Bruce Carter To Be Cut?

Last year Lovie Smith and the Buccaneers tried to get a quick fix linebacker to fill in the holes of his cover 2 defense by signing Bruce Carter to a 4 year 17 million dollar contract. That was with the hope he could slide over to middle linebacker and be the starter, since he already has experience in a cover 2 scheme. Well no one saw 4th round pick Kwon Alexander beating him out in training camp and taking over the starting middle linebacker position for himself. Carter totaled 47 tackles and 2 sacks in 14 games while starting in 3 due to Kwon's suspension.

Now the Bucs are stuck with quite a hefty contract sitting the majority of plays out. What are they to do? One option could be to see if he will take a pay cut but which is highly unlikely considering he's 27 and would want to get the most he can while he's young. Another option is to cut him and make more cap space for spending this offseason. The last option is to keep him and have him serve as a quality linebacker for depth.

Question is what do Licht and the Bucs decide to do? As for me I would keep him given that the Bucs have plenty of cap space (51 million) and could use as much quality options and athletes on a defense that is purely lacking it. Until there is a problem with cap space don't make such cuts that will cost us talent.