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Quarles Takes A Pay Cut
Published: Mar 29, 2006
LAKE BUENA VISTA - There are only about 120 shopping days left before the start of training camp, and the Bucs plan to spend every one of them looking for players that will make them better.
The Bucs are going to be picky, though, but not because they have to be. Thanks to MLB Shelton Quarles, the Bucs once again have the salary cap room necessary to be free spenders.
Quarles, who was due to earn $3.1 million in 2006 and $3.75 million in 2007, recently accepted a pay cut that lowered his salary for each of the next two years to $1.3 million, according to NFL Players Association salary figures.
"I don't want to say how much the pay cut was but it allowed me to stay here [with the Bucs]," Quarles said. "It was significant, but they also turned some of the money [I was owed] into a signing bonus."
Quarles was due a $400,000 roster bonus this offseason and a $500,000 roster bonus next offseason. It is believed that both of those were turned into guaranteed payouts.
By guaranteeing the roster bonuses, the Bucs can prorate the $900,000 over the course of the remaining two years of the contract, thus saving more room on the salary cap.
The Bucs now have approximately $10 million worth of cap space, according to General Manager Bruce Allen, and Allen says they'll likely use that space to fill in some holes on their roster.
"We don't have as many job openings as we did the last two years so we can be a little more selective," Allen said. "We're going to have all of the starters back, so we really don't have a starting job open right now."
The only starting job that may be up for grabs is at free safety, where the Bucs lost opening-day starter Dexter Jackson in free agency. But with Will Allen, who started seven games, the Bucs seem set there as well.
"We've been very confident in Will Allen," Bruce Allen said. "And let's not forget that the kicker, punter and long snapper are all coming back, too. So it's a matter now of filling in on depth."
The Bucs currently have 86 players on their roster, according to Allen. They'll be allowed to take 92 to training camp. Among the players Allen said the Bucs remain interested in signing are OT Brad Hopkins and DB Charles Woodson.
HAPPIEST CAMP ON EARTH: Disney World's Wide World of Sports Complex once again will be the Bucs' training camp home away from home in 2006.
The Bucs on Tuesday announced they will hold training camp at the Disney complex for the fifth consecutive year and once again house their players during camp at the nearby Celebration Hotel.
"You've heard about Southern Hospitality and Florida hospitality, well, the treatment we get is exceptional," Allen said when asked why the Bucs continue to make Disney World their training camp headquarters.
The reporting date for this year's training camp has not been set, but for the first time in their history the Bucs will break camp and return to somewhere other than One Buc Place.
Allen reiterated Tuesday that a new training facility being built on the site of the old Tampa Bay Center mall on the corner of Himes Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard should be ready when the Bucs break training camp in August.
"The goal is to break training camp and go back to our new facility," Allen said.
BONUS BABIES: The NFL will pay more than $79 million to 25 players as part of the league's performance-based bonus program. Two Tampa Bay players are among the beneficiaries.
Based on a comparison of playing time to their salaries, Bucs offensive linemen Anthony Davis and Dan Buenning will be rewarded. Davis, who started every game at left tackle, will receive $211,350 and Buenning, who started every game at left guard, will receive $210,204.
The program was created by the league in 2002 to supplement salaries of the league's lower-paid players who participate in a high percentage of snaps. Under their contracts last season, Buenning earned $780,000, which included his signing bonus, and Davis earned $305,000.
Dallas rookie T Rob Petitti earned the largest bonus, $271,287, and Houston rookie S C.C. Brown was second with $251,593. Those totals were more than the base pay of each player.
Quarles Takes A Pay Cut
Quarles Takes A Pay Cut
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