Check another one of those star NFL free agents off the list because middle linebacker Lavonte David signed a two-year, $25 million deal with the Bucs to remain where he has spent his whole career. The move was a must for the defending champs.
The news of the former Nebraska Cornhusker signing the deal came less than 24 hours after the news broke that the Bucs franchise tagged receiver Chris Godwin.
On paper, it might be a bit concerning to see this deal being made after the franchise tag news was announced, because Godwin is expected to make $16 million on that tag, and obviously on paper David would be making $12.5 million. But, fear not, the Bucs mustered up some salary cap magic in the form of “voidable years” which allows David to only count $3.5 million against the cap this year.
The Bucs used three “voidable years” to make David’s cap number spread more evenly, and make his salary more manageable in a year where the cap has shrunk from $198.2 million last year to $182.5 million for this season, according to a recent Tweet from Adam Schefter.
How does using “voidable years” work? Basically, a player’s cap hit is a total of their annual salary and their signing bonus. Their signing bonus is usually spread out over the duration of the years they actually play on whatever team they’re signed with, but the voidable years method—used in recent years by the Saints and Eagles, who are now feeling the awful effects of abusing it, much like a hangover—allows teams to stretch a player’s signing bonus, and thus their salary cap hit, over several years, even if the player isn’t still on the roster.
So in David’s case, the Bucs are stretching the cap hit over five years, three of them being voided, allowing them more cap flexibility for this season.
The problem with this, as we’re seeing with the Saints and the Eagles, is that when the players with the voided years are playing for other teams, the original teams still have those guys on the books as cap hits, making it that much harder to retain and sign players in free agency. So while it’s certainly nice that the Bucs are able to stretch the salary cap for this year, Tampa Bay needs to watch out, because abusing this method could create a future hell where the Bucs are releasing half a roster because they’re still paying guys who are playing for other teams.
Then again, if the Bucs can repeat this year, who the hell cares about the future? The Saints’ situation is so ugly because New Orleans is finally releasing players after four years of choking in the playoffs despite having one of the best rosters in the league every year. Who Dat nation didn’t even get a Super Bowl appearance out of all their salary cap maneuvering, much less a ring, and now they won’t be good for another decade.
The Bucs may be wading into dangerous waters, but the team has a winning culture that the Saints could just never establish. So when Tampa Bap keeps its guys, the team is re-signing players who know how to win games, not just guys who like to talk trash on Twitter or get on a soapbox about how important it is to stand for the anthem because their grandfather served in WWII.
We’ll see how the Bucs play the rest of free agency, with guys like Gronk, Shaq Barrett and Ndamokung Suh still in the free market, as the Bucs lack the cap space to re-sign all three.
Difficult decisions to come.
Follow @CTBrantley12 on Twitter.
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This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2021.