With contract disputes looming and cap space tightening, Tampa Bay faces a franchise-altering dilemma: extend their longest-tenured defensive anchor or capitalize on his high trade value.
With Lavonte David gone, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers need a new defensive leader, and defensive tackle Vita Vea seems to be the most likely guy.
For one, Vea has been with the Bucs since 2018, making him the team's longest-tenured defensive player.
He's also really good, having made it to the Pro Bowl twice and picking up 35 career sacks, an excellent total for a nose tackle.
In short, Vea is the type of guy that people would love to see retire a Buc.
But as Mike Evans showed this March, it doesn't always happen that way.
Right now, Vea wants a new contract, and he held in during minicamp to show it.
Like Baker Mayfield, Vea is on the last year of his contract, having signed a four-year, $71 million extension (maximum value of $71 million) in January 2022. In 2026, he's scheduled to make a $17 million base salary, with none of that money being guaranteed, and his average annual salary ($17.75 million) puts him 19th amongst the league's interior defenders.
Coach Todd Bowles has downplayed the situation as "part of the business," but another "part of the business" is trading.
So should the Bucs look to trade Vita Vea?
At 31, Vea is at an age where he's old enough for people to start to wonder how much is left in the tank, but young enough for teams to still be interested, so the Bucs could well get a quality return for him.
Vea's presumed feeling of being underpaid is backed up by the metrics.
Spotrac has Vea's market value at nearly $28 million, so if the Bucs are to lock up Vea, they'll probably have to pay a lot more to do it. Trading Vea would make the team's salary cap situation. Only four teams in the league currently have less cap room than Tampa, and that's not considering what the Bucs might be paying Mayfield should they extend him before training camp.
Of course, for anybody to feel comfortable about trading Vea, the Bucs must have somebody reliable waiting in the wings at defensive tackle.
Calijah Kancey is young (turned 25 in March) and has shown that he can do the job when healthy. The thing is, he hasn't been healthy much, having only played in 15 total games over the past two seasons.
Is that the type of reliability the Bucs are looking for?
There are pros and cons to trading Vea. But looking at the big picture, this is a team that is coming into 2026 with a "division title or bust" mentality and just lost two franchise cornerstones. Getting rid of another cornerstone would be a calculated, but bold move.
Join our ROUNDTABLE community! It's free to join. Share your thoughts, engage with our Roundtable writers, and chat with fellow members. Download the free Roundtable APP, and stay even more connected!
