Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Bucs restructure Shaq Barrett's contract, create cap space

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 3/16/22

The name of the game this week is for NFL teams to create as much space under the salary cap as they can with the free-agent market now open. That's exactly what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did when they restructured edge rusher Shaq Barrett's contract on the first day of free agency.

The #Bucs have restructured Shaq Barrett’s contract to create some cap space for the team, per @DrewJRosenhaus and @NFLrecord.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 16, 2022

The exact details of the new contract have not been made public, although ProFootball Talk suggests a portion of Barrett's salary for next season was converted into a signing bonus in order to spread the cap hit over multiple seasons.

Barrett signed a four-year, $68.5 million deal with TB last year. According to Spotrac, the 29-year-old was set to make $16 million next season, which would have carried a cap hit over $19 million.

Tampa Bay has been busy locking down their roster for next season now that Tom Brady — who carries a cap hit over $20 million — has decided to return for yet another NFL season. They also converted some of nose tackle Vita Vea's contract, which reportedly freed up $7.64 million.

The #Buccaneers converted $9.55M of Vita Vea’s 2022 base salary into signing bonus to free up this $7.64M of cap.

Tampa Bay now sits around $3.25M over heading toward March 16th. https://t.co/5oRyV17Co1 https://t.co/nHHjRUPHIo
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 12, 2022