Any type of big-money negotiations is tough. Neither side wants to budge, and neither wants to leave money on the table. A little give here, a concession here, until the deal is done – or both sides step away. Cleveland Browns fans have seen it play out time and time again.
For the most part, NFL contracts are handled by attorneys who are called sports agents. And they should be. Each NFL club has a lawyer who draws up the agreements, so it’s only fitting that on the other side, a licensed, fully-schooled
law school graduate should be looking it over for his client.
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Back in the day, Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi traded anybody away who had an agent. He dealt with all contracts and wanted it one-on-one. Even though Lombardi wasn’t the owner of the Packers, he acted like it and was the team’s GM. Former Cleveland Browns Paul Brown was the same way. He always owned a small percentage of the Browns, but in every aspect, it was his decisions.
There is a little trick that sports agents do these days, called “back loading.” What this is, the agent will get his client signed for, say, $60 million on a four-year deal. There is a signing bonus, workout incentives, plus other bonuses, and of course, the obligatory guarantee. The athlete gets paid $9 million the first year, $12 million in the second season, $14 million in Year 3, and then $25 million in the final year.
Except the player rarely gets the $25 million. In reality, it is just a three-year deal. The team is cool with paying those first three years, but there is no way they want to allow the athlete to cash out in the final year of the deal. The agent knows this. So, what the sports agency does is add a huge amount to the end of the deal to make the signing seem huge, so that they can say, “Look what our agency got for (fill in the blank).” What sounds better? A three-year agreement for $35 million or a four-year contract for a whopping $60 million?
That is what Tampa Bay Buccaneers DT Vita Vea is experiencing right now.
He is at the end of his four-year $71 million deal he signed back in 2023. His cap hit this year will be $22.19 million. This is his contract year, and the team is balking at it. Negotiations have been ongoing since the end of the 2025 season, and here it is time for training camp, and his deal remains the same.
Vea (6’-4”, 347 pounds) has now requested a trade.
Dexter Lawrence (traded this offseason) and Vea are the two best defensive tackles in the game. Vea has been very durable over his eight-year career, including 17 starts last year, and is an excellent run stopper. He is one of those defensive tackles that has a rare gift of getting into the offensive backfield and causing disruption. Most DTs just plug a gap and dare offensive guards to move them, but both Lawrence and Vea are also pass rushers.
Vea has 35 career sacks. His sack numbers in the past four years are 4.5, 7.0, 5.5, and 6.5. He has 79 QB hits, 9 batted passes, 30 hurries, 42 knockdowns, and 112 pressures. That is his pass rush.
For run stoppage, Vea has 256 total tackles, 21 missed tackles, 48 tackles for loss, 3 fumble recoveries, and 3 forced fumbles.
Should the Browns reach out for Vea?
DBN’s Thomas Moore recently wrote a great article on how the Browns remain in the hunt for another good pass rusher to pair with the new guy, DE Jared Verse.
It’s true. Out of all the transactions GM Andrew Berry has made this offseason, there still remains only one pass rusher.
The DT room currently consists of Mason Graham and Maliek Collins as starters, newly-signed Kalia Davis, the so-far disappointing Mike Hall as primary backups, plus Adin Huntington, Sam Kamara, and veteran Elijah Chapman.
Here’s the rub. Hall was selected in Round 2. If he had come along like the franchise assumed he would, this would not be a conversation. In all fairness, this is probably the training camp that Hall either shows out or gets out. But Berry did attempt to pair first-and second-round draft picks on the interior.
Collins has been added to the active/PUP list, so there’s no telling if he will begin the season here or if his issues will be resolved before Week 1. Every NFL club needs four guys for the defensive tackle position, and then rotates them in and out. Obviously, the two starters get more snaps per game, but the two backups will have plenty of reps as well.
It is a well-known fact that Berry has attempted to improve the interior of the defensive line. After failed signings from guys like Dalvin Tomlinson, he has drafted Hall in the second round and Graham in Round 1 last year.
Vea was taken #12 overall in the 2018 NFL draft and has a Super Bowl ring, plus owns two pieces of Pro Bowl hardware. Yes, he is age 31, so there’s that. But for the next three years, paired with one of the NFL’s promising rookies, Graham, this would completely end the inability to stop the run.
Lawrence recently went from the New York Football Giants to the Cincinnati Bengals after requesting a trade and was signed to a one-year $28 million deal. Cincy gave up its first-round draft pick in this year’s draft in the deal.
So, what would it take to get Vea in-house? How about second and fifth-round draft picks? The team has extra picks all over the place after the Myles Garret trade.
Marinate on that a bit. Last year’s first-round draft pick Mason Graham and another first-round draft pick, Vita Vea, are lining up in the middle of the defensive line for the next three years. Then Collins and a fourth guy who shows out in training camp to rotate in. If Moore’s assessment is correct and Cleveland is still in need of a pass rusher, here he is.
Now keep in mind that a trade request is also a negotiation tactic. But many players who ask to be traded actually do get shipped off. Should Berry make the call?
Buccaneers veteran players are scheduled to report to training camp on Tuesday, as are the Browns.
What say you? Should the Browns trade for Vea and extend his contract or just go with the young guys they have?
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