[Old 2020 thread] NFL Free Agency/Trade Rumors:

[skinnydog]

And what are you imagining for a D-line? Suh and Barrett are both UFA. They have about 28M in free cap and only 32 players signed. Gonna be tough to build that D-line unless they get people to take a MAJOR discount.

Someone else did a nice job of summarizing the moves the Bucs could do to keep their players and there are a lot of them. and some like Suh they might not want to keep. Also, i don't think you can assume all of these players have a place to go as almost all the other teams they might go to likley have cap issues of their own. Tampa is better that most at present in terms of present cap space. On top of that, as mentioned Brady could be restructured, Evans has already indicated he will redo his contract to create cap space and there are a few others. Their current free agents can all sign deals with nice up front bonuses, but with modest cap hits in the next couple of years. I expect they will do what most teams do and create space now and defer the cap hits to 2-3 years from now and adopt a go for it now mentality. We're just not used to seeing a team operate like that because that is not what the Pats do.

 

[DaBruinz]

I have looked at their team. So what if they push money to 2022? They're in a Super Bowl window. Next year they can push more to 2023, etc. Bucs should be doing what the Saints have been doing recently. They're not trying to manage a team for 20 years like what the Pats have been doing.

Yeah, they'd need to work out extensions to get cap savings, and I think they'll be able to do so. But worst case, if for whatever reason they can't come to an agreement, they can always add in voidable years to spread the cap hit out instead. While players would need to agree to that, they're not being hurt in any way by accepting (just will be getting their base salary upfront), plus the savings is being used to surround them with more talent. Again, this is just the worst case scenario - the preference is to sign a real extension.

Actually, Players ARE hurt by it because it dilutes the contract when it comes to things such as Franchise Tag. Also, we know that all players don't necessarily want to sign extensions or the extension offer isn't nearly as good. We've seen it here.

The fact remains that they only have 32 people under contract and 28M in cap space currently. That little bit of cap space can disappear quickly as we saw with the Patriots this past season.

 

[NYCPATS4LIFE]

Actually, Players ARE hurt by it because it dilutes the contract when it comes to things such as Franchise Tag. Also, we know that all players don't necessarily want to sign extensions or the extension offer isn't nearly as good. We've seen it here.

The fact remains that they only have 32 people under contract and 28M in cap space currently. That little bit of cap space can disappear quickly as we saw with the Patriots this past season.

Again you’re not understanding. They will have more than 28. They will extend brady. Also most of those 32 hardly play any snaps and some are ERA. I think you’re overreacting. They’re in good shape this year and next year. Those guys know what they’re doing. I like their front office.

 

[DaBruinz]

Someone else did a nice job of summarizing the moves the Bucs could do to keep their players and there are a lot of them. and some like Suh they might not want to keep. Also, i don't think you can assume all of these players have a place to go as almost all the other teams they might go to likley have cap issues of their own. Tampa is better that most at present in terms of present cap space. On top of that, as mentioned Brady could be restructured, Evans has already indicated he will redo his contract to create cap space and there are a few others. Their current free agents can all sign deals with nice up front bonuses, but with modest cap hits in the next couple of years. I expect they will do what most teams do and create space now and defer the cap hits to 2-3 years from now and adopt a go for it now mentality. We're just not used to seeing a team operate like that because that is not what the Pats do.

Brady can't "restructure" without adding years to his contract. Just like every team, there are players that won't be re-signed. And there are players who will want to see what is out there in Free Agency. The Bucs have Several HIGH PRICE UFAs that will want big paychecks. Those paychecks will hit at somepoint.

As was already mentioned, they have several big names in Barrett, Suh,. Godwin, Gronkowski, David, and Fournette who are UFA. If you think 28M is enough to sign them all to market contracts, so be it.. I know for a fact it's not.

 

[NYCPATS4LIFE]

Brady can't "restructure" without adding years to his contract. Just like every team, there are players that won't be re-signed. And there are players who will want to see what is out there in Free Agency. The Bucs have Several HIGH PRICE UFAs that will want big paychecks. Those paychecks will hit at somepoint.

As was already mentioned, they have several big names in Barrett, Suh,. Godwin, Gronkowski, David, and Fournette who are UFA. If you think 28M is enough to sign them all to market contracts, so be it.. I know for a fact it's not.

He probably meant extended. Brady will be extended. Arians said this way before the super bowl that brady was likely to extended. The Bucs can do a lot of things to gente extra money. I would kiss godwin and Barrett goodbye if they asked a lot. Resign brown, david, gronk, Suh or a better replacement for Suh. Interesting to see what they do with fornette.

 

[AlexB]

Actually, Players ARE hurt by it because it dilutes the contract when it comes to things such as Franchise Tag. Also, we know that all players don't necessarily want to sign extensions or the extension offer isn't nearly as good. We've seen it here.

