Cameron Brate - Pro Football Rumors

Bucs Notes: Brady, TEs, OL, Free Agency

June 4th, 2020 at 2:57pm CST by Sam Robinson

Tom Brady‘s transition to a new team in advance of his 21st NFL season has obviously been less than ideal, with the COVID-19 pandemic preventing the future Hall of Famer from working with teammates and coaches at the Buccaneers‘ facility. The first time the soon-to-be 43-year-old quarterback is expected to be permitted to enter his new team’s facilities will be training camp. But the Bucs do not plan to compensate for this by giving Brady more preseason work. Bruce Arians said Thursday he doubts Brady will need more preseason time to make up for the virtual offseason, per Greg Auman of The Athletic (on Twitter). Still, Brady’s preseason snaps figure to be more important than usual this year.

Here is the latest out of Tampa:

Arians has not gotten much out of the tight end position during his stay as head coach in Arizona and Tampa. That should soon change. The Bucs currently house an all-time tight end stable, with Rob Gronkowski joining the team’s O.J. Howard–Cameron Brate duo already regarded as one of the NFL’s best. Arians said the Bucs will use a two-tight end offense as their base this season (via Auman, on Twitter). Going with more “12 personnel” looks would give Howard and Brate more time on the field and potentially represent an effort to conserve Gronkowski, who retired partially because of injury issues last year. This also points to the Bucs giving stronger consideration to keeping all three tight ends rather than trading Howard or Brate. Arians even said he’s interested in three-tight end looks.
Tampa Bay is not expected to make a move to add interior offensive linemen to back up starters Ali Marpet, Alex Cappa and Ryan Jensen, Arians added (via Auman, on Twitter). The Bucs did not draft any guards or centers, but Arians likes what he has seen from backups Aaron Stinnie, Anthony Fabiano and Zack Bailey. A fifth-year blocker, Fabiano is now on his eighth team. Stinnie was a 2018 Titans UDFA; Bailey was a Bucs 2019 UDFA who spent much of last year on IR.
However, the Bucs are keeping multiple roster spots open for possible veteran additions. Arians said (via Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com, on Twitter) he and GM Jason Licht discussed saving room for veterans who would be more prepared to play than rookie UDFAs. With Brady on a two-year deal, Tampa Bay stockpiling vets would make sense.

Trade Candidate(s): Buccaneers’ O.J. Howard, Cameron Brate

May 17th, 2020 at 10:28am CST by Zachary Links

To say that the Buccaneers are stacked at tight end would be a gross understatement. Even before the Bucs reunited Tom Brady with longtime teammate and bro Rob Gronkowski, they had the formidable 1-2 combo of O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate. Weeks after the draft, the Bucs still have that ludicrously talented TE trio in place. Logically, at least one of them probably has to go…and it obviously won’t be Gronk.

The Buccaneers listened on trade offers for Brate and Howard towards the end of last month, but they didn’t get any offers to their liking. Publicly, the Bucs said they were okay with having all three TEs on the roster. Then, before the early May deadline, they exercised Howard’s fifth-year option for 2021. This doesn’t automatically mean that Brate is the odd man out, or that they’ll commit a total of ~$20MM to the position. Howard’s option – guaranteed for injury only – doesn’t hamper the Bucs’ ability to trade him. Also, this surplus of TEs would be opulent, even by Brady’s standards.

Howard, ostensibly, holds more trade value than Brate. The Alabama product hasn’t lived up to his first-round billing, but he’s flashed serious ability and uncommon athleticism for a 6’6″ receiver. The Bills saw that first-hand last year, as Howard went off for six catches, 98 yards, and two scores in Buffalo. And, roughly one year earlier against the Eagles, he got nearly as many yards, just with better efficiency – three catches for 96 yards, mostly thanks to a 75-yard connection with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Teams aren’t sleeping on Brate, either. It’s true that he’ll turn 29 in July (Howard won’t be 26 until November), but he’s a proven playmaker and blocker. Between 2016 and 2017, he averaged 52 catches for 625 yards and seven TDs. After that, the Bucs rewarded him with a six-year, $41MM deal, including $18MM guaranteed. He’s been slowed by a surgically-repaired hip, but he’s more than a year removed from the operating table. It also helps that the Bucs restructured his deal in January. The exact terms of the restructure aren’t clear, but he’s probably on the books for less than the $4.5MM in guaranteed dollars he was slated for.

