TAMPA, Fla. -- For Vita Vea, it was always Tampa -- even when he requested a trade and stood on the sideline as an observer for mandatory minicamp and the first 22 days of Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp.
"They say home is where the heart is. I feel like my heart is in Tampa," said Vea, who received a $6 million boost in pay for 2026 and a one-year extension worth $30 million in guaranteed money in 2027. "I always wanted to be a Buc, and I wanted to be a Buc for life."
Vea, who will make $48 million over the next two years, was asked to address his hold-in and trade request.
"Yeah, it's just all part of the business," Vea said Thursday, his first public comments since the deal was finalized. "I got drafted here. I made it my home. I made Tampa my home. I love it here. The guys on the team are like brothers to me. We look at each other as family. So I didn't want to leave that behind and switch teams and get traded."
Vea emphasized that leaving the Bucs was "never the end goal for me," adding that he "always wanted to be here."
"It's just one of those things," he said. "They took a chance on me in the draft, and I've been here ever since. And I fell in love with Tampa. I fell in love with my teammates. I love the organization. Everybody who works here. I walk around every day with a smile on my face."
The agreement came together Wednesday afternoon, and Vea signed the contract Thursday morning. But this was after three weeks of no movement, and after his agent Collin Roberts told the Tampa Bay Times that he didn't see how this could end in any other way but a trade.
Bucs general manager Jason Licht said the front office did take calls from other teams but conveyed they had no intentions of trading him. The first preseason game against the New York Jets came and went. He traveled to New Jersey for joint practices but was a nonparticipant.
The Bucs began their preparations for the second preseason game hosting the Kansas City Chiefs, a game in which all starters -- including quarterback Baker Mayfield -- will see anywhere from eight to 15 plays, coach Todd Bowles said.
Vea won't see action Saturday, but at least the two-time Pro Bowler will play in 2026.
That's the goal right now, Bowles said -- getting Vea ready for Week 1 of the regular season at the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 13, while nursing a back injury that he sustained during the team's conditioning test on July 28.
"We're going to start working him in next week slowly, preparing him for Cincinnati," Bowles said. "There's no way he plays against Jacksonville [in the third preseason game] or anything like that, but we're going to acclimate him and kind of work him in, trying to get him ready for opening day."
Vea, one of the most critical players on Bowles' defense and a key piece of their Super Bowl LV championship, was originally set to earn $18 million in 2026.
But compared to a defensive tackle market that had virtually exploded the last couple of years, the 347-pound Vea saw his deal fall well below market value.
Things had changed dramatically from the time Vea inked that four-year, $71 million extension in January 2022 -- fifth among interior defensive tackles at the time -- to the end of last month. At that point, roughly 18 to 19 players were making more money. Vea also no longer had any guaranteed money remaining on the deal.
In 2024, Chris Jones re-signed with the Chiefs for five years and $158.75 million, averaging $31.75 million per season. At the beginning of 2026, Jeffery Simmons re-signed with the Tennessee Titans for three years and $105.8 million, averaging $35.28 million per season.
Then in July, Quinnen Williams signed an extension with the Dallas Cowboys for three years and $105.9 million, averaging $35.3 million per season. Next came Jalen Carter, re-signing with the Philadelphia Eagles for four years and $152 million, averaging $38 million per season.
Vea said he's happy for his peers.
"It feels really good to get that recognition. Hats off to those guys," Vea said. "They're hell of a players. But in today's game, I feel like a lot of the work we do -- we do a lot of the dirty work. So it feels good to get recognized for it."
Vea has done a lot of work behind the scenes in camp too -- from assisting teammates with blocking drills to his daily encouragement of cornerback Benjamin Morrison. The 2025 second-round draft pick has been navigating his second hamstring injury, on top of undergoing bilateral hip surgery just before the draft, and Vea too dealt with injuries early on in his career.
"He's dealt with a lot in the past year or so," Vea said. "And as an older guy in this league, you look at his game, it's like no one's going to leave this game unscathed, everybody deals with injuries.
"So it's just, you understand the process of everything. So being able to see and understand what he's going through, I think just being there for someone like that and just trying to help him out through this process. I'm just trying to be there for my teammates and be able to give them a path to help them be the best they could be."
Vea conveyed just how deep his level of loyalty is not only to the team, but also to Bowles, who helped him sharpen the mental side of his game.
"We had a level of understanding," Vea said. "Every day we talked. It'd mainly be about football. Sometimes when you're not practicing, you see a lot more of everything that's going on. So it's basically just being able to pick his brain and see what he's thinking on certain plays and able to help me out in the long run with when we get things rolling here in the season."
Vea even went as far as linking their careers when asked to explain what he thought led to Tampa Bay's 8-9 finish last year, saying: "The day [Bowles] retires is the day I retire."
But ultimately, Vea is grateful to have the contract dispute behind him. His teammates certainly were too, as were other coaches, dapping him up before and after practice.
Mayfield is all that's left for the front office to work out, but at least he's set to play in 2026, as is Vea.
"It's just one of those things, you'd love to get compensated and feel that your work is appreciated," Vea said. "Obviously in this league, the market goes up and that's what happened. So we just had to work some things out and we ended up getting it resolved."