{"id":744576,"date":"2026-02-11T11:03:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744576\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:03:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:03:29","slug":"buccaneers-free-agent-target-predicted-to-be-among-the-highest-paid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744576\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers free agent target predicted to be among the highest-paid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/tampa-bay-buccaneers\/362\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Tampa Bay Buccaneers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> have some questions they need to answer in terms of contracts that are expiring. Several high-profile players are seeing their contracts expire now that the offseason is in full swing, but what does that mean for their plans to bring in other players?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/nfl-2026-nfl-free-agency-predicting-the-highest-paid-free-agent-at-every-position\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PFF&#039;s Mason Cameron wrote up a projection;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">PFF&#8217;s Mason Cameron wrote up a projection<\/a> of who could be the highest-paid players at each position during free agency. Based on his projections, general manager Jason Licht may be facing an uphill battle to sign a top target of theirs in free agency.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The team has a need at linebacker, and Devin Lloyd of the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/jacksonville-jaguars\/365\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Jacksonville Jaguars;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> would be a perfect fit for the team. Cameron writes about his free agency, saying, &#8220;As offenses have become more creative with how they manipulate defenses with personnel and disguise, the necessity to have an all-around talent at linebacker, capable of being effective on an every-down basis, has become vital. Devin Lloyd is just that. The former first-round pick posted above a 75.0 PFF overall grade in each of the past three seasons, culminating in a 2025 campaign where he produced a career-best 89.1 mark, the second-highest among qualifying linebackers. The second-team All-Pro stood out as the only linebacker to earn an 80.0-plus grade as a run defender, pass rusher, and in coverage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lloyd would be expensive as he is projected to make $48 million over three years, but he would be worth it. They need a dynamic playmaker in the middle of their defense, someone who can be athletic enough to contain opposing running backs in space, but also meet them at the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n<p>It would be a lot, but it would be money well spent for the Bucs.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/bucswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/buccaneers\/2026\/02\/10\/bucs-free-agent-target-predicted-to-be-highest-paid-at-his-position\/88601073007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Bucs free agent target predicted to be highest-paid at his position;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Bucs free agent target predicted to be highest-paid at his position<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have some questions they need to answer in terms of contracts that are expiring.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,5412,7,4609,125,7778,4135,14905,6,704,250,2597,2596,42825],"class_list":{"0":"post-744576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-devin-lloyd","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-free-agency","12":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","13":"tag-jason-licht","14":"tag-linebacker","15":"tag-mason-cameron","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-tampa-bay","18":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","19":"tag-tampabay","20":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","21":"tag-uphill-battle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116051666946176185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}