The fact remains that they only have 32 people under contract and 28M in cap space currently. That little bit of cap space can disappear quickly as we saw with the Patriots this past season.

The franchise tag is not an issue for the players who they can get cap savings from. Brady ($22m savings) already can't be tagged, Evans ($9m savings) sounds like he's ready to play ball, and neither Donovan Smith ($11m) or JPP ($9m) are realistic tag candidates (though the team could add a no-tag clause if that's really a concern). If you don't want to extend Smith, Marpet and Jensen can each provide $7m and Brate can provide $4m.

You're too caught up with the 32 players, most teams sign at least 20-30 players who cost almost nothing between the futures contracts and UDFAs. There are 6 individuals who will cost any kind of real money (Godwin, David, Barrett or his replacement, Suh, Gronk, and Brown).

Bucs cap situation is very different from the Patriots and other teams that have been trying to win. They haven't paid many signing bonuses historically and haven't done a lot of restructurings to "borrow" from future cap because they've sucked and there's no point in borrowing to support a losing team. But now they have the chance to win and have a lot of firepower because of how clean their cap situation is.

 

[AlexB]

Brady can't "restructure" without adding years to his contract. Just like every team, there are players that won't be re-signed. And there are players who will want to see what is out there in Free Agency. The Bucs have Several HIGH PRICE UFAs that will want big paychecks. Those paychecks will hit at somepoint.

As was already mentioned, they have several big names in Barrett, Suh,. Godwin, Gronkowski, David, and Fournette who are UFA. If you think 28M is enough to sign them all to market contracts, so be it.. I know for a fact it's not.

They can extend Brady with a mix of real and voidable years and spread out the cap hit. Brady will play ball, especially if the savings are being used to retain Gronk, Brown, and Godwin so they can compete for another super bowl.

 

[venecol]

Brady can't "restructure" without adding years to his contract. Just like every team, there are players that won't be re-signed. And there are players who will want to see what is out there in Free Agency. The Bucs have Several HIGH PRICE UFAs that will want big paychecks. Those paychecks will hit at somepoint.

As was already mentioned, they have several big names in Barrett, Suh,. Godwin, Gronkowski, David, and Fournette who are UFA. If you think 28M is enough to sign them all to market contracts, so be it.. I know for a fact it's not.

Just extending the top 5 players frees up $58M + $27M = $85M, which is way more than what they'll need. They can make the SB next year, so they should be all in.

 

[venecol]

This is why there's pats fans (real fans) that are upset to see a suck ass team like the Bucs wanting to extend Brady to multi-year contracts when he's even older than he was when he was here. It is what it is.

 

[skinnydog]

Brady can't "restructure" without adding years to his contract. Just like every team, there are players that won't be re-signed. And there are players who will want to see what is out there in Free Agency. The Bucs have Several HIGH PRICE UFAs that will want big paychecks. Those paychecks will hit at somepoint.

As was already mentioned, they have several big names in Barrett, Suh,. Godwin, Gronkowski, David, and Fournette who are UFA. If you think 28M is enough to sign them all to market contracts, so be it.. I know for a fact it's not.

By restructure, I did mean adding on years to the contract. And the same with Evans and others. I agree they likely cannot keep everyone, but they can and will defer the biggest part fo the cap hit for a few years to take advantage of the Tom Brady window they have which I expect they believe will be the next 2 years and yes to take advantage of that I expect they will gladly accept that it will blow up in 3-4 years. And see Venecol's above which demonstrates they have a pretty easy road to freeing up a lot of cap space if they are willing to go all in for a few years.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

could see him running to Tampa for a ring

 

[JarOfMayo51]

Have a feeling that Super Bowl sting in KC they will revamp that D and Watt knows the Matteu I think we could see him in KC.

he'll be on IR by the playoffs anyways

 

[JarOfMayo51]

I would have to think he wants to go to Pittsburg. Not sure if the steelers will feel the same way though since they already have a great Dline.

At first I was like... "why the hell would he want to go to Pittsburgh?"

Then I remembered his brother is in Pittsburgh.. and realized im just ******ed

Steelers make a lot of sense

 

[Tottie]

At first I was like... "why the hell would he want to go to Pittsburgh?"

Then I remembered his brother is in Pittsburgh.. and realized im just ******ed

Steelers make a lot of sense

I hate that team but very interesting offseason for them. With the center retiring I wonder if Big Ben will change his tune. I don't think he sucks at all but the over hyped media is running with that narrative and acting like the dude should play for free he's so bad. I wonder if they can fit Watt in? What about KC? We saw they couldn't do anything on defense last weekend they could probably use the help on the dline. Again though, how do they fit it in I suppose.

