Buccaneers left tackle Tristan Wirfs is going to be rewarded. It’s just a question of when.
As to the question of “how much?,” it’ll be more than any other left tackle in the league. Or maybe left and right tackle.
Bucs G.M. Jason Licht said Friday on WDAE that Wirfs deserves to be at the top of the stack. Even if it’s not clear which stack, left tackle or all tackles.
“I’m optimistic that it hopefully will be soon,” Licht said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “I was . . . talking about [safety] Antoine [Winfield earlier this year] saying, ‘Hey, the guy deserves to be highest paid [safety].’ And I would say the same thing for Tristan. So we’re working very diligently to see how we can do that, you know, so it can help both sides, as well. So it doesn’t hurt our future so we can still continue to win, but we can reward him.”
Wirfs is due to make $21 million this year, under his fifth-year option.
As left tackles go, Christian Darrisaw of the Vikings leads the pack with $26 million per year in new money. Lions right tackle Penei Sewell is the highest-paid player at the entire tackle position, with $28 million per year.
Wirfs has played right and left tackle. He flipped from the right side after Donovan Smith signed with the Chiefs last year as a free agent.