The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are locking up their star right tackle through the 2024 season.
According to Pewter Report, the team will exercise its fifth-year option on Tristan Wirfs. The big right tackle from Iowa was drafted by the Bucs with the 13th overall pick of the 2020 draft. He was the fourth offensive tackle selected after Andrew Thomas, Jedrick Wills, and Mekhi Becton, but has produced undoubtedly the best career to date of any of group, earning first-team All-Pro honors, two Pro Bowl selections, and anchoring the Bucs’ line during their 2020 Super Bowl run.
As such, picking up his fifth-year option by the May 1 deadline was all but guaranteed to happen. Because Wirfs has been selected to two Pro Bowls, his salary in his option year raises from $13.565 million to $18.244 million. And that’s still a steal for the market value of a player like Wirfs. Spotrac lists Wirfs’ market value as 24.7 million/year. They list a contract market value of 4 years, $99,091,528.
That’s a lot of savings for a team that really needs salary cap relief over the next few years. That being said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team act soon to extend Wirfs long-term and structure it for maximum cap relief in the early part of the deal. It would also help to extend him quickly in the event they decide to switch him to left tackle, which would potentially drive up his market value even further.
In any event, it appears the anchor of the Buccaneers’ line is set to don the pewter and red through at least the next two seasons.
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