{"id":364816,"date":"2026-08-07T00:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364816\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T00:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:30:10","slug":"tampa-bay-bucs-gm-says-no-plans-to-trade-dt-vita-vea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364816\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Bucs GM says no plans to trade DT Vita Vea"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA \u2014 Jason Licht said it as clearly as possible in case Vita Vea or any other NFL teams were listening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no plans on trading Vita,\u201d the Bucs general manager said Thursday of the two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle, who has requested to be dealt.<\/p>\n

\u201cVita is a great player. We all know Vita. I think he\u2019s one of the better D-linemen in franchise history, and he\u2019s a very important piece of this. \u2026 We love Vita. We\u2019ve been engaged with his agent recently. I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to end, but we\u2019ve been engaged, and that\u2019s at least some progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Licht\u2019s optimism came one day after Vea\u2019s agent, Collin Roberts, told the Tampa Bay Times, \u201cI just don\u2019t see it ending in anything but a trade at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vea, 31, is in the final season of a four-year, $71 million contract extension he signed in 2022. It averages $17.75 million per year, which ranks 19th among defensive tackles in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Vea has asked to be traded, Roberts said last Monday, and has not practiced since the Bucs say he sustained a minor back \u201ctweak\u201d during a team run when veterans reported last week.<\/p>\n

Licht sounded even more confident in the Bucs\u2019 relationship with quarterback Baker Mayfield, who will play under the final year of his contract after the club failed to meet his deadline to reach an extension when veterans reported.<\/p>\n

Licht was asked if he considers Mayfield a \u201cfranchise quarterback\u201d and, if so, why the team only reportedly offered him a two-year extension.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to get into the specifics about the contract and all that stuff, but yeah, we do think he is, and we love Baker,\u201d Licht said. \u201cOur feelings for Baker haven\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a tumultuous start to the season. Receiver Mike Evans signed with the 49ers as a free agent in March. Vea asked for a trade, and Mayfield shut down talks on a contract with a self-imposed deadline.<\/p>\n

The Bucs have a good track record of re-signing players when their contracts expire, such as Evans, safety Antoine Winfield Jr. and receiver Chris Godwin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big puzzle,\u201d Licht said. \u201cI\u2019ve said that a thousand times, it feels like.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give credit to my staff and the coaches. We have a lot of very good players who are either eligible or will be eligible soon for contract extensions, and we take a lot of pride in how we\u2019ve done our best to keep our core together with extensions, keeping guys, putting them at the top or near the top, resetting the market with certain players that we\u2019ve done in the past and also extensions with other players.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s a puzzle, and it\u2019s challenging,\u201d Licht continued. \u201cNot every situation is going to work out the way you want it to. It can be frustrating for both the player and the team, but that\u2019s just the way it goes. It\u2019s just business.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it may be business to the Bucs, Mayfield took it personally, calling the team\u2019s offer \u201cdisrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBaker is all ball,\u201d Licht said. \u201cHe\u2019s all focused on the season. I\u2019m expecting him to have a great year. We respect the fact he had a timetable for it. On my end, I\u2019ll always keep the door open on this situation. But he\u2019s very, very focused. I\u2019ve never seen him this focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was the Bucs organization disappointed in Mayfield\u2019s statements?<\/p>\n

\u201cBaker, as we all know here, is a very fiery competitor who is not afraid to speak his mind,\u201d Licht said. \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s disappointed, frustrated. We were, too. But like I said, we\u2019re in a good place. He\u2019s out to have the best year of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Licht answers questions from reporters Thursday in Tampa. “I have no plans on trading Vita,” the Bucs general manager said of two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Vita Vea. (Jefferee Woo\/Tampa Bay Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA \u2014 Jason Licht said it as clearly as possible in case Vita Vea or any other NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,76046,110,135,2964,137,136],"class_list":["post-364816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-nfl","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}