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As negotiation tactics go, asking for a trade the day before training camp opens is the NFL equivalent of reaching for the nuclear codes before deciding to type them in. But that’s exactly what Tampa Bay Buccaneers nose tackle Vita Vea has done.
The two-time Pro Bowl player has grown so frustrated with contract discussions this offseason that he’s decided he doesn’t see a future with the team, and has asked to be traded, a league source confirmed to Fox News Digital.
That doesn’t mean a trade will happen. Vea is under contract for the 2026 season and is scheduled to make up to $18 million if he can play all 17 games in the final year of his current contract.
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The Bucs aren’t simply going to hold a fire sale to avoid the trade talk distraction, per a source.
Vea wants more money and points to the fact he is currently the 19th-highest-paid interior defensive lineman in the league. And he believes he is much better than the 19th-best defensive lineman in the league.
Vea is, for all intents and purposes, the structural centerpiece of the Tampa Bay defense. He is arguably the team’s best run defender and, as all NFL defensive coordinators often note, if a defense cannot stop the run it is unable to do much of anything else.
Vea provides a rare combination of size, power to movement to control the middle of the formation from his nose tackle spot. At 6-foot-4 and 347 pounds, Vea has anchored against double-teams for much of his recent years.
Despite this attention, he is able to clog interior rushing lanes and prevent offensive linemen from climbing cleanly to the second level of Tampa Bay’s defense. Since becoming a full-time starter in 2019, he has helped the Buccaneers establish one of the NFL’s most consistently productive run defenses.
From 2019 through most of the 2024 season, Tampa Bay ranked first in the NFL in rushing yards allowed per game at 94.1, first in yards allowed per carry at 4.0 and finished in the top five against the run in five of six seasons, including No. 1 finishes in 2019 and 2020.
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Vea played only five games in 2020 due to a fractured ankle, but he’s proven durable ever since. He has started 78 games in the past five seasons.
Vea’s individual production shows he is more than a traditional space-eating nose tackle but he set a career high with seven sacks in 2024, then added 4.5 sacks, seven tackles for loss and 13 quarterback hits in 2025.
His 2024 pass-rush production made Tampa Bay one of only three teams that season with two defensive tackles recording at least seven sacks, as Vea and Calijah Kancey both reached that mark.
Vea was selected to the Pro Bowl following the 2021 and 2024 seasons, earned a place on the NFL Players Association’s Top 100 list entering 2025 and was a key member of Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl LV championship team.
This trade request creates issues for the Bucs.
It’s possible Vea, who reported but did not take part in the teams mandatory minicamp and missed the rest of the offseason program, might decide to simply hold in to start training camp – that is to say, he shows up but doesn’t practice.
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No coach likes that. No team wants that.
The Buccaneers are already managing the high-stakes contract negotiations with quarterback Baker Mayfield as their top contract issue. So dealing with a very large star defender who has publicly let it be known he wants out is not great for the team.
