NFL insider reveals how Vita Vea is playing with fire when it comes to the hold-in strategy he’s using against the Buccaneers
It doesn’t sound like Vita Vea plans on ending his hold-in with the Buccaneers at any point in the near future and it’s definitely a gamble on his part.
Vita Vea continues to hold-in while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers conduct training camp and it’s not ending anytime soon according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Fowler recently released his latest batch of training camp intel and the Buccaneers were one of the eight teams included in the article. Per Fowler, Vita Vea does not plan to play under his current contract unless he’s traded, which totally opens the door for Vita Vea to hold-in throughout the entirety of training camp-long and the preseason.
As well as the regular season, where Vea will start losing game checks if he decides to sit out on Sundays.
“Bucs coaches are not worried about defensive tackle Vita Vea’s absence … yet. It’s early in camp and Vea, who is upset about his contract, can rest. But as one person with the team told me, “talk to me in one to two weeks.” Translation: It would be nice to get him back by mid-August because he’s central to the defense’s success. I’m told Vea is very dug in here and is prepared to wait this out.
“For how long? That typically depends on a variety of factors, including a player’s resolve with the threat of losing game checks approaching. That’s hard to measure at this stage. But he currently has “zero” intention to play under his deal or without a trade, I’m told. The Bucs have no plans to trade him despite league interest. Something has to give.” – Jeremy Fowler, ESPN
The financial aspect of the situation is obviously important, but there’s another element to all this that really ups the stakes for Vea and his 2026 season.
Vita Vea is upping the risk of poor play and injury with his hold-in during Buccaneers training camp
Vea’s 2025 teammate, Hassan Reddick, went through something similar back in 2024. He didn’t practice, at all, throughout the offseason before holding out during the first seven games of the season. He then went on to have a subpar year, recording just 1.0 sack.
That’s the game Vea is playing, and it’s easy to see the risk involved. The last thing Vea wants to do is underperform in a crucial contract year, but he’s setting himself up for that by missing valuable practice time.
There’s an injury concern worth paying attention to, as well. Vea isn’t in football shape right now. He didn’t practice during mandatory minicamp, so his ramp-up period hasn’t occurred on a football field. He’s a bigger guy with an injury history who plays in the trenches, making him more susceptible to suffering an injury that being in football shape might have prevented.
Look at Terry McLaurin last year as a prime example. He held out for a new contract, went the whole offseason and most of training camp without practicing. Unfortunately enough, he ended up dealing with serious injuries for the first time in his career and missed multiple games.
Vea is playing with fire with each passing day of no practice. Hopefully some kind of resolution is figured out enough, soon, both for personal and business reasons.
