The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a surprisingly strong season following the departure of Tom Brady as new quarterback Baker Mayfield led the team to a playoff berth and a postseason win over the Philadelphia Eagles. But as the team heads into the offseason, they are facing a pretty brutal situation regarding their salary cap.
As Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk points out, even if wide receiver Mike Evans and quarterback Baker Mayfield do not return to the team next year – as both are set to become free agents this offseason – both of them will still provide a substantial hit to the team’s salary cap this year.
“The contracts of both players void on Monday and the team will take on around $14.5 million in dead money as a result. That money was spread over multiple voidable years in order to lower the cap hit in earlier seasons,” Alper wrote for Pro Football Talk.
As Alper points out, the Buccaneers could have avoided nearly half of this dead money had they signed the players to new contracts before the previous contracts were voided, but they were unable to make that happen in time.
Obviously, this is going to make things pretty difficult for the Buccaneers as they try to assemble their roster this offseason, and the NFL world had a lot to say about this brutal news on social media as a result.
The hell are the Bucs doing?
— Idk (@xDMrBrightside) February 19, 2024
We’ll have to see how the Buccaneers manage this situation this offseason
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