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Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht was back it again today, this time it was to give the Bucs a little cap relief. In order to give the Bucs some wiggle-room, they restructured the contract of guard Ali Marpet, opening up $4.125M in cap space for this season according to Field Yates of ESPN;
A couple of teams restructured contracts of starting guards by converting salary into bonuses to create 2020 cap space:
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) October 21, 2020
▪️Buccaneers with Ali Marpet: $4.125M created
▪️49ers with Laken Tomlinson (voidable years added): $1.34M created
We just saw the Buccaneers make a trade to acquire former Steelers and Jets nose tackle Steve McLendon following the injury of Vita Vea. Now, the Bucs will have some room to make another move if they deem it necessary. Having that extra space could certainly help in the case of injury as we’ve already seen this season.
Prior to the move, the Buccaneers had the second-lowest cap space available according to Over The Cap with just over $200,000. Freeing up that $4.125 million could go a long way. Even if the Bucs don’t have to use it this season, it will carry over to 2021 when they will have plenty of new contracts to dish out as big names like Chris Godwin and Shaquil Barrett will be set to hit free agency.
This likely isn’t a precursor to a move they are about to make, but simply giving them financial flexibility moving forward.