The Buccaneers are carrying a whopping $35.1 million salary cap hit for Tom Brady this year, and their dead cap hits for other veterans they signed with the intention of winning with Brady are also significant. But they have no regrets.
Brady, of course, won the Super Bowl in his first year in Tampa Bay, the Bucs had a very good team in his second year, and even in a disappointing third year they still won the NFC South. Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht said today he’d take that every time.
“If I go back in time I would do it all again. We pushed, we borrowed about $100 million against this year’s cap and future cap to do what we did, Licht said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “Came close the second time but you know if anybody wants to criticize what they did, they can come to any of our three homes and look at our ring. . . . We’re gonna pursue another one too.”
Licht is right: Super Bowl rings don’t come along very often, and teams that earn one will always accept the trade-off of having some down years when their Super Bowl-winning players retire. The Bucs’ decision to sign Brady, and the moves they made to build the team around him, were a success.