TAMPA, Fla. — Time is running out for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to get under the salary cap ahead of the start of the new NFL league year on March 15. The Bucs are around $57 million over the salary cap with just a week to go before the league year starts.
All NFL teams must be under the official salary cap of $224.8 million by 4 p.m. on March 15. For the Bucs, there are more questions than answers about a team that will be starting over after the retirement of Tom Brady at the end of the 2022 season.
The Buccaneers can get under the salary cap in a variety of ways from cutting players to restructuring contracts. The task for general manager Jason Licht will be to field a competitive team after making the necessary moves to get under the cap.
Multiple reports have said the Bucs plan to release running back Leonard Fournette and tight end Cameron Brate. If both are released with a post-June 1 designation (for salary cap purposes), it should save the team millions against the cap.
That is just the beginning of the needed moves for the Bucs.
Veteran players like left tackle Donovan Smith could be headed for the door. Smith played poorly down the stretch last season and has a salary cap price of $17.9 million for 2023. Releasing him could save the team upwards of $15.2 million, according to overthecap.com's interactive cap calculator.
The team could look at moving other players or renegotiating the contracts of players like Mike Evans, Shaquil Barrett, Ryan Jensen, and others to free up cap space.
Regardless of how they do it, the Bucs have plenty of work to do to get under the cap and roughly a week to do it.
The week timeline comes because the unofficial start of free agency begins on March 13. That's when teams can start negotiating with free agents.
Depending on the moves the team makes, the Bucs will need to fill spots on the roster as free agency officially starts on March 15 and then in the 2023 NFL Draft in late April.
