Carlton Davis will follow Ryan Jensen in staying with the Buccaneers. The standout cornerback agreed to terms with the Bucs on Monday afternoon, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
It is a three-year, $45MM pact, CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson tweets, adding that it comes with $30MM guaranteed (Twitter link). Davis will see $23.5MM fully guaranteed, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe notes (on Twitter), adding that Davis’ pact maxes out at $45MM. The base total figures to come in a bit below that.
Tampa Bay was over the cap before this Davis agreement, so the team will need to continue to make moves ahead of Wednesday’s start to the 2022 league year. But Davis returning fills a key need for a Bucs team that is now firmly back in the Super Bowl mix, Tom Brady having unretired and all. A team that was close to falling to fringe-contender status now has re-upped its center and top cornerback, spending to fortify its roster as it did in 2021.
Within minutes, cornerback-seeking teams have seen the two top UFAs move off the board. The Chargers just gave J.C. Jackson a $16.5MM-per-year deal; Davis’ checks in just below that. The former Bucs second-round pick will still earn top-10 cornerback money.
Although Davis missed seven games last season with a quad injury, he returned in early December and finished the season to re-establish his value. After a four-interception 2020 season, Davis nabbed just one pick last year. He allowed an 83.2 passer rating when targeted and entered the offseason as one of the top free agents available. This will ensure the Bucs’ top corners from recent years — the homegrown trio of Davis, Sean Murphy-Bunting and Jamel Dean — are on track to reprise their roles in 2022. The latter two will go into contract years.
Tampa Bay has lost both its guard starters from the past four seasons — Ali Marpet and Alex Cappa — to retirement and a Bengals defection, respectively, but the team has done well to make these deals happen. Although, the Bucs might have to dip into the void-year realm again to fit these contracts onto their payroll. (No void years are present in Davis’ deal, however, Greg Auman of The Athletic tweets.) Leonard Fournette, Rob Gronkowski, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh are still unattached.
Wow, that feels like a steal.
Was hoping Bengals would have grabbed him
I think Gronk will re-sign soon since Brady’s back.
Where is the cap room coming from. I thought Disney magic was Orlando not Tampa. Lol