Buccaneers spent $9.5 million on three free agents

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed three free agents, but until now we didn't really know how expensive they were. Pewter Report dug up the details for each of the team's signings, though. We already knew that Bruce Carter was getting $4.25 million for the upcoming year, fully guaranteed, with non-guaranteed $4.25 million salaries for the final three years of his contract. We also knew that Chris Conte was getting a solid, $1.5 million deal, which is perfectly manageable.

What we didn't know was that Henry Melton was getting a whopping $3.75 million for his one year with the Bucs. That gives him a bigger salary than nose tackle Clinton McDonald, who's making $3.25 million this year. That despite the fact that Melton is likely to play far fewer snaps as the backup three-technique than McDonald is as the starting nose tackle.

These deals aren't very expensive, but they're not exactly cheap, either. In all, the Bucs have now spent some $9.5 million on these three free agents -- though saved some $5 million by cutting Anthony Collins and Michael Johnson. The Bucs have around $28 million in cap space right now, can free up significantly more by releasing Michael Koenen and Dashon Goldson. There's no excuse not to just spend, except for one: there's no one left to spend it on.