Two-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Vita Vea, who is entering the final year of the four-year extension he signed with the Buccaneers in January of 2022, reportedly requested a trade just prior to the start of the team's training camp. That is not an outcome in which the Buccaneers are interested.
"I have no plans on trading Vita," said General Manager Jason Licht after the Buccaneers' practice on Thursday morning.
Vea sustained a back injury in the conditioning run at the start of camp and to this point has not practiced, though he has been present on the field. The Bucs are taking a cautious approach to Vea's health in the hopes of not exacerbating the injury.
"He's got a minor thing right now and we don't want to make it a major thing," said Licht. "I don't want to deal with hypotheticals right now, but he's got a minor thing and we're trying to take care of our players. … Right now, it's one day at a time. We're just one week into camp, so, like I said, with him, we're taking care of him. We want to make sure a minor thing doesn't become a major thing."
Vea is coming off a 2025 campaign in which he started all 17 games and played a career-high 73% of the Bucs' defensive snaps. In his eighth season since being drafted 12th overall in 2018, he recorded 4.5 sacks and 34 tackles. In his career he has compiled 35 sacks and routinely been a key cog in one of the league's best run defenses.
"Vita is a great player," said Licht. "We all know Vita. He is, I think, one of the better D-linemen in franchise history and he is a very important piece to this."
Vea has missed seven camp practices so far and the Bucs' first preseason game is eight days away. The Bucs don't tend to play their starters much if at all in the preseason, so the more salient date is September 13, when the regular season kicks off in Cincinnati. Licht hinted at some recent forward momentum in resolving the contract issue.
"Yeah, we love Vita," he said. "We've been engaged with his agent recently. I don't know how it's going to end but we've been engaged and that's at least some progress. …[Vita playing for the Bucs] is what the hope is and that's what we're trying to resolve right now."
