Could the rich be getting even richer this offseason? The Tampa Bay Bucs are just a few weeks removed from their blowout Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs and now there is talks of the team coming back even stronger in 2021.
During an interview on the DNVR Three Ring Circus podcast, NFL Network’s James Palmer stated the Bucs are expected to have a great time in free agency, and it’s all because of Tom Brady combined with a shrinking salary cap.
“There’s people around the league that I talk to that think there’s going to be some super teams attempted to be put together for one year because of this style of where the cap is,” Palmer explained. “Guys are going to take less money and go play with Tom Brady in Tampa for one season and then we get back on track and then they’re going to ask for their regular money [after the 2021 season].”
The salary cap is projected to drop next season, which works in the Bucs favor as teams will have less cap space to outbid Tampa for their own free agents.
Palmer alluded that free agents might find it harder to get lucrative contract offers they were expecting and it might have them coming right back to Tampa.
Bucs players expected to hit the free-agent market include Lavonte David, Shaq Barrett, Ndamukong Suh, Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown, Leonard Fournette and Chris Godwin.
Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians indicated the team has a goal of retaining “five or six,” but did not point out which players.
“For us right now, it’s just keeping this team together,” Arians explained to WDAE radio, per JoeBucsFan.com. “And that’s probably going to eat up most of the salary cap if we can just keep or five or six guys that we want to keep on this football team, and keep the closeness and the accountability factor that we have in the locker room.”
