"Everybody seems to be working on a year-to-year basis” - Former NFL player doesn't believe Tom Brady effect will be enough to help Buccaneers rope in free agents
On Monday morning's First Take, former NFL player and current analyst Louis Riddick shared his thoughts on Tom Brady's return and its impact on the Bucs in free agency.
While the salary cap was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic last off-season, we saw many players sign more one-year and two-year deals than ever before. The salary cap went back up this season to $208.2 million per team for the 2022 season. It's an increase of $25.7 million from last year's cap of $182.5 million.
Riddick, however, thinks free-agency will be different heading forward with a bunch of one-year and two-year deals. But remember, last year was a down year salary cap-wise, where many people took below-market contracts, short-term contracts because they wanted a crack at it in 2022 when the salary cap would explode again, and go back up.
“Yeah, you know, look. I will never discount Tom's ability to draw people in and make them want to play with him. Especially if this is ultimately his swan song this year. And they all and ultimately, many people on their football team feel ‘Oh, look, we do have some unfinished business and maybe we can win a Super Bowl this year.'
He went on to say:
"But remember, last year was a down year salary cap-wise, where many people took below-market contracts, short-term contracts because they wanted a crack at it in 2022 when the salary cap would explode again, and go back up.
"And then cap-impeded teams will be flushed with cash and cap space, you know, hypothetically. And there's going to be teams that are. And there's going to be teams that are willing to go ahead and pay above market. Because look, we are in a time period now in the NFL where there are no more three, four, five-year plans.
Everybody seems to be working on a year-to-year basis. Everybody is like ‘hey, what can I do to win this year? To hell with next year and two years down the road. How can we compete this year? Because look, the Rams are doing it. They're winning games," said Riddick.
With Tom Brady coming back for another season, Riddick added that teams might take the Rams approach and target players via trade to help them with their win-now mindset.
"Tom's coming back for one more year because he wants to run it back. Aaron Rodgers is coming back.’ Look, teams are not necessarily, and I'm not saying I just totally agree with this. But this is very much so a year-to-year type of league man. And teams are going to throw money at some of these free agents in hopes that they can strike it big and kind of like foster the right kind of chemistry and the right kind of cohesion within their roster the same way that the Rams did this year with some very targeted free acquisitions and trades. And some of these guys gonna say, ‘Tom, I love you, man. But you know what? My career is short, too. I don't know how long, I can't play 22 years like you. So I don't know if I can come back.’ So we'll see,” Riddick added.
The Buccaneers have re-signed Ryan Jensen, expected to re-sign Gronk following Tom Brady's return
Following the news of Brady's return, Bucs center Ryan Jensen has re-signed with the team on a three-year deal.
The #Bucs are also working on a deal to bring back Rob Gronkowski.
#GoBucs
Buccaneers are giving center Ryan Jensen a three-year, $39 million contract, per source. twitter.com/adamschefter/s…
The team is expected to re-sign Rob Gronkowski as well.