The Buccaneers signed left tackle Donovan Smith to a three year extension this offseason, an investment that already looks sour.
As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers progress into their season further after a win over the Carolina Panthers on primetime television Thursday night, one major problem remains: left tackle. To add insult to injury, the Buccaneers put themselves in this predicament this offseason and have backed themselves into a corner at the blindside position with Donovan Smith.
This offseason, former second round pick of the team Smith was set to hit the open market after four seasons in Tampa. On the edge of the franchise tag deadline, a route the Buccaneers looked to pursue, both sides were able to come to an agreement on a new three year extension.
This extension totaled out to about $13 million annually for the Penn State product in Smith, with $24 million of his salary guaranteed to him over the first two years of the deal. Left tackles are hard to find in the National Football League, however Smith’s performance to this point in his career did not warrant this rich of an extension, and now, they are tied to him until at least the 2021 offseason.
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Last year Smith surrendered a massive amount of pressures from opposing pass rushers that totaled over 40, while ranking as an average left tackle according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). He has been off to a rough start this 2019 season as well, getting beat by rookies Nick Bosa in week one and Brian Burns in week two.
However, one benefit of Smith is that he is steady and always on the field for the Buccaneers as he has not missed a game, now in his fifth year in the league. How much of a help is it to the team, though, if he is consistently losing off of the line of scrimmage and allowing pressure to get into the face of quarterback Jameis Winston?
Unless the Buccaneers are willing to do something they are historically unwilling to do and eat dead money, then they will have to ride out his guaranteed money through the 2020 season. While money was tight this offseason for the Bucs, next year will not be the case as they will have a boatload of money to blow, so they could cut bait after this season and eat $12 million that is guaranteed to Smith after this season.
The Buccaneers are struggling up front in their offensive trenches, and that is mainly an issue they willingly chose to ignore this offseason in free agency and the draft. On top of willingly ignoring the issue, they made a bad investment in Smith and the left tackle position and now must live in the corner they backed themselves into.