Buccaneers cut Connor Barth's pay to $500,000, alter 2014 terms to create cap space

According to Over The Cap, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will pay Connor Barth $500,000 of his $2.3 million base salary this season. The kicker is listed on the Non-Football Injury list and will not play this season after tearing his Achilles in a charity basketball game during the offseason. The Buccaneers could have refused to pay any of the kicker's salary, but that would have reflected poorly on the organization.

In addition, Over The Cap claims the Buccaneers have converted $1.15 million of his base salary for next season to per-game 53-man roster bonuses to create cap space. Incentives like that are only counted against the cap before they're paid if the player reached that performance level the year before. Because Barth will not be on the 53-man roster this year, the incentives do not count against the cap until (and if) they are reached.

In total, these two moves will create $2.95 million in salary cap space for next season. They can create an additional $2 million in cap space by cutting Barth before the 2014 season. The Buccaneers are close to the cap next year, with about $119 million in salary cap spending by my numbers. The salary cap was $123 million and the Buccaneers are likely to carry over somewhere between $5 million and $8 million in 2013 cap space to next year, which should give them some room to breathe. The Bucs also see guarantees on a few expensive contracts run out next season, which could help them to save further space.

More from Bucs Nation:

• Buccaneers cancel throwbacks against Cardinals
• Darrelle Revis says he is happy to be a Buccaneer
• Josh Freeman is not as bad as his statistics suggest
• Saints vs. Buccaneers Snap Counts: Darrelle Revis had nearly full participation
• Rob Gronkowski Injury: Patriots tight end "50/50" to return against Buccaneers