As of a week ago, the Bucs were set to be about $6 million under the salary cap as the 2025 league year began on Wednesday.
But over this past week, they made several moves that will cost money against the salary cap. They signed external free agents Haason Reddick, Riley Dixon, Kindle Vildor, Charlie Heck and Anthony Walker. They also re-signed internal free agents Kyle Trask, Anthony Nelson, Greg Gaines and Ben Bredeson.
All of these moves require salary cap space. It makes sense that the team would restructure existing contracts to create that room. And now, according to Greg Auman of Fox Sports, they have done that with the most likely candidate.
Bucs have restructured the contract of tackle Tristan Wirfs to create cap space — $26 million base salary converted to $1.17 million and bonus (pro-rated over five years) so that creates $19.86 million in new cap space, more than covering the team’s initial wave of signings.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) March 14, 2025
Bucs RT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
That one restructure should pay for most of the aforementioned moves. Tristan Wirfs was the best option for this move for several reasons.
He is coming off of an excellent season, pointing to his play justifying higher cap hits in the future. He also just finished the final year of his rookie deal and is only now entering the first year of his five-year extension. And so, this restructure will only push the accounting for this amount through the actual life of the deal. There is no dead money associated with this move as long as Wirfs plays out the entire contract.
And at $26 million, his base salary was the second-largest on the team behind only quarterback Baker Mayfield, meaning it provided the second most cap savings. Other candidates for this restructure included Mayfield, Mike Evans, Vita Vea and Antoine Winfield Jr.
With the exception of Mayfield, the team would not have been able to open up as much room and with all of these moves. And in a max restructure format, all four of these contracts would have meant creating void years and dead cap down the line. Wirfs presented the perfect blend of space and length of deal.
How Much Cap Space Is Needed?
Bucs OLB Haason Reddick – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
We don’t have all of the details for every one of the signings so far. But here is what we do know. The Reddick deal is for one year and $14 million. Not all $14 million has to be accounted for, as $2,000,000 of it is tied to per game roster bonuses.
Since Reddick only played 10 games last year, 7/17 of that $2 million, or $823,529, is considered not likely to be earned and is exempt from this year’s cap calculation. As such, Reddick’s cap number for 2025 is $13,176,471.
Bredeson’s contract is for $22 million over three years. The Bucs are paying him $2 million in base salary plus a $5,500,000 million roster bonus this year. The roster bonus is prorated over five years, meaning only $1,100,000 of it is applied to this year’s salary cap. That makes Bredeson a $3,100,000 million cap hit this year.
Nelson will count $5.5 million against the cap this year as part of his two-year, $10 million pact. Greg Gaines’ cap hit for his one-year deal will be fully accounted for at $3.5 million.
Bucs QB Kyle Trask – Photo by: USA Today
The Bucs are taking advantage of some special provisions in the NFL-NFLPA collective bargaining agreement with respect to Trask and Vildor. Vildor was signed under the veteran salary benefit rule. Tampa Bay will pay him $1,337,500 but only have to account for $1,197,500 of it on the salary cap as if he only has two accrued seasons when he actually has six.
Similarly, Trask will be paid $2,787,000 this year, but the Bucs will only be charged $1,337,500 on the salary cap as his deal is being executed as a four-year player qualifying contract.
Dixon’s deal is for two years and $6 million. We don’t have the details of the structure yet, but let’s assume the Bucs want to account for it on a fairly straightforward basis with even cap hits of $3 million in each year. The terms of Heck and Walkers’ deals have not been announced yet, but it’s safe to say both will be for a single year and less than $2 million.
The grand total of these salary cap charges comes to somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 million-$31 million. Wirfs’ restructure covers about two-thirds of that total. And again, the team had about $6 million in space to begin with. Where did the rest come from?
Chris Godwin’s Extension
Bucs WR Chris Godwin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Prior to the new league year commencing this past Wednesday, the Bucs came to terms with Chris Godwin on a three-year contract extension.
After pushing back the voiding of his previous contract to the start of the new league year, this deal meant the $18,852,000 in dead salary cap the team was set to take on was once again prorated across the 2025, 2026 and 2027 seasons. This pushed $11,318,000 of it off of the 2025 books. If the new deal is structured like the previous one, which I think it will be, the new cap charges for 2025 will only be about $5,500,000, saving the team a total of $5,818,000 in salary cap to help make up the difference for the new additions.
I predict Godwin’s total cap charge for 2025 will be $13,034,000. He will also have cap hits of $33,659,000 in 2026 and $29,909,000 in 2027 with a dead cap charge of $8,250,000 in 2028.
As for Wirfs, this move will change his cap number for every remaining year of his deal. The 2025 number will drop from $31,362,582 to $11,498,582. His cap hits in 2026 through 2029 will each raise by $4,966,000 to:
2026 – $36,328, 582
2027 – $36,328,586
2028 – $36,566,000
2029 – $32,991,000
