing players who are 30 years old any $$ . And if you think Baker will leave for more $$ , you are crazy. He found a home in which he is wanted and will perform well. Just because you go to a different team, doesn’t mean you will fit in with the scheme and perform well. Just ask your AINTS with Derrick Carr. Russell Wilson, etc.. Baker is going to stay where he knows he has the best chance to win and to be the QB 1 .. Go Bucs
February 16th, 2024 at 10:28 pm
@Pickgrin – Agree 🎯
February 17th, 2024 at 5:07 am
I’m sure jason and hi guys are working OT to get all this done so we can make another run at it this year. Saving cap is a part of it. We are gonna need some cash to sign a couple of FAs and add some to our own contracts.
Go Jason!
Go Bucs!
February 17th, 2024 at 9:23 am
We are picking in the mid-twenties, are the only team in the NFC to be in the playoffs four years in a row, found our franchise QB, and nailed our last draft class. If you’re unhappy with the direction of this franchise then please go outside and touch grass
February 17th, 2024 at 9:31 am
Jack Clark Says:
February 16th, 2024 at 7:17 pm
Jesus Christ we have $240,000,000.00 to pay 53 people a year and good players are lucky to only get $2 million?! We need to cut Joe Tryon sorry as, Russel Gage, Anthony Nelson, Shaq Barret to free up $35 million dollars in cap space so we can pay players who actually help us win games more money
………………………………………
Shaq makes the same whether we cut him or not, JTS still on his rookie