Ryan Jensen’s Impact On The Bucs Salary Cap

Bucs center Ryan Jensen is the ultimate badass.

The red hair.

The instigator attitude.

Always looking for work until the whistle.

For guys who give everything with the leader/warrior mentality, you want them to play forever. They leave an indelible mark on your sports-loving soul. That’s what makes writing this so hard.

The news of Ryan Jensen being lost for this year – with the future beyond that very much unknown – is less than 48 hours old. But the questions have begun.

What does Bucs’ life in a post-Jensen world look like? And as the questions come to me, they naturally go to “How does this affect the Bucs’ salary cap?”

With Pewter Report’s Bailey Adams discussing Robert Hainsey possibly being the center for the Bucs’ future,  I’ve got some answers for you about Jensen’s future with the team.

Bucs Cannot Create Savings By Cutting Ryan Jensen

The Bucs restructured Ryan Jensen’s contract prior to this season in order to help them become salary cap compliant. The restructured contract gave the team over $6.8 million in cap room for 2023. His new 2023 cap hit became $5,932,000.

A total of $1,165,000 of it is base salary for the year, while the balance is prorated bonus charges that have already been paid to him and are effectively “dead.” His base salary is fully guaranteed, including for injury, for the 2023 season. That means the Bucs would still have to pay him even if they cut him or placed him on injured reserve.

Ryan Jensen Won’t Retire This Year

Technically speaking, Ryan Jensen could retire and would forfeit his base salary for 2023. But the savings for the Bucs would be minimal and there is no reason he would personally have to give up over $1 million. That’s why the 32-year old Jensen will wait until after the 2023 season if he chooses to retire.

The Bucs are transferring him to injured reserve and he will collect his salary this season (and rightfully so). Judging from his press conference following the Bucs 26-20 win over the Ravens on Saturday night, he is still hoping to return to the game he loves so much. And as long as he is hoping to return, retirement is not in the cards at this time.

Ryan Jensen’s 2024 Cap Hit Is $17,267,000

Because the Bucs restructured Ryan Jensen’s deal this season to reduce his base salary to a more cap-friendly number, he now has a cap hit of $17,267,000 in 2024. That’s a lot of money. Most of that cap hit is in non-guaranteed money though. Jensen’s $11 million salary is not guaranteed. Nor is his $1.5 million roster bonus. The only “guaranteed” money is another portion of his prorated bonuses (another $4,767,000). The Bucs can discharge $12.5 million of his cap hit by releasing Jensen.

But that’s not everything. Because the Bucs gave him a $12.5 million signing bonus when they re-signed him after the 2021 season and then restructured $11,335,000 of that this past offseason, they still have $11,801,000 worth of cash they have paid that they have not accounted for via the salary cap. If the Bucs release him in the 2024 offseason all of that prorated money comes forward against the 2024 salary cap. The net result is only $699,000 in total savings.

The Post June-1st Option

Bucs C Ryan Jensen and QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The final option the Bucs could go with is releasing Ryan Jensen after June 1, 2024. That would allow the Bucs to only have to account for that season’s prorated dead money ($4,767,000) while pushing the remaining amount ($11,801,000) onto 2025’s salary cap as dead money. That would give the Bucs $12,500,000 in savings for 2024.

I doubt the Bucs go this route with Jensen. Assistant general manager Mike Greenberg is loathe to push dead money down the line for players who are no longer on the roster. And the Bucs’ salary cap situation in 2024 isn’t in the dire straits that the 2023 salary cap was this offseason.

The team is currently 19th in in the league in projected salary cap space next year at just over $27 million. They have the room to eat the dead money from Jensen’s contract and move on in a healthier place in 2025, where they are currently projected with the 10th most cap space in the NFL.

There are just 15 players left on the Bucs roster from their Super Bowl team. The Bucs pushed a lot of money forward to form that team. They pushed a lot more forward to keep that team together in 2021 and 2022. This year they have paid down a significant portion of that credit card with over $75 million in dead cap money. With Ryan Jensen’s likely departure next year they will pay down most of the last of that bill.