The Tampa Bay Buccaneers checked another item off their to-do list for the 2024 offseason Monday, agreeing to terms on a new three-year contract extension with kicker Chase McLaughlin just before the start of free agency.
It’s a three-year deal for McLaughlin, worth $12.3 million, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
The Bucs were plagued by instability in their kicking game for years, investing multiple draft picks and bringing in a long list of veterans to address the issue, but to no avail. Then McLaughlin came along, signing a one-year deal last offseason, and delivering the best kicking season in franchise history.
This deal gives McLaughlin the security of a long-term deal, and also ensures the Bucs will be able to maintain the stability that he brought to their kicking game last season.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have agreed to terms on a new contract extension with kicker Chase McLaughlin
It’s a three year deal for McLaughlin, who set a club record by connecting on 29 of 31 FG attempts for 93.5 percent. He also made 7 of 8 from 50 yards or more. https://t.co/noLf3OQbEG
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have agreed to terms on a new contract extension with kicker Chase McLaughlin, per multiple reports.
It’s a new three-year deal for McLaughlin according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, who was the first to report the news.
After signing a one-year deal with the Bucs last offseason, McLaughlin delivered the best season the franchise has ever seen from a kicker, nailing 29 of his 31 field goal attempts, including seven of eight from 50 yards or more.
Now, McLaughlin gets the long-term security of a three-year deal, while the Bucs are able to lock in stability at a position where it had eluded them for years.
After re-signing wide receiver Mike Evans and quarterback Baker Mayfield, as well as keeping safety Antoine Winfield Jr. with the franchise tag, the Bucs continue to keep their biggest free agents from hitting the open market.
Re-signing Mike Evans should set off a chain reaction that sees the Bucs keep all of their most important free agents this offseason
The first big domino has fallen for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 2024 offseason, as star wide receiver Mike Evans has agreed to terms on a new two-year contract extension.
Keeping Evans from hitting the open market is a huge win for the Bucs, and now, it allows them to move to the next order of business in their free agency plan.
Now that Evans is secured for the next two seasons, Tampa Bay can focus their attentions on the rest of their big-name free agent class, which has key players on both sides of the ball who will also need new contracts.
The next shoe to drop could be a new deal for quarterback Baker Mayfield, who is coming off the best season of his career, and clearly developed a valuable connection with Evans last year. Now that Evans is back in the fold, it would make sense for the Bucs to hammer something out with Mayfield, who should be enticed to build on last year’s success in Tampa Bay rather than chasing a few million extra dollars with a new team, where he’d have to start over yet again.
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Tampa Bay also has some key players on defense who are on expiring contracts.
Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. is the prize of the group, as arguably the best safety in the entire NFL at just 25 years old. At worst, the Bucs will keep him with the franchise tag, but they’d prefer to work out a long-term deal that would ensure Winfield remains a cornerstone of their defense for years to come, as well as giving them more financial flexibility with this year’s salary cap.
Both of Tampa Bay’s starting inside linebackers are headed for free agency, and while Devin White is the younger of the two, it’s unlikely the Bucs make an offer to keep him after he was basically benched toward the end of last season in favor of K.J. Britt, and relegated to a rotational role.
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Longtime captain Lavonte David is the linebacker the Bucs will want to retain, as he proved last year that he’s still one of the best in the league at his position, even at 33 years old. If he wants to keep playing, another one-year deal should keep him in Tampa Bay.
The underrated free agent the Bucs also want to keep around is kicker Chase McLaughlin, who was nearly automatic last season. That kind of stability in the kicking game is invaluable, and Tampa Bay will want to reward McLaughlin for giving it to them.
There’s plenty more work for the Bucs to do if they want to keep their big-name free agents from hitting the market next week, but getting a deal done with Evans was a critical first step that should set off a chain reaction in the coming days in which Mayfield, Winfield, David and McLaughlin should all end up with new deals to stay in Tampa Bay.
The Bucs had two first-team representatives for Pro Football Focus’ final All-Pro team.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are playoff-bound, and while it was a team effort, a certain few were huge contributors in the 2023 season.
Pro Football Focus released their All-Pro list for the 2023 season, and it included two Bucs players — both as First-Team All-Pros. PFF’s list included safety Antoine Winfield Jr. and kicker Chase McLaughlin for the first team. Both McLaughlin and Winfield Jr. were both on PFF’s midseason All-Pro team, though Winfield Jr. made the second team at that point of the year.
The season Winfield Jr. has had needs no explanation. He’s netted six sacks, six forced fumbles and three interceptions this year, making him an absolutely dominant player on all sides of the football. He was notably snubbed from the Pro Bowl, but he’d surely rather have an AP All-Pro nod — this is perhaps good fortune for things to come in that regard. Winfield Jr. was one of two PFF first-team All-Pros, sharing the honor with Falcons safety Jessie Bates.
McLaughlin, meanwhile, just had the best kicking season in franchise history. He went 29-for-31 on the year, with his only two misses coming as blocks. His season-long distance was 57 yards, and he hit that distance three times over the course of the year.
Tampa Bay’s kicker was money all year — and his numbers will quite literally go down in team history.
