NFL News: Antoine Winfield Gets Massive Payday in Tampa By Grant Winsauer

Monday, Ian Rapoport reported that Tampa Bay Buccaneers star safety Antoine Winfield Jr. agreed to a massive extension. The deal is worth $84.1 million over four years, with $45 million guaranteed at signing. This deal currently makes Winfield Jr. the highest-paid safety in the league.

Winfield Jr is the son of former NFL cornerback Antoine Winfield Sr. Winfield Jr. has been around football his whole life, with his father playing in the league for 14 years. Unsurprisingly, Winfield Jr has immense talent and wants to follow in his father's footsteps.

This is great for both Winfield and the Buccaneers because Winfield gets his bag of money, and the Bucs get a lockdown safety for the future and a great leader on defense. With Todd Bowles being the defensive-minded head coach, it was only a matter of them agreeing on a contract extension because he was given the franchise tag at the beginning of the offseason.

Winfield Jr. was drafted in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. In his short four-year career, he has played in 59 games. In those games, he has racked up 384 total tackles, 266 of which are solo tackles, and 118 are assisted tackles, according to ESPN.com.

The Buccaneers were wise to lock up Winfield Jr. for the future because it is never guaranteed that a team is going to be able to find a player that will be able to produce at such a high level, whether they try to obtain it through the draft, or free agency. There were some excellent safeties in free agency and the draft this past year, like Xavier McKinney, who now plays for the Green Bay Packers, or rookie safety Tyler Nubin, who will now be a starting safety for the New York Giants. However, I would take Winfield Jr over them any day of the week to be my starting safety.