The Tampa Bay Buccaneers spent the majority of their offseason attention (and salary cap space) keeping their own free agents in-house, and they were still able to add a handful of new faces on both sides of the ball.
Now, their focus turns not only toward the 2024 NFL draft, but also making sure they keep two more key players in a Tampa Bay uniform for the foreseeable future.
Left tackle Tristan Wirfs and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. are both expected to get long-term contract extensions at some point before the 2024 season begins, and Bucs general manager Jason Licht updated those negotiations during his predraft press conference Thursday.
“We’ve had really good discussions there,” Licht said. “Once again, it’s like the same thing when we were at the combine talking about Baker [Mayfield] and Mike [Evans] and Lavonte [David]. We really want them here, we want them here long term, I think they want to be here long term. We’ve had a good track record with getting things done. I feel pretty good about things getting done.”
Wirfs and Winfield were the Bucs’ first two draft picks back in 2020, and they immediately helped lead Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl victory in their rookie season. They’ve also each earned first-team All-Pro honors already, and are expected to reset the financial markets for their respective positions with their new long-term deals.
Tampa Bay will have to break the bank to keep both of them, but that’s just a matter of when, not if.
