Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Three veterans who could be surprise cuts

William Gholston – DL

This one would be stunning at first, but not impossible either, especially upon further review. While the Buccaneers have masterfully brought back every free agent from the Super Bowl team, now returning all 22 starters, one non-free agent starter may have to pay the price. This masterful job by Jason Licht and company have left the team with limited cap space moving forward, especially with this “kicking the can down the road” approach to restructuring contracts.

William Gholston starts on the defensive line opposite Vita Vea and Ndamukong Suh and really started to come into his own and blossom. The thing is, even with that being the case he hasn’t played more than 60% of the team’s defensive snaps since 2015.

Gholston’s contract is also set up to where he is owed $5.5 million heading into the final year of it in 2021. The kicker is, none of it is guaranteed. Should the Buccaneers choose to release Gholston, they would take on absolutely nothing in dead cap, and save themselves some dough.

Gholston is a very good player, and one of the longest-tenured Bucs, being drafted in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft. With the current state of the team’s finances and makeup though, he would also be one of the more obvious veteran camp cap casualties should the Buccaneers be forced to make such a sacrifice, which they may have to.