According to Pro Football Talk, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are currently $25.05 million under the salary cap. The Bucs will be allowed to carry over all that salary cap space to next season. The Sun Sentinel estimated that the salary cap would be set at $124 million next season. Meanwhile, the Bucs have committed $93 million to the salary cap next season. Detract from that Albert Haynesworth's $7.2 million cap number, as the Bucs are exceedingly likely to cut him rather than paying him that kind of money, and we come up with the following number:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will likely have $63.2 million in salary cap space next season.

Holy cow, that's a lot of salary cap space. That's enough salary cap space to sign four or five top-tier free agents to big contracts. By frontloading those contracts (something they did last season with Quincy Black and Davin Joseph), the Bucs could ensure that their salary cap space in future years won't be threatened by hefty contracts.

Fans have been clamoring for free agency activity for years, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have made it subtly known that those fans will get what they want this offseason. The Bucs will be players in free agency - though to what extent is obviously still unclear. But the Bucs don't need to skimp on contracts to sign players - at least not for the sake of the salary cap.