Howard wouldn’t be especially pricey for other teams, either – his rookie deal calls for a 2020 cap hit of just $3.5MM. The Bucs, meanwhile, would carry a $1.5MM charge for trading him.

The Bucs didn’t find any worthwhile deals for them in April, but interest should pick up between now and September. Even after drafting Cincinnati’s Josiah Deguara in the third round, the Packers could use a high-end TE to pair with Marcedes Lewis. The Bengals may also want to give the Bucs a call as they look to surround Joe Burrow with extra artillery. The list goes on. Depending on the asking price, the Bucs could have a market of 20+ teams for either Howard or Brate.

No Realistic Trade Offers For O.J. Howard, Cameron Brate

April 26th, 2020 at 12:57pm CST by Rory Parks

The Buccaneers have about $20MM of salary cap space tied up at the tight end position between Rob Gronkowski, O.J. Howard, and Cameron Brate, and there was plenty of speculation that the club could look to deal either Howard or Brate now that Gronk is in the fold.

However, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, no realistic trade options presented themselves to Tampa (Twitter link). We heard a few days ago that the team nearly dealt Howard to the Redskins in exchange for Trent Williams back in February, so Fowler’s report may simply mean that no viable trade proposals surfaced after the Gronk acquisition on April 21 and throughout this weekend’s draft. In any event, it looks as if Tom Brady will have all three players at his disposal in 2020.

Fowler adds that the Bucs never felt the need to trade a tight end and that they are comfortable with their significant financial investment in the position. But it’s not as though they really have a choice. It’s much more likely that an opposing team would pursue Howard instead of Brate, and Howard carries a 2020 cap charge of just $3.5MM, $1.5MM of which would remain on the Bucs’ cap even if he were traded. One way or another, the overall TE cap hit is significant, so it makes sense to simply give Brady as many options as possible and to see if he can help Howard start to realize his potential. GM Jason Licht acknowledged as much several hours before this year’s draft got underway.

It remains unclear if the Bucs will pick up Howard’s fifth-year option for 2021. Though the option would be guaranteed for injury only since Howard was a 2017 draft choice, the Alabama product has not lived up to his status as a first-round selection, so his future in Tampa remains up in the air.

NFC South Notes: Hill, Brate, Walker

March 25th, 2020 at 6:48pm CST by Rory Parks

The Saints expect Taysom Hill to take over for Drew Brees when Brees calls it a career, and to that end, they placed a first-round RFA tender on the BYU product earlier this month. Teddy Bridgewater had served as the backup to Brees over the past couple of seasons while Hill’s role as a gadget player grew, but head coach Sean Payton confirmed that Hill will be the QB2 in 2020. “He’s earned that opportunity,” Payton said (Twitter link via Jeff Duncan of The Athletic).

However, the team still expects to use Hill as a rusher and receiver next season, so Payton said New Orleans will add another QB that will be active on game days (Twitter link via Duncan). The Saints are expected to explore a long-term contract for Hill in the near future.

Now for more from the NFC South:

Cameron Brate‘s recent restructure with the Buccaneers is better classified as a pay cut. Per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Brate accepted a decrease in his 2020 salary from $6MM to $4.25MM (Twitter link). The move will keep Brate, a quality red zone target, in the fold for Tom Brady while buying the team a little more cap space.
Several days ago, the Panthers beat out several clubs for the services of XFL signal-caller P.J. Walker. Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle says Walker’s pact with Carolina is a two-year deal worth $1.565MM, a pretty nice haul for an XFLer who has yet to crack an active roster in the NFL (Twitter link).
CB Blidi Wreh-Wilson‘s new one-year deal with the Falcons includes a base salary of $1.05MM and a singing bonus of $137.5K, as Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com tweets.

Bucs Restructure TE Cameron Brate’s Contract

March 22nd, 2020 at 10:13am CST by Rory Parks

The Buccaneers have restructured the contract of tight end Cameron Brate, per Greg Auman of The Athletic (via Twitter). Earlier this month, Brate was rumored as a trade or release candidate, but Brate’s presence could prove critical for newly-minted QB Tom Brady.

Details of the restructure are not yet known, but it’s worth noting that $4MM of Brate’s $6MM 2020 salary was due to become guaranteed today. He will team with O.J. Howard to form a potentially formidable TE tandem for Brady, who will have a lot more weapons to work with in 2020 than he did in his last year with New England.

