The Buccaneers have done something that rarely if ever happens.
And they’ve done it twice.
The Buccaneers persuaded a pair of players who are eligible for second contracts to restructure the fourth-year salaries on their rookie contracts.
Via Greg Auman of Fox Sports, the Bucs converted the base salaries of left tackle Tristan Wirfs and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. to the minimum, converting the rest to a signing bonus and spreading it over the current year and four future years.
Winfield, who is in the final year of his rookie deal, went from $2.992 million in base pay to $1.01 million, with $1,982,000 converted to a signing bonus. It drops his cap number from $3.7 million to $2.1 million, creating $1.6 million in cap space.
Wirfs, who still has a fifth-year option in 2024, did the same thing. Same prior base salary of $2.992 million. Same conversion to the minimum of $1.01 million.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Buccaneers did not have the automatic contractual right to do the restructurings. That makes it a little surprising that the players went along with it. They could have simply insisted on their second contracts, and the financial reward that goes along with them.
That said, there’s a tax benefit that comes from maximizing signing bonus paid out in Florida, with no state income tax, and minimizing base salary, which is subject to state taxes for games played in states that have it.
The Bucs needed to kick the can by nearly $3.2 million in order to create cap space for the signing of their draft picks. Yes, that’s how tightly they were pressed against the cap.
They entered the year roughly $50 million over the limit, thanks in large part to the $35 million in dead money they’ll carry for Tom Brady, who could have done a one-year dummy deal aimed at reducing that number dramatically in 2023, after he announced his retirement. But he didn’t.
In March, the team’s official website posted a glass-half-full puff piece defending the current cap bulge as the bill for winning a Super Bowl, while also arguing that the Bucs intend to compete this year even with so little cap space. Regardless, they’ve had to send millions into 2024 and beyond in order to balance the current books.
And, most recently, they’ve had to get a couple of fourth-year players to restructure at a time when those players deserve extensions.