“Top-Heavy” Bucs
March 2nd, 2026
So the Bucs have a strong number of players making big money in 2026, and Joe expects Mike Evans to join that list soon after the free agency dinner bell rings in seven short days.
Speaking in Indianapolis last week, Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht said multiple times that his roster is rather “top-heavy” when it comes to salaries. That’s largely a function of drafting well. If you draft well, big contracts follow.
The Bucs are proud of being top-heavy. That designation doesn’t win you any prizes, but it’s not a negative in Tampa unless you are fully appalled by the contract extension cornerback Zyon McCollum signed last year.
Regardless, being “top-heavy” often means you’re not going to pay all your draft picks market value contracts when their rookie deals expire.
Joe is often asked about pending Bucs free agents Cade Otton, Logan Hall and Rachaad White, members of the Bucs’ 2022 draft class. Joe would bet a few bucks that none return to Tampa in 2026.
The Bucs already handed starting right tackle Luke Goedeke and McCollum fat second contracts from that 2022 draft class. Otton, White and Hall probably will command too much cash in free agency to have their returns make sense. White, as it’s widely known, wants to break the bandk with a new team.
Now if Mike Evans somehow leaves Tampa Bay, then the Bucs become less “top-heavy” and would have the freedom to, say, buy an established edge rusher, draft a couple of linebackers and possibly fix their defense in a hurry.
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:27 am
What makes the team better Evans at 25 million or Trey Hedrickson? The bucs still have a good wr room with out Evans. With out Trey the bucs have no edge rusher. Use the money for Evans on the D.
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:30 am
Well that is about the only plus I have heard if ME leaves. btw, interesting you believe ME is staying with information you have received, while your competitor Scott Renyolds believes
just the opposite?. You guys have the same if not similar sources, but opinions are opposite. Definitely hope you are more accurate. I like others would definitely hate to see ME goes. However nice to know if he does we could fix the defense!!
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:31 am
^^^^^^^
Agree
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:31 am
We’re top heavy because we’ve overpaid players, and never know when to let go.
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:44 am
The Offense needs Evans to score points – that’s been proven – just compare when he plays vs when he doesn’t play
R White is a good player but will cost $6-7 million/year – Bucs can get a good FA DT or LB for that price.
The best Guard in this draft may be available at 15. If not, a good DLineman should be available.
The Seahawks’ starting TE was a 4th round pick
The Patriots’ starting TE was a 2nd round pick
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:51 am
Time to Restructure some contracts
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:54 am
Would we pick up a draft pick and this year’s draft if Mike Evan leaves
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:54 am
The offense cant score points WITH Evans as proven by the 2-7 slide and also the offense scored a TD less per game compared to the 2024 season. Paying over $40 million for 2 WRs with holes all over the roster makes no sense.
Bringing in an expensive pass rusher won’t make the Bucs better because the scheme is so bad. Also, this team doesn’t have to depth to stay competitive WHEN injuries happen. The Browns have the best pass rusher in the league, what was their record?
This team needs 2 off-seasons, a new HC and a new QB for any hope to be an actual contender. Bringing back 90% of the same roster and coaching staff won’t work. They tried this plan the past 2 season and have gotten worse each year.
Don’t expect much spending this FA. They Bucs have spent too much already and the only thing they have to show for it is missing the playoffs.
March 2nd, 2026 at 7:59 am
The Bucs couldn’t score points down the stretch because both our starting guards were out.
March 2nd, 2026 at 8:02 am
Mike is out the door according to my sources he doesn’t believe this team is contender he thought about it last time he has two feet out the door this time.
March 2nd, 2026 at 8:32 am
“Now if Mike Evans somehow leaves Tampa Bay, then the Bucs become less “top-heavy” and would have the freedom to, say, buy an established edge rusher, draft a couple of linebackers and possibly fix their defense in a hurry.”
Not really, Mike has a $13M dead cap hit which is on the books if he signs elsewhere or stays. Difference is, is that if he re-signs here we can spread that money out, instead of having to eat the full charge if he leaves.
Furthermore, Mike takes up 4.3% of our cap he’s #8 in our 10-most expensive players. Guys like Baker(17.4%), Wirfs(11.9%), & Godwins(11.10%) are the “heaviest” contracts on the team counting for >40% of our entire cap much more “top” heavy, but we can’t do much about that.
Mike leaving doesn’t benefit us in any way, there’s no money that gets freed up and in regards to him the only way to keep him would be a new deal to kick the dead money down the road.
I could be wrong/misunderstanding though, this salary cap stuff is tricky business. It’s why Greenberg has been lauded as a wizard juggling ours over the years.
March 2nd, 2026 at 8:33 am
“The offense cant score points WITH Evans as proven by the 2-7 slide and also the offense scored a TD less per game compared to the 2024 season. Paying over $40 million for 2 WRs with holes all over the roster makes no sense.”
We ran 66 offensive plays in our last game and Mike got 2 targets the whole game.
March 2nd, 2026 at 8:43 am
Let Baker walk in 2027 to LA and trade for Shedeur Sanders. RodMunch and the other girls on this site would be pleased.
March 2nd, 2026 at 9:21 am
Joe … ‘Now if Mike Evans somehow leaves Tampa Bay, then the Bucs become less “top-heavy” and would have the freedom to, say, buy an established edge rusher, draft a couple of linebackers and possibly fix their defense in a hurry.’
