Last season ended with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrating Mike Evans tying Jerry Rice's all-time record for consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. It bookended a year in which the Bucs set more than a few records, which was a nice little theme to have given how much doubt was cast over the team's chances to succeed.
That win in Week 18 secured Evans a record but also propelled the Bucs to a franchise-best fourth consecutive NFC South title. When next season begins, though, one of the records the team helped set will no longer be theirs.
Antoine Winfield Jr. needed a new contract last offseason, and Tampa Bay answered by giving him a historic new deal. Jason Licht rewarded all that Winfield has done for the Bucs by making him the highest-paid safety in the league, which is a mark that stood for less than a calendar year.
Roughly 11 months after Winfield set a new bar for how much safeties in the league get paid, Kerby Joseph cleared it. The Detroit Lions gave him an $86 million extension that pays him over $21 million a year, but now makes the Bucs look smart for paying a better player when they did.
Antoine Winfield Jr. no longer being the highest-paid safety in the NFL make the Bucs looks like geniuses
It's unfortunate that the title belt for the highest-paid safety in the NFL no longer belongs to Winfield, but that's a narrowly negative view of the matter. The real takeaway is that the Buccaneers and Jason Licht look even smarter now that their record-setting deal has been surpassed.
We live in a world where another team is paying someone more than Winfield to be not as good as he is. That's the truth here, as Winfield isn't just the best player on the Buccaneers' roster, he's without a doubt the safety in the league.
Accolades only tell part of the story, the context of Winfield's greatness is what matters here. He single-handedly saved Tampa Bay's season in 2023, one that ironically ended in Detroit. Had Winfield not punched out a fumble at the goal line in Week 18 against the Panthers, the Bucs don't make the playoffs and likely aren't on the trajectory they are right now.
Winfield has since made a habit of being a menace in those breakaway touchdown scenarios. If the NFL hadn't somehow cheaped out on pylon cameras during Week 8's game against the Falcons, Winfield's goal line punch out on Kyle Pitts would have probably given the Bucs a win.
He's a game-changing safety who instantly makes Tampa Bay's defense better when he's in it, and noticeably worse when he's out. That's a hard truth the Bucs learned when he battled injuries for most of last season, and it's no coincidence that it was one of the worst years in recent memory for Todd Bowles' crew.
Lest we forget the all-time troll he pulled on Tyreek Hill during the Buccaneers blowout win over Kansas City in Super Bowl LV.
Winfield is a core piece of Tampa Bay's identity, and he's arguably the most important piece of the puzzle. In all of the team's losses, a common thread was that the game likely would have gone differently if Winfield had been out there -- which is how the highest-paid player at his position is described.
Well, that used to be the case. Joseph is an absolutely dynamite player but he's not Antoine Winfield Jr., even if the Lions are paying him like he is.
