An offseason of tremendous change is officially upon the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With Tom Brady announcing his retirement from the NFL, the team now needs to start making decisions about what the future looks like and who is going to be a part of it.
The upside is that there’s clarity on what path the team will walk. There was hope that Brady would return for a fourth season in Tampa Bay, but how the Bucs approached this offseason largely hinged on what Brady would end up doing.
Now that he’s retired, the team at least has direction in how it should chart its offseason course.
The first order of business is figuring out how to deal with the salary situation. Tampa Bay enters the offseason $55 million over the cap, which meant even if Brady was returning the team would need to make some serious cuts and big time decisions.
With Brady out of the picture, those decisions will still be difficult but could make them easier for the front office to stomach.
This is likely the first Brady-centric move that gets made. Julio Jones is a free agent this offseason, but there’s absolutely zero incentive for Tampa Bay to bring him back if Brady isn’t going to be here in 2023. The whole reason Julio came to Tampa was to team up with the GOAT in an effort to win a Super Bowl.
Jones didn’t get a ring out of his stint with the Bucs, but he might have bought himself another few years in the league playing that mercenary role. He struggled to stay healthy, but when he was in the lineup he was an effective part of an otherwise bad offense. Teams like the Cowboys or Chiefs could bring him in for receiver depth. Kansas City specifically, a team that started to run out of bodies in the AFC Championship Game and likely could have used a guy like Julio who probably would have made some sort of clutch catch that reminded us all why he was such a beloved player in his prime.
Not for nothing, but Jerry Jones loves his veteran receivers and has always had a soft spot for Julio. Doing what he tried to do in Tampa but with Dak in Dallas might be in the future.
Potential Landing Spots: Cowboys, Packers, Chiefs
Potential Landing Spots: Bears, Patriots, Bengals
There’s no nice way to put it, Donovan Smith was awful for the Buccaneers in 2022 and one of the most frustrating players on the team. Always good for a handful of bad holding penalties each game, some of which came as momentum-killers, Smith was ranked by Pro Football Focus ranked as the 68th tackle in the league.
Granted, he played tough through an elbow injury so as to not further deplete the Bucs offensive line — which is very admirable and worth tipping the cap to — his time with the team seems to be over.
He still has a year left on his contract, but there’s no way the Bucs will deem him worth the hefty price tag he carries. Smith’s cap hit is over $17 million but Tampa Bay can save $15.2 million by cutting or trading him after June 1st and can do so knowing there will likely be interest in him throughout the league.
A team desperate for offensive line help might bring him in on a cheaper deal. The Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals both come to mind, as do the New England Patriots. Chicago needs to find protection for Justin Fields and Smith could serve as a veteran presence on a young team while also using his stint with the Bears to get back to the player he was before. The Bengals and Patriots are intriguing in that they have coaching staffs that might be able to tap back into the things that made Smith a solid lineman and also coach the mistakes out of his game.
Try committing the number of holding penalties Smith did this year under Belichick and see how long that lasts.
There’s a chance the Buccaneers try to bring Fournette back, but the math just doesn’t add up. If Jason Licht and company are trying to get under the cap and need to make tough decisions to get there, Fournette checks a lot of boxes.
He’s still owed close to $14 million over the next two seasons, and the Bucs could save as much as $6 million this offseason if they cut or trade Fournette.
Fournette was the team’s leading rusher last season and gave fans plenty of memories that will last a lifetime thanks to Playoff Lenny. But Tampa Bay’s run game was dead last in the league and the emergence of Rashaas White makes losing Fournette easier to stomach.
There’s a chance he comes back if the Bucs want to gamble that whoever comes in to replace Byron Leftwich will fix the running game. He’s only 28 years old and still has some solid seasons ahead of him before he hits the inevitable wall that all running backs seem to hit in their 30s. But there will be cheaper options in free agency, and this year’s NFL Draft Class seems to be loaded with guys who might be able to step in next to White and be a lot less of a hit to the cap than Fournette would be.
Possible Landing Spots: Vikings, Panthers, Rams
Hicks leaving the Bucs shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as he fell into the Julio Jones category of mercenaries trying to capitalize on Tom Brady’s final year in the league.
Last season didn’t go as planned for anyone, and Hicks lost a bet that he’d be heading into this offseason with a Super Bowl ring. Instead, he heads into free agency looking for what he couldn’t find in Tampa Bay and he’s going to have some intriguing options.
Hicks could hitch his wagon to another future Hall of Famer in Green Bay. If Aaron Rodgers decides to return to the Packers, Hicks could add some much-needed defensive line help. Green Bay’s defense cratered when it lost Rashan Gary to a torn ACL, and having Hicks around could negate some of the effects should the Packers defense suffer blows like that in the future. He’s also an old NFC North vet, so Hicks knows the competition and could fit right in.
The Ravens love guys like Hicks, who doesn’t need to start every game but feels like the type of veteran addition that John Harbaugh makes and then watches as he has an impact. Ditto for the Kansas City Chiefs, who watched their rookies make a big impact on defense this year but could use depth from a guy like Hicks to make it an even more unfair front to play against.
Potential Landing Spots: Packers, Chiefs, Ravens
This one might be the most painful cut of the entire offseason. Lavonte David has been with the Buccaneers through good times and bad, and will likely one day see his name added to the Ring of Honor at Raymond James Stadium.
But his laying days in Tampa Bay might be over.
David is 33 years old and in a position to look elsewhere in the NFL for an opportunity to win another Super Bowl ring. There’s a world where he comes back to Tampa Bay and continues to be a part of a defense he helped build into one of the league’s best, but the Bucs have neither the money nor the upside that David might find somewhere else.
He’s not going to be insanely expensive, as the Bucs could offer him a short-term deal around $10 million. But if Tampa Bay can offer that, so too can teams like the Cowboys or Giants who could use a guy like David to reinforce already great defenses but with Super Bowl upside the Bucs don’t have.
Even a team like the Vikings could bring in David to help set its defense straight. Having David work alongside Eric Kendricks and the rest of the Minnesota defense seems like a slam dunk addition for a unit that needs to get right in 2023. Then there’s the Jets, where Robert Salah would probably love to add a guy like David. If New York brings in Aaron Rodgers this offseason, then David walks into the best position he’s been in since 2020 to win another Super Bowl.
It would be another gut punch for Bucs fans if David left, but it would be the right thing for him to do. He’ll always be a Buccaneer, but his playing days for the franchise and for the fans might be over.
Potential Landing Spots: Cowboys, Vikings, Jets, Giants