Interesting scenario Joe, but IMO that won’t fix our defense. I’d love to have ME13 back BTW, but IF our OLine gets fixed (Wirfs, Bredeson, Barton, Mauch & Goedeke all healthy for starters) AND we add a quality RB (I prefer Algiers or AJ Dillon as UFAs PLUS a rookie draft pick), PLUS add a quality TE who can catch AND block, THEN our WRs without ME13 (Godwin, Egbuka, McMillan & Tez Johnson) SHOULD be good enough with Baker pulling the strings to yield a Top-10 offense.
Our bigger challenge is doing the right things to create a Top-10 defense to go with a Top-10 offense. Our first challenge there will be improving the FIELD LEADERSHIP (which absolutely sucked last year) by bringing in at least 2 (preferably 3-4) veteran defenders. I’m convinced that we NEED a quality starting DT/DE to energize our DLine, a quality starting ILB to provide leadership to that group, and very possibly a veteran CB to replace Dean (McCollum obviously isn’t the leadership answer).
We DON’T NEED any more OLB Reddick or NT/DT Gaines or ILB Walker or ILB Jones or CB Vildors or players like that. Those 5 players didn’t really help us, yet cost us over $21 mil in salaries last season. We KNOW that we NEED a beastly NT/DT, a quality starting EDGE, at least 2 new ILBs and we’ve gotta replace Vildor AND Dean with quality CBs. And oh ya, gotta replace DT/DE Logan Hall in there too, as well as Watts & LVD.
March 2nd, 2026 at 9:56 am
Yes, us fans are appalled Zyon was overpaid.
March 2nd, 2026 at 10:08 am
George R –
It’s not going to be an either-or like this bucs have plenty of things they can do to get more than enough cap space than they need.
To answer you more directly, the offense looked different with ME13 on the field when he was injured compared to when he was back, which looked exceptionally different, and so did Baker. ME13 remains our offense’s primary weapon.
March 2nd, 2026 at 10:41 am
The Bucs defensive roster sets up well for a 4/3.r
OTOH our coaching staff does not.
The 4-3 requires one (starting) MLB, one mostly playing downhill, and some versatility for the Edge/OLBs (which is what Todd values). It aims to shut down the run at the point of attack and it designates four linemen for the pass rush.
Switching could maximize the personnel available. For example, the team SHOULD draft a big DL, one who could spell Vea at times and hold down the strong side normally. It would let the Bucs get away with picking up just two MLs with just one being a draft pick. It would strengthen the pass defense with a base package of seven and of course would allow nickel or dime packages too.
The best thing about such a change is that it would reduce the draft capital that has to be devoted to the defense. Do other besides TD see merit in such a switch?
March 2nd, 2026 at 10:51 am
Last year something happened in college football that had never happened before. One defender won 5 national awards. Butkus, Nagurski, Bednarik, Lombardi, and Pony Express. It’d been 20 years since a player had at least 4 picks and at least 5 forced fumbles. This year that record was 4 picks and 7 forced fumbles. Jacob Rodriguez is a generational talent at middle linebacker and there is not a position on our team that needs help more than middle linebacker. I don’t believe there are any nfl linebackers that will be free agents have anywhere near the upside that this guy has. In free agency let’s grab a QB, a guard, a swing tackle, and a running back. This draft has some middle linebackers and edge rushers and Defensive tackles. We need to get the best of those guys. The best leader of the bunch is JRod. We oughta start with him.
March 2nd, 2026 at 10:54 am
We need more “Top Heavy” cheerleaders on the sidelines.
That would help distract us from the on field dumpster fire.
#SuperBowles
March 2nd, 2026 at 12:04 pm
@doolnutts ⬆️, you are right our offense looked different when Evans was back ……worse. We force the ball to him, he pulls himself out of games, we got worse. Hard to understand as he is a first ballot HOF’r, but the facts don’t lie. Our offense regressed and we lost games. No way we should pay $20M+. No way.
March 2nd, 2026 at 12:22 pm
“We force the ball to him, he pulls himself out of games, we got worse. Hard to understand as he is a first ballot HOF’r, but the facts don’t lie. Our offense regressed and we lost games.”
Blaming the wrong person, and we didn’t lose those games on the strength of trying to keep Mike involved in the offense. We lost games because we kept turning the ball over.
Correlation doesn’t imply causation.
When Mike & Chris were out of the lineup in 2024, Cade got forced fed.
2025, same circumstance Cade & EE got force fed.
The spikes are documented, and Doolnutts is on the money becuase our pass game crapped the bed when we lost Mike.
Again, our last 349 passes from Detroit to the finale, 54% of those were completed with and without Mike. Again, wrong guy(s).
March 2nd, 2026 at 12:56 pm
Hodad and LynchMob
Licht just gets worse and worse. We have more money in the tub than on the field. We finally got rid of most of the dead cap from the Brady superbowl and Light spent it all on keeping his precious draftees. We’re still cash strapped. The only way out of this mess is m
March 2nd, 2026 at 1:01 pm
mess is to restructure a bunch of these contracts and mortgage the future again. HOF GM? Hardly.
Licht won’t have the guts to do what it takes this year to fix the roster. He will depend on the draft and fail us in free agency by sitting on his hands in fear. Again.