Bucs Must Make A Salary Cap Move

Table of Contents

[adrotate group=”1″]

Have you ever been short of cash? Most of us have. I know I have. The Bucs certainly are right now.

I have literally tried to rub two pennies together to make a dollar (surprise, surprise, it does not work). A bit by comedian Kevin Hart comes to mind when he talks about money and finances.

“You ever, you, you ever start explaining your financial situation for no reason at all? I said “I would, but the way that my bank account is set up, the thing is, I got a checking and a savings, but all the money is in my savings. So, I gotta switch it to my checking, but it’s going to take 3 business days. I don’t, I don’t think it’s going go through. I don’t think it’s going go through.”

The Bucs are currently in a similar situation where they have a checking account and a savings account, and they only have a limited number of transfers they are allowed to make.

Per OverTheCap, the Bucs have the second lowest available cap space in the league, ahead of just the Chiefs with $682,503. This is not enough space to operate throughout the season. The team will carry 16 practice squad players. That will require around $3.5 million of salary cap alone.

And that does not include players who will be signed from that practice squad or off the street during the season to help fill-in for eventual injuries. Tampa Bay is limited in the moves they can make to free up the $3.5-$7 million they would need to operate throughout the season.

The NFL is still operating under the rule of the Top 51 salaries counting towards the cap until next Thursday, September 7. So the Bucs still have a week to make a salary cap move to obtain some cap relief.

The first, and most popular, option the Bucs could explore is extending Mike Evans. Evans currently represents the largest salary cap on the Bucs roster at $23,698,500. If the Bucs are able to extend Evans, they could significantly reduce that 2023 cap hit and create all the space they will need for this year. I projected out the cap and cash flows of a hypothetical three-year, $60 million extension for Evans previously. That would lower Evans’ 2023 salary cap hit to $14,363,500 and free up over $9 million in cap space.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

This is an option that the Bucs are exploring but currently the two sides are not close on an extension.

If they cannot come to terms on an extension before the season starts the team could restructure his current cap hit and free up over $10 million in cap space. Evans is due $14.5 million in salary and roster bonuses this year. The Bucs could convert up to $13,365,000 of that into a signing bonus in order to bring his cap hit down to $13,697,250. The downside of that move comes in the form of dead money on the 2024 salary cap.

The team has already pushed part of Evans’ contract into void years that will count as “dead money” on next year’s salary cap. The number currently stands at $12,198,000. Going with the full restructure would increase that number by an additional $10,022,250 up to over $21.2 million worth of dead cap space.

Having an elite receiver count for over $20 million of your salary cap is one thing. Having that same receiver count that same amount against your cap AND not being under contract is quite another. If the Bucs were to go this route, they better be damn sure that they can get the extension done before free agency starts next year in order to spread out those dead cap hits among multiple years.

Shaq Barrett’s $21,252,941 cap hit is the second largest on the team behind Evans. With two years left on his deal, the team could have restructured Barrett’s deal early in the offseason and given themselves a bit more wiggle room to make additional moves in free agency. It is telling that decided not to go that route.

Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Coming off of an Achilles tear that has typically sapped players of their lower-half explosiveness the Bucs opted to try and hold off on that. This gives the team an escape hatch on Barrett’s deal next year when they could walk away with just under $7.5 million in cap savings – if they wanted to do that.

By all accounts thus far in training camp Shaq is back. Reports of Barrett’s recovery have all been glowing. If general manager Jason Licht and head coach Todd Bowles agree with these assessments, it would make it easier for them to pull the trigger on the restructure, deferring cap hits into 2024 and beyond in order to create the requisite room needed to operate this season.

The risk is that Barrett, who turns 31 later this year, winds up underperforming and the team is essentially stuck with him at a very high cap charge for another year in 2024.

It is clear at this point Devin White will not get the mega-deal he is looking for until at the earliest next offseason. But that doesn’t mean the Bucs can’t use White to help their current cap situation. White is currently playing on his fifth-year option for a cap hit of $11,706,000. They could restructure that cap charge and reduce it to $3,205,000.

Bucs ILB Devin White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

This would benefit the team in 2023 by giving them a little over $8.5 million in needed cap space. But restructures require balance. And that $8.5 million benefit in 2023 becomes dead cap money in 2024. This option seems very unlikely and White might not want to cooperate seeing as how the team does not want to extend his contract right now. However, if Tampa Bay went this route it could signal they are more likely to extend White next year.

One thing is for certain. The Bucs will need to make cap room. Any of these moves will do the job, but the Bucs are out of options other than these listed above – and the team is running out of time as practice squads can be assembled starting at noon on August 30.

The team most likely prefers to re-sign Evans as their most desirable option. But if they cannot get that deal over the finish line, they will most likely go with the Barrett restructure. The least likely option is the White restructure. With the deadline being September 7 we will find out soon enough.