Greg Auman
NFC South Reporter
Antoine Winfield Jr. noticed his future so clearly.
When the Bucs security earned first-team All-Professional honors for the primary time in January, he talked about that he’d seen it coming, referencing a video he recorded after a spring exercise final yr during which he laid out all of his objectives for the 2024 season.
On Monday, he posted that video on Instagram, and it exhibits the main target and confidence that he carried via final season. A shirtless Winfield, standing on a area on Could 20, 2023, after a Saturday morning exercise.
“Huge season forward. I feel I am the one one which sees it, however that is simply the way it’s bought to be proper now … highest-paid this yr, mark my phrases,” Winfield mentioned. “I will come again to this video, be like ‘I did it.’ Most likely shed a tear … We’ll make it occur. Energy of the tongue. You must communicate it into existence. All-Professional, highest-paid. All-Professional, highest-paid. All-Professional, highest-paid. Ultimately it is going to change into actuality. Keep tuned.”
On Monday, the ultimate piece of that imaginative and prescient got here collectively, as Winfield and the Bucs agreed to a four-year extension that made him not solely the highest-paid security in NFL historical past, however the highest-paid defensive again. The contract will reportedly pay out $84.1 million over 4 years, which pushes him previous the $21 million per yr that Packers nook Jaire Alexander had gotten because the earlier excessive per yr for a defensive again. Winfield’s extension consists of $45 million absolutely assured, additionally resetting that mark for a DB.
“He is a hell of a participant,” Bucs basic supervisor Jason Licht mentioned on “The Pat McAfee Present” final week. “I feel he retains on this trajectory, he is additionally any individual that might be talked about Corridor of Fame worthy. I am not afraid to confess that. I do not suppose it is going to harm negotiations. I have been upfront with him the entire time: He is one of the best security within the league, and he ought to be paid prefer it.”
When the Bucs drafted Winfield in 2020, they hadn’t been to the playoffs in 12 seasons. They received a Tremendous Bowl his rookie yr, and the signature second within the win over the Chiefs was Winfield giving Kansas Metropolis receiver Tyreek Hill the peace signal, a callback to when Hill had accomplished the identical as he scored a landing in a regular-season win in opposition to Tampa Bay. Winfield drew a flag — the one penalty he took his rookie yr — and he regretted nothing.
“It felt superb to have the ability to do this, not even going to lie,” he mentioned after the sport.
Winfield received a Tremendous Bowl that yr, made the Professional Bowl his second yr, however took his sport to a different stage in 2023, making a flexible influence with a season few defensive backs have ever had. He led the league with six pressured fumbles, recovered one other 4, completed with six sacks and three interceptions.
The circumstances of his large performs had been even larger. He hustled to pressure a fumble by Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder contained in the 1-yard line in a sport the Bucs in the end misplaced. He got here up with an important play of their Week 18 win in opposition to Carolina to clinch a 3rd straight division title. In a 9-0 win, the Bucs protection was by no means examined greater than on an extended move play to receiver DJ Chark, and Winfield once more pressured a fumble contained in the 1-yard line that Tampa Bay recovered.
After no playoffs in 12 years earlier than Winfield, the Bucs have made it 4 years in a row, matching the longest streak in franchise historical past. This offseason has been all about Tampa Bay paying large to maintain their core gamers, giving quarterback Baker Mayfield a three-year, $100 million extension, giving receiver Mike Evans two years and $41 million and bringing again linebacker Lavonte David for a twelfth season. Winfield had been secured with a franchise tag that may have paid him $17.1 million, however this new deal replaces that. Within the subsequent 4 years, he’ll make virtually 10 instances as a lot because the $8.7 million he made on his rookie contract.
Sort out Tristan Wirfs, drafted with Winfield in 2020, would be the subsequent piece of that puzzle, additionally anticipated to reset the marketplace for his place with a deal probably north of $110 million for 4 years.
Spending large on a deal with is the NFL norm, however the Bucs went in opposition to the grain with the Winfield deal. That is the primary time ever that the league’s highest-paid defensive again is not a cornerback. However security is a do-it-all weapon in Todd Bowles’ protection, starting from center-field deep protection to being an energetic blitzer as evidenced by Winfield’s six sacks.
Count on Baker Mayfield and the Bucs to be higher subsequent season?
The Bucs have proven they will set their very own positional priorities, generally exterior the NFL’s prescribed norms. They took a middle within the first spherical final month in Duke’s Graham Barton — that is a lower than once-a-year incidence, league vast — and used a third-round choose on Georgia’s Tykee Smith, probably their nickel or slot nook, one other historically undervalued place.
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Simply as Wirfs was the fourth deal with taken within the 2020 draft, Winfield was the fourth security taken the identical yr. The primary three — the Giants’ Xavier McKinney, the Patriots’ Kyle Dugger and the Browns’ Grant Delpit — do not have a Professional Bowl or first-team All-Professional nod between them, and Winfield has each.
If very good expertise analysis helped the Bucs to their success prior to now 4 years, paying for that expertise will make persevering with that success a problem. Winfield and Wirfs will every make extra this coming season than they’ve of their careers, and Mayfield will make $30 million after getting simply $7 million a yr in the past. Stable drafting will assist management the wage cap, and the Bucs will probably area a workforce that has at the least 20 of their very own draft picks beginning on offense and protection, probably with Mayfield because the lone exception.
If Evans and David are the veteran leaders who caught with Tampa Bay via the lean years of their youth, then Winfield and Wirfs lead the youthful technology of Bucs who’ve recognized nothing however perennial playoff appearances since becoming a member of the league. Preserving that sort of expertise round might be costly, however the Bucs are assured they’ve invested in the best gamers.
Greg Auman is FOX Sports activities’ NFC South reporter, protecting the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He’s in his tenth season protecting the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having hung out on the Tampa Bay Occasions and The Athletic. You may comply with him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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