A former Buccaneers Super Bowl Champion took to X to sound out his frustration with the Buccaneers organization on the way that they’ve handled Vita Vea’s contract situation.
Former Bucs defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh sounded off on how the Bucs have waited until the last minute to try and get a deal done with Vea, a player Suh played with and mentored from 2019 to 2021.
This is what Suh had to say regarding Vea’s contract situation with the Bucs.
“I’ve never understood why teams want to wait until the last minute to have discussions or
create even further tension in a relationship where it could just be easily clear, clean
communication. But why wait till the last minute?” Suh asked.
“If this is a cornerstone player of your organization, somebody that’s helped you win a championship, multiple Pro Bowls, and has an opportunity to still play at a very, very high level for your organization. If you value them, you tell them that, and let’s figure out a mutual relationship versus waiting to the very last minute.
“And who in their right mind would go to a job and have no guarantee of what their salary is going to be? Like to me, I’m not going to go work out for free and play for free. And you wouldn’t just show up to work for free.”
Now, we don’t know the level of communication the Buccaneers and Vea’s team are on right now. There could be clear communication between the two sides that none of us know about. However, with Vea’s trade request being a thing, it could be possible that things are not very clear regarding the two camps on where a potential deal should be.
Nobody is debating that Vea is not a good player. At almost 32 years old, though, it does put the Buccaneers into a tough situation to commit a lot of guaranteed money and years to a player who, quite frankly, might not have much shelf life left.
Despite what Suh says, Vea does know what his upcoming salary is going to be this season. He’s going to be making 17 million dollars in base salary over the season, with another 4.1 million due to the team restructuring his salary in the past, and he gets all of this by showing up to work and playing games for the Bucs. Yes, he doesn’t have any “guaranteed” money in his contract, and that is a thing that players understandably take very seriously.
Vea will report to training camp with the Buccaneers when veterans report Wednesday. What happens after that remains to be seen.
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