Titans can fix Tampa Bay Buccaneers cap problem with sneaky trade
By Will Lomas
Tampa Bay’s under the radar trade chip.
The Bucs don’t have a lot of ways that they can create cap space at this point with most of their big-name players locked into guaranteed contracts or having literally no proven depth behind them.
Of course, the one area where that isn’t true is for the Bucs tight end room.
I have already talked about Gronk being brought in and we are in a crucial time for former 1st round pick O.J. Howard. However, all reports are that the Bucs want to be “blown away” by a trade for Howard and he wouldn’t save them much cap space anyway so I don’t think a deal is likely there are this point.
Instead, I would shift my eyes towards the subtle star TE of that offense in Cameron Brate. There are signs that despite his production, Brate could be the odd man out, starting with his contract restructure:
Bucs have restructured the contract of tight end Cameron Brate to keep him in Tampa. He was due to make $6 million in 2020, and $4m of that would have been guaranteed today. 27 TDs in last five years, and a key target for Tom Brady this fall. Details to come.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) March 22, 2020
This was tweeted BEFORE Gronk was traded for, and as a player who has thrived as a red zone target and a blocker, you can see the redundancy in having both of those two guys on the roster costing you nearly $15 million in 2020.
Why not kill two birds with one stone and improve the running back room while also getting rid of a tight end who is just three years younger than Gronk?
But, why would the Titans do this?