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: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/FhXtx7w3wW pic.twitter.com/06xXbLoBGl — NFL (@NFL) September 17, 2023 But while there have been some high moments, Barrett’s play just doesn’t match the $17 million average annual value that his current contract pays him. And that calculus may play heavy in general manager Jason Licht and assistant general manager Mike Greenberg’s decision making in this next offseason. The aging Barrett will be entering the final year of his four-year contract with the Bucs and there are several factors that will play into what direction the Bucs’ brass decide to go in. Shaq Barrett’s 2024 Cap Hit 
Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett and DL Calijah Kancey and Falcons QB Desmond Ridder – Photo by: USA Today Let’s start with the simplest part of the equation. Shaq Barrett will be a $14,235,000 cap charge in 2024. That’s a real bargain compared to the aforementioned $17 million AAV (average annual value) the Bucs signed up for when they extended him prior to the 2021 season. That is because the team has slowly been kicking the accounting for their cap obligations to the outside linebacker – and others – down the road due to the team’s Super Bowl win in 2020 and recent playoff push through 2022 when Tom Brady was a Buccaneer. And the bill will come due soon. If the team opts to keep Barrett for the final year of his deal, they will be on the hook for a $29.433 million dead cap charge in 2025. If the salary cap moves to, say, $265 million in 2025, Barrett will account for just a hair over 11% of it – while not being a member of the team. The $14.235 million cap hit has several components that each have some bearing on how his future will play out. The first component is his base salary. As part of recent restructure this past summer to help the team clear cap room to sign Tampa Bay’s rookies, Barrett and the Bucs agreed to his base salary in 2024 being a league minimum $1.210 million. This salary is not guaranteed, so if the Bucs decide to part ways with the lovable linebacker, they can save both the cash and the cap charge. The next component is a prorated bonus amount of $9.267 million. This is money the team has already paid to Barrett but have yet to account for on past season’s salary cap calculations. It costs the team no actual cash moving forward (since they already paid it to him) but it cannot be discharged from cap calculations. If the Bucs do let Barrett go this becomes “dead money” that will still count against 2024’s salary cap. The next portion of Barrett’s 2024 cap charge is a per-game bonus agreement that can total up to $750,000. This is cash the team has not paid out yet, but they would have to based on how many games he plays in 2024. It is accounted for on the cap in two portions. The first is as a “likely to be earned” (LTBE) bonus that is immediately accounted for based on how many games he plays in 2023. Barrett has played in every game in the 2023 season thus far and is on track to play their Week 16 matchup against the Jaguars. That means at least $661,765 will show up on his 2024 cap charge with their being a good chance he gets this all the way to the full $750,000. This is not guaranteed money from a cap perspective, so if the team cuts ties they would be able to save both the cash payout as well as the cap liability. Bucs Have An Option Bonus Decision To Make 
Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett and DT Vita Vea – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR The last component of Shaq Barrett’s financial future that the team has to make a decision on is an option bonus of $15.04 million the team will either opt-in to or out of. The money will be paid immediately to Barrett, but the bonus will be technically prorated from a cap standpoint over five years. This means it will only present a $3.008 million cap charge in 2024. But this will balloon the 2025 cap liability the team will face. As part of extending their Super Bowl window from 2020-2022 and the subsequent decisions the team had to make to navigate their way out of that precarious position the Bucs’ multiple restructures of Barrett’s deal have left them with an accounting debt of $17.401 million. It started with the original deal. The team opted to spread Barrett’s initial signing bonus of $18.75 million over five years rather than the four he was signed to play for. This meant the team was signing up from jump street to take on a dead cap hit of $3.75 million. The Bucs compounded that decision prior to the 2022 season when they converted $14.5 million of Barrett’s salary to a prorated bonus spread over another five years. This pushed another $5.8 million in “dead money” past the end of Barrett’s contractual obligations. They repeated the process this year with another $13.085 million conversion that created another $7.851 million in dead money. The option bonus the contract calls for in 2025 is treated the same way. If they pick it up the cap payments technically spread over five years (2024 plus four “dummy” years). But as soon as the contract voids after the 2024 season all of those dummy year placeholders accelerate to the current year (2025). This will push the $17.401 million dead cap charge all the way up to $29.433 million. Cutting Barrett Creates Similar Cap Ramifications A Year Early 
Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett and Titans QB Will Levis – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR The team can save Barrett’s 2024 salary, per game roster bonuses and the $15 million option bonus if they cut him. This represents cap savings of almost $5 million. But the acceleration of all of the current dead money being held in 2025 and beyond would accelerate to 2024. That’s that $17.401 million number I detailed earlier. The net is a $12.433 million increase in Barrett’s 2024 salary cap charge. Based on the 2024 NFL salary cap currently being projected to 2024 as $242 million Barrett’s dead cap hit of $26.668 million would represent 11% of the team’s salary cap. Tampa Bay, therefore, faces two tough options. The first, allow Barrett to play 2024 for a reasonable cap hit of $14.235 million and eat their vegetables in 2025 with an 11% dead cap hit. The second, would be to eat those same vegetables in 2024 to clean up their books for 2025. Neither is ideal. If they choose to bite the bullet in 2024, they have room to account for the move amongst other likely options. Cash May Be Key In The Decision For Bucs 
Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett and Colts RB Jonathan Taylor – Photo by: USA Today The entire thing may come down to cash and not cap. We often talk in the NFL world about the cap implications of decisions. But we sometimes forget that these are real checks being cut by owners. And owners didn’t get to their current financial statuses by just writing checks one after another. We have covered all of the cap implications of either move, but you’ll notice I also noted the cash savings of some of the moves. The bottom line for the Glazer family is that by cutting Shaq Barrett next year they can save themselves $17 million in actual cash paid to Barrett. And if Jason Licht and Mike Greenberg tell them that Barrett’s play in 2024 won’t warrant that $17 million and all other things being equal from a cap perspective over a two-year period the team may opt to cut ties a year early with their former free-agent diamond in the rough. This would also give the team the opportunity to possibly see if former first-round pick Joe Tryon-Shoyinka can finally put it together in the last year of his rookie contract without reducing the snaps of 2023 third-round pick YaYa Diaby or give the team the roster spot needed to add an impact pass rusher either through free agency or the 2024 NFL Draft. The post Bucs Face Difficult Decision On Shaq Barrett Soon appeared first on Pewter Report. Source: https://www.pewterreport.com/shaq-barre ... -decision/
