Just under one month after demanding a trade, throwing his future with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into doubt, star defensive lineman Vita Vea is back with the franchise.<\/p>\n
Vea and the Buccaneers reportedly agreed to a one-year, $30 million extension, keeping the All-Pro defensive lineman off the trade block, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n
NFL Insider Jordan Schultz had the news first, tweeting out Vea\u2019s new deal.<\/p>\n
Vea previously requested a trade from Tampa Bay<\/a> on July 27, right before Tampa Bay entered training camp. The two sides couldn\u2019t agree on a new long-term deal, leading Vea to look elsewhere, eyeing teams on the West Coast.<\/p>\n Tampa Bay never wanted to move him, and didn\u2019t entertain the trade request. Now, they\u2019ve locked up the star defensive lineman for the next two seasons.<\/p>\n According to ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler, Vea gets a $6 million increase this year, and his $30 million deal is fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n The former first-round pick at No. 12 overall out of Washington in the 2018 NFL Draft has been one of the best interior defensive linemen in football. He\u2019s racked up 35.5 career sacks across eight seasons with the Buccaneers, has two Pro Bowls on his resume, and helped lead Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl title in 2020.<\/p>\n Last season as the anchor in the middle of the Buccaneers\u2019 defense, Vea had four sacks, playing 764 snaps in the trenches. He graded out at a 72.9 overall from Pro Football Focus<\/a>, including a 62.6 against the run and a 77.0 as a pass rusher. Along with those four sacks, Vea had 51 pressures and 21 run stops.<\/p>\n Adding him back into the mix is huge for the Buccaneers, who lost key leaders in wide receiver Mike Evans and linebacker Lavonte David in free agency and to retirement this offseason.<\/p>\n In his career, Vea has played 4,687 snaps, with 3,048 of those snaps over top of guards in the B gap.<\/p>\n The Steelers will have to deal with Vea in Week 6, and that will be a tall task for the likes of Mason McCormick \u2013 who moves to left guard this season \u2014 and one of Spencer Anderson or Brock Hoffman at right guard. The Steelers lost Isaac Seumalo in free agency, prompting shuffling at the positions next to center Zach Frazier.<\/p>\n According to Schultz, the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills had trade interest in Vea, but the Buccaneers didn\u2019t entertain a trade.<\/p>\n The #Bears<\/a> and #Bills<\/a> were among the teams with interest in trading for Vita Vea, but the #Bucs<\/a> never wanted to move him, per sources.<\/p>\n The deal is now done and Vea is under contract in total for 2 years, $54M. https:\/\/t.co\/KY07p8GYyn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) August 19, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Vea\u2019s extension comes just a few days after Steelers defensive lineman Keeanu Benton inked a four-year, $72 million deal to remain with the Steelers long term. Benton\u2019s deal averages $18 million per season, though it breaks down into something much more manageable \u2014 and team-friendly<\/a> \u2014 for the Black and Gold.<\/p>\n Other interior defensive linemen like Philadelphia\u2019s Jalen Carter and Green Bay\u2019s Devonte Wyatt signed contract extensions this offseason as well, making for a lucrative market for the big men up front defensively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just under one month after demanding a trade, throwing his future with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into doubt,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[17988,135,2964,137,136,146680],"class_list":["post-376162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vita-vea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376162","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=376162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}