How Can the Bucs Afford Rob Gronkowski?

The Buccaneers just traded for one of the best tight ends ever. The question now is, how do they pay him?

The trade for Rob Gronkowski did not cost the Bucs much in draft capital. They simply swapped one of their two fourth-round picks for New England's seventh-round pick.

The money question is far more problematic. Gronkowski retired with one year left on his contract with New England with a $10 million cap hit.

Frankly, the Bucs cannot afford that. Tampa Bay has about $13.7 million in cap space without Gronkowski, according to Spotrac. Keeping him at his current cap number would give the Bucs less than $4 million, not enough to even sign their draft class.

What can the Bucs do?

The first option is to try and renegotiate Gronkowski's contract. After taking a year away from football and with his injury history, he probably isn't quite worth the $10 million he would be due.

However, the 31-year-old tight end does have significant leverage. He clearly has no problem walking away from the game and the Bucs surrendered a fourth to get his rights. No one can force him to take a pay cut.

The Bucs could extend his contract to space out the money he's due to earn. They would likely need to guarantee his 2020 salary against injury while making the 2021 season essentially an option year.

The Bucs have some options to tinker with rest of the roster but not many. They could restructure Ali Marpet's, which would give Tampa an extra $7 million or so.

They could also move one of their other tight ends. Either O.J. Howard or Cameron Brate just became expendable and are earning over $3.5 and $4.2 million in 2020, respectively.

Trading Howard makes the most sense as he likely has the greater value as a recent first-round draft pick. Also, Brate just recently had his contract reworked to drop his 2020 cap number, implying his continued value to the franchise.

The final move the Bucs could make is to extend Lavonte David's current contract. The Bucs could then restructure his 2020 salary to drop his cap number.

Trading for Gronkowski is an audacious move on Tampa Bay's part, in line with their lofty aspirations for the coming season. Still, reality is creeping into their ambition, and they still have moves to make for this trade to be viable.