Kyle Rudolph’s debut season in Tampa Bay never left the harbor. After a season filled with speculation that he might retire, the 33-year-old tight end agreed to a one-year, $2 million deal with the Buccaneers in July of 2022.
Rudolph appeared in just nine games for the Bucs and didn’t manage a single start, listed as a healthy scratch for much of the season. He barely saw the field and, as such, didn’t see the ball much either, managing just three catches for 28 yards on the season. Rudolph ensured that the targets he did receive counted, converting two first downs and catching a touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons.
It didn’t help much that the Buccaneers could never get out of their own way either, particularly on offense. Even with future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady at the helm, the Buccaneers couldn’t seem to score, managing just 18.2 points per game, the 25th-best mark in the entire league. Poor play calling and a rash of injuries (most notably pro bowl center Ryan Jensen, who missed the entire season because of a training camp injury, only making it back for Tampa’s playoff matchup) helped sink the ship.
What’s Next for the Buccaneers?
The situation isn’t going to improve in 2023: Tampa Bay has some of the worst odds in the entire league to hoist the Lombardi Trophy next season, listed at or around +7000 at a number of Ohio sportsbooks. They barely made the playoffs last season, benefitting heavily from an abysmal NFC South division that they won despite having a losing record—someone had to win it, after all— and after going all in over the past three seasons in an attempt to win the Super Bowl in the twilight years of Brady’s career, the time has come for general manager Jason Licht to pay the piper.
The Buccaneers sit roughly $50 million over the salary cap for the upcoming season, so they’ll have to pare back their payroll considerably in the next three weeks just to avoid harsh sanctions from the league office. Even worse, nearly half of the Buccaneer’s roster in 2022 is set to hit the open market: the Buccaneers will have 23 unrestricted free agents out of their 53 roster spots, and they’ll be $50 million in the hole when it comes time to replace them.
Tampa Bay is staring down the barrel of winnowing of biblical proportions, but when you take into account the fact that this reckless spending earned them a championship in Super Bowl LV, it’s well worth the hard luck.
The elephant in the room is the $35.1 million remaining cap hit from Brady’s contract. While Tampa could divide the money over the next two years in order to avoid a hefty cap charge, Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reported that the Buccaneers likely want to eat the charge all at once, getting it over with now so that they can prepare for contention in the post-Brady world after what is sure to be an ugly 2023 campaign.
What’s Next for Rudolph?
The 6-foot-6, 258-pound tight end, affectionately dubbed Rudolph the Red Zone Reindeer during his time with the Minnesota Vikings for his size and consequent touchdown-scoring ability, could be reaching the end of his professional career: there’s a decent chance he retires after two bad down years.
If Rudolph isn’t ready to hang up his cleats just yet, however, one place he could go is the Cleveland Browns. Rudolph is an Ohio native, born and raised on the other side of the Buckeye State in Cincinnati. He spent the first nine years of his career under the tutelage of Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, who fulfilled a number of roles for the Viking’s offensive staff, including as tight ends coach in 2014 and 2015, and as offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2019.
Rudolph enjoyed the best years of his career under Stefanski (admittedly in his late 20s, the prime years of just about any NFL career).
It doesn’t hurt that his asking price is about as low as it’ll ever get right now if he does decide to return to the field. The Browns have around $14 million in cap space as it currently stands, but that can open up considerably if they restructure big deals like quarterback Deshaun Watson’s $55 million cap hit. Rudolph was projected to go to Cleveland for much of the 2022 offseason, so a reunion with Stefanski could be in the cards if he (and perhaps more importantly, the Browns’ front office) think he’s got anything left in the tank.
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