The Tampa Bay Buccaneers spent money in the 2024 offseason like there was no tomorrow. That included mega-deals for quarterback Baker Mayfield (3 years, $100 million), wide receiver Mike Evans (2 years, $52 million), free safety Antoine Winfield (4 years, $84.1 million) and offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs (5 years, $140.6 million).
The Buccaneers enter the 2025 offseason with a much different reality.
The Buccaneers have such little salary cap space — an estimated $4.8 million — that Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti thinks one move the franchise might make to clear some more salary cap space could be to release veteran safety Jordan Whitehead.
“After a great 2023 campaign, Whitehead battled both a pec injury, and an unfortunate car accident through 2024, putting his immediate figure with the organization in a bit of question,” Ginnitti wrote on February 20. “The 2025 portion of his 2 year, $9M contract was always going to be a bit of an ‘option’ and Tampa Bay can free up $4.5M of cap by moving on this March.”
While Whitehead missed a career high 5 games in 2024, he still started all 12 games he played in and finished with 79 tackles and 3 pass deflections. The Buccaneers’ struggles in the secondary seemed more of a result of his and Winfield’s prolonged absence than anything else.
If those 2 can be healthy in 2025, that might actually be the best solution for an ailing defense. With that in mind, cutting Whitehead would seem to be the wrong move and the savings of $4.5 million wouldn’t do much to negate Tampa Bay’s other problems on defense.
Losing Whitehead just means bringing in another strong safety in free agency or via the draft — neither of which seem like a better option than the former Super Bowl champion.
Buccaneers Will Almost Certainly Draft Defense
If the Buccaneers were to cut Whitehead, it’s likely they’d use that money to sign a veteran edge rusher to a 1-year contract — possibly former No. 3 overall pick Dante Fowler after he led the Washington Commanders with 10.5 sacks in 2024.
That doesn’t really make sense, though, because releasing Whitehead creates just as pressing of a need in the secondary.
The more likely scenario for the Buccaneers? Draft an edge rusher in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft and possibly draft another safety in the later rounds — maybe even the second round. The latest mock draft roundup from USA Today has the Buccaneers projected to take Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) and Marshall edge rusher Mike Green (The 33rd Team) as possible first round picks.
Pro Football Network has the Buccaneers predicted to draft Texas A&M edge rusher Nic Scourton in the first round (No. 19 overall) in its latest mock draft.
From PFN on February 22: “Tampa Bay registered the sixth most sacks with 46 last season but did it without a premiere pass rusher. Nic Scourton’s power and explosiveness would play off of Calijah Kancey’s shiftiness and speed in the interior extremely well. Scourton looks to be the next highly productive rusher since Shaq Barrett.”
Comparing Scourton to Barrett is quite a compliment. Barrett led the NFL with 19.5 sacks and earned NFL All-Pro honors with the Buccaneers in 2019.
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