 

[TheRainMaker]

If I'm Watt and I was this desperate for a ring, I would call other big name FA that have already made a ton of money and see if they like to team up in Tampa Bay and sign for peanuts.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

I hate that team but very interesting offseason for them. With the center retiring I wonder if Big Ben will change his tune. I don't think he sucks at all but the over hyped media is running with that narrative and acting like the dude should play for free he's so bad. I wonder if they can fit Watt in? What about KC? We saw they couldn't do anything on defense last weekend they could probably use the help on the dline. Again though, how do they fit it in I suppose.

Yea interesting for sure, they looked like a contender this year but the wheels fell off at the end, with the playoff shocker loss to the divisional rival Browns...

They have a very formidable defense, and JJ would certainly enhance it, especially on a rotational type basis where they dont need him to be superman every single snap. I guess its a matter of how much they want to commit to make it happen, there is a lot of flexibility in the cap short term to try for a title window, as long as you're willing to pay off the debt + interest later

 

[DaBruinz]

Just extending the top 5 players frees up $58M + $27M = $85M, which is way more than what they'll need. They can make the SB next year, so they should be all in.

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There is a HUGE problem with you using what OTC says the "savings" will be on an extension. They offer nothing to support how they got that number just saying that it's the "MAXIMUM that can be saved". I guarantee you that NONE of those 5 players are doing an extension without getting some new money. Which means they are no where close to freeing up $57M. Furthermore, you seem to forget that SB money can only be amortized over 5 years in total. With the exception of Jensen and Smith, it's unlikely that they are going to do anything of that nature.

Also, their Brady number is incorrect. There is no way that an "extension" drops Brady's cap hit to 6.535M. The 3.375M in Other Bonuses is the NLTBE bonuses that Brady earned in 2020. That is a set amount. That only leaves $3.16M. The Minimum salary that Brady can be signed to is 1.075M leaving 2.085M. There is no feasible way that 23.925M ($15M salary +10M roster bonus-1.075M min salary) divided 5 = 2.085M. Even if they were to give Brady NO new money this year for signing an extension, you're still looking at 4.875M in SB Amortization. So, you have 3.375M + 4.875M + 1.075M = 9.275M. 9.275M from 28.375M = $19.1M.

I'm not @Miguel but I have followed him enough to know a majority of the basics without screwing up.

 

[DaBruinz]

They can extend Brady with a mix of real and voidable years and spread out the cap hit. Brady will play ball, especially if the savings are being used to retain Gronk, Brown, and Godwin so they can compete for another super bowl.

So, you are changing your argument. You said they could just add voidable years. They can't. They have to have Brady's agreement to do that. And doing so is part of what caused Brady to leave New England.

 

[DaBruinz]

By restructure, I did mean adding on years to the contract. And the same with Evans and others. I agree they likely cannot keep everyone, but they can and will defer the biggest part fo the cap hit for a few years to take advantage of the Tom Brady window they have which I expect they believe will be the next 2 years and yes to take advantage of that I expect they will gladly accept that it will blow up in 3-4 years. And see Venecol's above which demonstrates they have a pretty easy road to freeing up a lot of cap space if they are willing to go all in for a few years.

That's not restructuring. That's an extension. And they are completely different. And no. Venecol's table doesn't actually demonstrate that. It demonstrates total SWAG on the part of OTC. As I pointed out above.

 

[NYCPATS4LIFE]

B

There is a HUGE problem with you using what OTC says the "savings" will be on an extension. They offer nothing to support how they got that number just saying that it's the "MAXIMUM that can be saved". I guarantee you that NONE of those 5 players are doing an extension without getting some new money. Which means they are no where close to freeing up $57M. Furthermore, you seem to forget that SB money can only be amortized over 5 years in total. With the exception of Jensen and Smith, it's unlikely that they are going to do anything of that nature.

Also, their Brady number is incorrect. There is no way that an "extension" drops Brady's cap hit to 6.535M. The 3.375M in Other Bonuses is the NLTBE bonuses that Brady earned in 2020. That is a set amount. That only leaves $3.16M. The Minimum salary that Brady can be signed to is 1.075M leaving 2.085M. There is no feasible way that 23.925M ($15M salary +10M roster bonus-1.075M min salary) divided 5 = 2.085M. Even if they were to give Brady NO new money this year for signing an extension, you're still looking at 4.875M in SB Amortization. So, you have 3.375M + 4.875M + 1.075M = 9.275M. 9.275M from 28.375M = $19.1M.

I'm not @Miguel but I have followed him enough to know a majority of the basics without screwing up.

You’re grasping for straws when it comes to the Bucs and their ability to add more cap space. They’re not staying at 28 million. Will they lose some players? Sure. They will always sign some important ones. They might get some at a bargain. We will see.