Brate, who will turn 29 in July, signed a six-year, $41MM deal ($18MM guaranteed) with the Bucs in March 2018. Over the prior two seasons, he averaged 52 catches for 625 yards and seven TDs, but the 2018-19 campaigns were not as kind to him. He underwent hip surgery last January, and his per-season averages dipped to 33/300/5.

But if nothing else, the former UDFA out of Harvard profiles as a reliable red zone threat, and he could become more with Brady under center.

Bucs Notes: Winston, Godwin, Howard

March 1st, 2020 at 9:39am CST by Rory Parks

In addition to the thumb injury that we heard about in early January, Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston was also playing through a torn meniscus for at least some of 2019, as Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports (video link). Per Rapoport, Winston recently had surgery to trim the meniscus tear.

Though Winston’s boom-or-bust tendencies remain an obvious concern, the toughness that he displayed in battling the injuries may help him land a new contract with Tampa, which may have winnowed down its quarterback options to Winston and Philip Rivers.

Now for more from the Bucs:

Standout receiver Chris Godwin is now eligible for an extension since he has completed three years in the league, but that is not a front-burner item on the Bucs’ agenda just yet, per Greg Auman of The Athletic. Auman says the club will look to take care of its 2020 FAs first and then see if there is money left in the budget for a new contract for Godwin. Barring something unforeseen, it would be a huge surprise if Tampa lets Godwin hit the open market in 2021.
There were rumors that the Bucs were looking to trade much-maligned TE O.J. Howard at the 2019 deadline, and though that did not happen, the former first-rounder was still viewed as a trade candidate this offseason. But as Auman notes, the club still believes in Howard, and it sounds like he will be back in 2020. Fellow TE Cameron Brate, however, could be a trade or release candidate.
The Bucs are very young at CB, which has led many to believe that the club will draft a corner with an early pick or sign one in the first wave of free agency, but that’s not necessarily the case. As Auman writes, Tampa is very high on Carlton Davis, Jamel Dean, and Sean Murphy-Bunting, so a late-round pick or modest FA signing may be more likely.
Likewise, Tampa is bullish on its cadre of safeties, but 2017 second-rounder Justin Evans‘s stock is trending downward, per Auman. Evans has not been healthy enough to practice in a long time, and although the team hoped he would be fully recovered by April 1 and would participate in spring workouts at OTAs, it’s now unclear whether he will be back at all.
Unsurprisingly, it does not sound like the Bucs will look to re-sign free agent RB Peyton Barber, per Auman.

Cameron Brate To Be Ready By Training Camp

April 21st, 2019 at 6:14pm CST by Micah Powell

In January, Buccaneers tight end Cameron Brate underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip. In an interview this week, the veteran pass catcher told Scott Reynolds of PewterReport.com he expects to be ready for training camp.

Brate suffered the injury during the 2017 season but elected to not have surgery in hopes that it would heal on its own. It did not, and the tight end was hampered throughout the 2018 campaign. It showed in his production, as Brate produced just 30 grabs for 289 yards following back-to-back seasons with at least 48 receptions and 575 yards.

Even with the injury, Brate still was a prime performer in the red zone, snagging six touchdowns. It marked the third consecutive campaign the tight end logged at least six scoring grabs.

Though he elected to not have surgery originally, it was thought O.J. Howard would shoulder a larger load throughout the 2018 season. Unfortunately, the second-year tight end was placed on season-ending IR late in November after suffering foot and ankle injuries.

Both of those tight end’s returns will help Jameis Winston in a year that Tampa Bay will be breaking in new offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich

Buccaneers Notes: McCoy, Smith, Brate

February 23rd, 2019 at 3:01pm CST by Sam Robinson

As a fourth new Buccaneers coaching staff this decade continues to gather intel early in a pivotal offseason, here is the latest out of Tampa. It’s looking like Gerald McCoy will be part of Bruce Arians‘ first Bucs squad.

