The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have rolled over their roughly $23.5 million in cap space from 2011 for the 2012 season. GM Mark Dominik stated the Buccaneers “will be more active in free agency than we were last year.” While I hate to be the pessimist, the roll over money and his statements do little to get the juices flowing. Take into consideration the Bucs entered the 2011 season with $27.5 million in cap space and came out only spending $4 million of their total. A big chunk of that towards punter Michael Koenen’s 6 year-$19 million dollar deal. When Mark Dominik says the Buccaneers will be more active, it’s because they will have to be from the start. Before he even gets to looking at the top names hitting the market, Dominik will have to worry about his own inventory. The Bucs are set to have 11 Unrestricted Free Agents, 3 Restricted Free Agents, and 2 Exclusive Rights Free Agents once the 2012 league year begins. Of those, Michael Bennett and Legarrette Blount should be top priority. Bennett made only $480,000 and Blount earned $405,000 last season. While neither player was Pro-Bowl caliber, each was pivotal to the team and have the youth to continue their services for some time. Blount is one of the two exclusive rights free agents which the Bucs can avoid paying should they choose this season. However, he is their best running back and it would be smarter to extend his contract after a “down” year instead of seeing the price driven up after a season in coach Greg Schiano’s self described power running game. Even now, Blount can command more in salary given Earnest Graham made $2 million last season and Blount has out produced him the previous two seasons.
Once Dominik has those two players under wraps, he will have to contend with the rest of the team’s free agents. The Bucs are short on depth and there will be only so much they can do through the draft. Some of the big names to be dealt with are Ronde Barber, Josh Johnson, Earnest Graham, and kicker Connor Barth. Each of those players play pivotal roles as starters or as primary back ups to Josh Freeman and Legarrette Blount. So, from that $23 million in roll over money, there will be a nice chunk of change spent on keeping some of the top talent on the roster. This doesn’t even take into consideration the Buccaneers draft picks. Given the Bucs have the #5 pick and are expected to select Morris Claiborne, they have a reference from the 2011 draft to refer to. Another LSU corner back, Patrick Peterson was selected 5th by the Arizona Cardinals last year. His selection resulted in a 4 year, 18.5 million dollar contract with a fifth year option. That puts the Buccaneers on the hook for around $4 million plus per season in cap hit. Once all is said and done, the Bucs could be much closer to the league average in terms of cap room. All of the extra money fans perceive the organization to have for spending on big ticket names really doesn’t turn out as such.
Aside from the motivational comments by Dominik, he also stated “it depends what the list looks like” when speaking about how or on whom the Buccaneers will spend their cap room. We also must take into consideration that regardless of statements, fact remains there is NO salary floor this year. Teams will not be forced to spend 89% in actual cash payouts of their cap space until the 2013 season, as stated in the new CBA.
Still, there is hope. After being slighted or just plain rejected by some of their top candidates for head coach, the Buccaneers brought in Greg Schiano. After watching how Raheem Morris panned out as a rookie head coach, ownership will not want more mud thrown in their face. There is also the chance the Buccaneers do not resign most of their free agents and instead opt for building depth through the draft and using the bulk of the money on the top available players. This is their chance at getting a jump start in free agency talent before 2013 rolls around and all teams are left spending the same amount. What the Buccaneers do here, could lend them an advantage for years to come with the right signings and contract structures. The only question is, does the Glazer family see it that way?
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