While Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham Jr. may or may not be for sale, Jason Licht and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers should steer clear of the superstar wide receivers.
Over the past week, two different star wide receivers have been mentioned as potentially on the trading block. On Wednesday, Antonio Brown tweeted his goodbyes to Pittsburgh as it was reported that he had formally requested a trade. Later that day Odell Beckham Jr. trade rumors came back for about the thousandth time as OBJ proceeded to post a cryptic tweet, only to feed into the speculation.
🤐☺️
— Odell Beckham Jr (@obj) February 13, 2019
Even if both receivers are available for trade, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers should steer clear of these two receivers for a multitude of reasons. One reason being that the Bucs currently have two young and thriving receivers playing outside the numbers already in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.
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In 2018 alone, Evans produced over 1,500 yards and eight touchdowns on 86 catches; this is a career high in receiving yards, and is the second most catches that Evans has snagged in a season. While there have been speculations that Tampa Bay will test his trade market, that would be foolish. Evans had a great season, but Godwin also had a breakout year in his second season in the league. The Penn State product put up an additional 850 yards and seven scores across from Evans in 2018, giving the Bucs a dynamic one-two punch heading into the 2019 season.
While the current talent is evident and a major reason for ignoring any trade offers for both Brown and Beckham Jr., it also does not make sense from a cap perspective for Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers currently only have a little over $16 million in cap space to play with and with players such as Donovan Smith, Adam Humpries, and Kwon Alexander sitting as unrestricted free agents, General Manager Jason Licht is going to need every last dollar he has.
The team is expecting to clear close to $30 million more by trading and cutting aging veterans such as Demar Dotson, DeSean Jackson, and potentially Gerald McCoy, but even so, the massive contracts of Brown or Beckham Jr. would be too hefty for a team that already has a true WR1. Do not expect any moves to be made for either two of these superstar receivers, and ignore any rumors that suggest otherwise.