Arians and his new staff have evaluated McCoy and view the stalwart interior defender as a good fit, even as the team transitions to a 3-4 defense, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports. McCoy is not in line to be traded or released, per Stroud, who adds the 10th-year defensive lineman was confident he would return to finish out the 2010s with the Bucs. A McCoy move was considered possible, with Jason Licht not guaranteeing the former top-five pick’s status with the 2019 team. McCoy coming back would mean a move to defensive end, but with teams spending so much time in nickel sets, the longtime 4-3 defensive tackle should see plenty of time as an interior presence next season.
McCoy will turn 31 on Monday, and after recording at least seven sacks from 2013-16, the former Oklahoma standout has registered six in each of the past two seasons. While McCoy remains an upper-echelon defensive tackle, Jenna Laine of ESPN.com writes his $13MM 2019 salary seems lofty. However, Laine adds that trading McCoy would likely only fetch the Bucs a fourth- or fifth-round pick. There are a few defensive tackles in free agency, even if the Falcons tag Grady Jarrett. Ndamukong Suh and Sheldon Richardson are back in free agency. And this year’s defensive line class being one of the best in many years further weakens McCoy’s value.
Another player considered a possible departure candidate could well be staying in Tampa as well. Donovan Smith is three weeks away from free agency, but Laine notes the four-year left tackle starter is not going anywhere. The Bucs will either tag Smith or extend him before free agency’s outset, per Laine. Smith has not graded as a top-tier tackle in the view of Pro Football Focus, but he has been a durable edge blocker, never missing a game. That said, a Smith tag would cost the Bucs approximately $14MM. It is debatable if he would receive that AAV on the open market, even considering how well offensive linemen have fared in recent free agency periods. A long-term Smith deal is expected to be in the $12-$13MM-per-year range, Laine adds.
Although Cameron Brate signed an extension to stay in Tampa last year, no dead money remains on the tight end’s deal. Arians, though, intends to keep the Bucs’ TE2 for 2019, Stroud notes. Arians, whose Cardinals teams did not have a consistent receiving threat from the tight end position, is intrigued by having two with the Bucs, per Stroud. Brate will make $7MM this coming season. He underwent hip surgery after this season, however. Both Bucs tight ends are coming off injuries, with foot and ankle maladies ending O.J. Howard‘s season.

Bucs TE Cameron Brate Underwent Surgery

January 19th, 2019 at 12:58pm CST by Ben Levine

Cameron Brate recently underwent surgery to remedy a hip injury that bothered him throughout the 2018 campaign.

ESPN’s Jenna Laine writes that the Buccaneers tight end underwent arthroscopic surgery last week to repair a torn labrum in his hip. Brate reportedly played through much of the 2018 season with the injury.

Brate is currently on crutches after have undergone a procedure that required the removal of bone fragments. The 27-year-old’s recovery time is expected to be a “few months.” The team is planning to ease him back into OTAs, and they hope he’ll be good to go by the time June’s minicamp comes around.

Considering he had to play through an injury that’s described as “very painful,” it’s not overly surprising that Brate struggled in 2018. The Harvard product ultimately finished the season having hauled in 30 receptions for 289 yards and six touchdowns, with Pro Football Focus ranking him 62nd among 71 eligible tight ends. However, Brate has 1,251 yards and 14 touchdowns between 2016 and 2017, with Pro Football Focus giving him grades that ranked among the best in the NFL.

Fellow Buccaneers tight end O.J. Howard landed on the injured reserve with an ankle/foot injury in Week 12, but the former first-rounder should also be good to go by the time the regular season comes around. The team also has fellow tight ends Antony Auclair, Donnie Ernsberger, and Tanner Hudson under contract.

Buccaneers Extend Cameron Brate

March 12th, 2018 at 1:29pm CST by Zachary Links

Cameron Brate is set to be a member of the Buccaneers for a long time. The tight end has agreed to a six-year extension, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (on Twitter).

Brate, 27 in July, was slated to be a restricted free agent this offseason. It’s a six-year, $41MM agreement for Brate, Jenna Laine of ESPN.com reports, adding that $18MM will be guaranteed.

The Bucs have decided to devote plenty of resources to stocking their tight end position, considering they used their first-round pick on O.J. Howard last year. But Brate continued to be a key weapon on Tampa Bay’s offense last season despite Howard’s arrival. The former undrafted free agent out of Harvard finished the 2017 campaign with 48 receptions for 591 yards and six scores.

Brate has now caught 14 touchdown passes over the past two years and has amassed more than 1,300 receiving yards in that span. He and Howard combined for 12 touchdown grabs, and the Bucs are keen on making tight end targeting a key component of future offenses. Pair this duo with quarterback Jameis Winston and wideouts Mike Evans, DeSean Jackson, and Chris Godwin, and the Buccaneers should have another top-10 passing attack in 2018.

With a $6.8MM-per-year salary, Brate will fall into the middle tier of tight end contracts (right behind Coby Fleener, C.J. Fiedorowicz, and Jermaine Gresham). This will provide a major raise, however, after the former UDFA out of Harvard made just $690K last year.