How Tom Brady’s Retirement Affects the Buccaneers’ Salary Cap

For the second time in as many years, Tom Brady announced his retirement on Wednesday, bringing an end to a 23-year career. Though his playing days are over, his impact on the Buccaneers’ payroll is not quite finished yet.

That’s because of the seven-time Super Bowl champion re-structured his contract with Tampa Bay to include deferred money. The exact amount that would count against the team for the 2023 season was dependent upon whether or not Brady retired or signed with another team. Since he opted to call it a career, Brady will count for $35 million over the next two seasons: $11 million for ’23 and $24 million for ’24.

The exact details of Brady’s contract are complicated. But the gist of the matter from the Bucs’ perspective is that it’s very beneficial for the team that Brady is not joining another franchise.

As things stand now, Tampa Bay is still more than $30 million over the 2023 salary cap, which means additional cost-cutting measures will need to be adopted to become cap compliant—not to mention the task of finding a new quarterback to replace Brady.