Huge Week For Team Glazer Kicks Off
March 8th, 2026
It all starts at the top.
Joe and legions of Bucs fans re-learned that lesson watching Raise The Flags: 50 Years of Buccaneers Football. The Amazon Prime documentary on almost all things Bucs sent a clear message: Ownership drives what happens with the team — on the field and off — whether that be the late Huge Culverhouse or Team Glazer.
Team Glazer produced and funded the 10-part documentary, so they wanted fans to know they are part of the critical decisions facing the franchise.
That brings Joe to pending free agent Mike Evans. The free agency dinner bell rings tomorrow at noon, when national reporters will begin announcing free agents agreeing to contracts with new teams. Last year, for example, by 12:08 p.m. on Day 1 of free agency, Adam Schefter announced the Bucs had a deal in place with edge rusher Haason Reddick.
Evans is the greatest receiver in team history, an iconic figure and one prominently featured in Raise The Flags.
Todd Bowles wants Evans back, so does Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht. Team Glazer? Joe assumes they want Evans to finish his career in Tampa.
Now it’s time to make it happen.
Evans was very public saying he wants to be a “Buc for Life.” He’s never publicly disparaged Tampa, teammates or the organization. If fact, Evans has shown nothing but love for all things Bucs.
Getting a deal done with Evans should be easy. Just meet his demands, which are bound to be reasonable.
If the Bucs whiff on Evans, fans will throw various degrees of blame on Todd Bowles, Licht and Team Glazer, and legions of fans will need years to forgive and recover.
Ownership should be eating a “W” on the Evans front in a matter of hours because losing Evans will not improve the team.
Joe expects good business to prevail over the chaos that will ensue if Evans leaves town.
March 8th, 2026 at 1:40 am
I bleed creamsicle and pewter.
Keep Mike Evans.
Go Bucs!
March 8th, 2026 at 3:21 am
I hope we’re considering going out in FA & actually considering doing SOMETHING.
March 8th, 2026 at 3:58 am
Evans in the tunnel after the Atlanta loss was mortifying to watch- none of us could, intensely frustrated as we are, for however long, pretend we understand the level of frustration that man has with the underperformance of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If I’m Mike Evans I’m not worried about the Bucs giving me the most money and saying they had no more money to do anything for the defense. I want to be at One Buc Palace with a couple of boss FA defensive pieces and LVD excited to be doing press with Bowles and Licht about how 2026 is about not just redemption but the Super Bowl.
The Glazers part is fronting the cash to make this FA season bright. It’s their call. Turn your talented GM loose in FA, give him the checkbook and any and all other modes of support he may require. 2026 could be a season for the ages if the Glazers have the vision and courage to make it so.
March 8th, 2026 at 4:59 am
Bucs have surely been in talks with their top money-makers in looking for ways to free up salary CAP $$$. Right now the Bucs adjusted CAP for 2026 is $315.8 mil, but we’ve expensed $305.1 mil for the 52 players we have under contract ($304.5 mil for the Top-51), leaving us with $11.3 mil CAP space to play with.
The $11.3 mil of CAP space is kind of irrelevant right now for 2 reasons: (1) not all of the existing 52 players will make the final roster so that’ll free up some $$$ BUT create a space that has to be filled; and (2) we can restructure some high $$$ salaries to their lower their CAP hits considerably & free up salary CAP space. That’s where Mike Greenbeerg’s magic comes into play.
As I look at the 52 guys we have under contract, my gut feel is that only 32-33 of them will make our final 53-man roster. That’d leave roughly 20 roster spots to fill, but leave us with salary CAP space of roughly $43 mil … BEFORE restructuring any salaries.
Bucs have 7 players whose CAP hits are each over $10 mil. IF we restructure 5 of those (Mayfield, Wirfs, Godwin, Goedeke, Winfield) to just 2/3rds of their existing value we’d save another $57.5 mil (those 5 players have an existing CAP hit of $173.4 mil, so 2/3rds would take that down to $115.9 mil). Add that $57.5 mil CAP space freed up to the existing $43 mil and we COULD have $100 mil space to work with to:
(1) sign 13 free agents;
(2) sign 7 draft picks ($11.4 mil this year);
(3) meet our Dead CAP (down to $0.3 mil as of right now);
(4) pay for our Practice Squad (roughly $3.0 mil); and
(5) keep about $15 mil in reserve (for IR, etc).
That’d mean that we COULD have about $70-$71 mil available to sign 13 free agents (either ours from last season or from other teams to fill holes). Even if Mike Evans took $20-$21 mil that’d still leave us $50 mil to fill the other 12 FA ‘holes’ … and that’s plenty to fix just about everything IF we do it smart. And there’s the rub …