Yes, Chase McLaughlin just finished the most accurate field-goal season in Bucs history. He went 29-for-31 (both misses were blocked) for a 93.5 percent success rate, breaking the mark of 92.6 percent set by Connor Barth (26/28) in 2011. https://t.co/Kml4cX5UhT
There was a gloomy period where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered greatly from kicking woes. Thankfully for them, that era seems to not only have passed them by, but they might be having a reversal of fortune.
The Bucs picked up free agent kicker [autotag]Chase McLaughlin[/autotag] in free agency and signed him to a one-year deal in the offseason, and to say it has paid dividends is perhaps underselling it. McLaughlin wasn’t just a great asset for the Bucs, he finished with the best statistical kicking season in franchise history.
McLaughlin was money all year, hitting 29 of his 31 attempted field goals and all of his extra points. The two field goals he missed were both blocks, and in finishing with a 93.5 field goal percentage, he surpassed Connor Barth’s 2011 season of 92.6 to take the franchise record.
McLaughlin was a great distance kicker this year, too, hitting his season-high of 57 yards three different times over the course of the season. That’s a big boon for the Bucs after their year with Ryan Succop in 2022, where his longest kick was 54 yards hit just a single time.
Here are five tidbits about Week 11’s matchup against the 49ers, from series history to Todd Bowles’ playing days:
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have quite the task ahead of them on Sunday.
They’re set to face one of NFL’s best teams in the San Francisco 49ers, who just snapped a three-game losing streak with a dominant showing over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s going to be a tough matchup for the Bucs, and on top of that, Tampa Bay hasn’t performed well against San Francisco in the past.
There are a few connections between these two teams, from head coach Todd Bowles’ playing days to two players currently on Tampa Bay’s roster. Check out five things to know about the Week 11 matchup on the West Coast:
These two Bucs players have been big contributors for the team so far in 2023.
It’s been rough recently for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but there have still been some notable performers on the team during its first stretch of the season.
Pro Football Focus released its list of Midseason All-Pros, and there were two Bucs players named. Kicker [autotag]Chase McLaughlin[/autotag] was named a First Team All-Pro kicker by PFF, coming in ahead of former Tampa Bay kicker Matt Gay, while [autotag]Antoine Winfield Jr.[/autotag] was named a Second Team All-Pro, coming in behind Miami Dolphins safety Jevon Holland.
McLaughlin has been stellar for Tampa Bay in 2023, making 88.2% of his field goals and hitting 100% of his extra-point attempts. He’s hit four of his five kicks from 50 yards out or more, boasts an average of 41 yards per kick and has scored 58 points for the Bucs so far this season to serve as their leading scorer so far this year.
Winfield has been a monster so far for the Bucs, and he arguably deserves higher accolades than he got from PFF. He has 27 tackles and an astonishing three forced fumbles, and he’s also broken up numerous passes that would have resulted in big plays all year — he notably took a touchdown to Chris Olave off the board against the Saints. He doesn’t have an interception yet, but he’s been all over the field and remains a menace for anyone facing off against the Bucs in 2023.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are sticking with one kicker.
Reporter Aaron Wilson tweeted on Wednesday that the Bucs waived kicker Jake Verity, who had been on the team since January of 2023. With Verity released, the Bucs only have one kicker on the roster in K Chase McLaughlin.
Verity has been on four NFL teams since coming into the NFL in 2021, and he’ll be looking for a fifth one after the Bucs waived him. Verity has never kicked in a regulation NFL game, but he has kicked in the preseason for the Ravens and Colts, going 6-7 across both tenures.
The Bucs will stick with McLaughlin, who last year kicked at an 83.3% clip with a long of 54 yards.
With the 2022 season ending with a 4-12-1 record, the Indianapolis Colts need a significant shift in the cultural makeup of the team.
This will require several of the team’s veterans to make an impact early and often, including players who may have flown a bit under the radar during a tumultuous 2022 season.
If the team wishes to remain competitive, they will need all the help they can get.
Here are the five most underrated Colts entering 2023:
The Bucs are getting a lot of value for what they are set to pay McLaughlin.
Bucs got very good value on free-agent kicker Chase McLaughlin — it’s a one-year deal with a veteran minimum salary, $50,000 roster bonus and $100,000 guaranteed.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers filled their hole at kicker fairly quickly with the signing of [autotag]Chase McLaughlin[/autotag], and they didn’t have to give up much to do it.
FOX Sports’ Greg Auman reported on Thursday that McLaughlin’s deal is a one-year deal worth the veteran minimum with a $50,000 roster bonus and $100,000 guaranteed. The team saves quite a bit of money there in comparison to Ryan Succop, who had a base salary of $3.25 million last year.
The contract means that McLaughlin’s signing shouldn’t be a risk for the Bucs. He had his best season of his career last year, where he hit nine field goals from 50-plus yards, but his career has been up and down — he’s 26 years old, but Tampa Bay will be his seventh team. The Bucs clearly believe in his signs of improvement, however, so time will tell whether McLaughlin will continue his run of good form and possibly earn himself a second contract.
