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Bucs’ Director of Football Administration Mike Greenberg has a thing for working contracts. They are almost like magic.
For some time now, Tampa Bay has been signing players to contracts that are very team friendly and easy on the cap. The latest signing of defensive end Vinny Curry is another example of what the team is able to do on a yearly basis with the signing of players.
Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times had the information on Twitter, reporting a three-year, $23 million with only $6.5 million guaranteed.
DE Vinny Curry's deal with Bucs is 3 years, $23-million. Only first year salary of $6.5-million is guaranteed right now. Bucs could walk away with 1 year, $6.5m. Another $5-million guaranteed against injury now, fully guaranteed if he's on roster on 5th day of 2019 league year.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) March 20, 2018
Vinny Curry's deal with Bucs also has incentives based on sacks and team making playoffs, which can get it up to three years, $27-million. But for now, Curry is $6.5m for 2018, barely more than Ayers was at $6.0m.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) March 20, 2018
The Buccaneers could cut ties after the 2018 season and incentivized the deal with sacks and playoff appearances for the team.
What’s striking here is the comparison to recently released defensive end Robert Ayers. Tampa Bay basically swapped one for the other while getting a better deal.
NFLPA’s numbers (albeit not updated daily) have the Bucs at just over $50-million left for 2018 in cap space. But if you calculate it yourself and are daring enough to go with a guesstimate, the team has just under $25-million or so left to play with.