National Football League

Opinion: It's Wide Receiver or Bust for the Buccaneers in Round One

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:45 p.m. ET

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Fansided, David Harrison/FanSided via The Pewter Plank

The NFL Draft is still months away for the Buccaneers and the other 31 teams who will be competing for a Super Bowl title in the 2017 season. Even now however, there seems to be a picture forming of what direction the team needs to go in the first round of this year’s selection meeting.

For a team like the Buccaneers one thing is known. While they were ever so close to claiming a playoff spot, they are in need of some added talent to their roster to become a legitimate threat out of the NFC South.

Picking 19th means a couple of things: First, it means your team finished right around the middle of the pack and are on the cusp of cresting the wave and roaring into the post-season or having the rug pulled out from under you sending your roster toppling back into what the NBA would consider it’s lottery picks.

The New England Patriots are pros at finding the players needed to keep them on the playoff side of this wave, while the San Francisco 49ers have just about hit Cleveland depths of rock bottom after player retirements, injuries and other – we’ll call them – departures have left their roster depleted and playoff hopes vanished.

It’s not easy to continuously ride the wave of success, and one wrong move can send a team crashing faster than their general manager can say T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

This bring us to our beloved Buccaneers and their current position within the league which will lead into the coming months’ worth of decisions and eventually a top-pick in the draft. I say top pick, because it doesn’t necessarily need to be a first-round pick to be successful.

What do I mean? Well, let’s look at the situation unfolding.

The Receivers

Two things are perhaps the funniest about the time leading to the draft. One being the way a player can climb boards like King Kong scaling a skyscraper, and the other being how easily a guy can fall, all the while playing zero games during the entire process.

Jabrill Peppers is already experiencing this as the once Top-5 prospect in the nation now finds himself surrounded by nay-sayers who claim he may not be worth any better than a mid-second round selection. For the record, I’m one of them.

Two names however, have been linked to the Buccaneers trademark more than perhaps any others, and those are wide receivers Corey Davis from Western Michigan and John Ross from the University of Washington.

Both provide speed while the Husky has more of it, and both provide the ability to work downfield, while the Bronco has proven to be the more productive.

If both men are on the board when the 19th pick starts getting counted down then the franchise is certainly in a position to draft a guy who could single-handedly turn Jameis Winston into a quarterback who throws 30 touchdowns in a single season.

If they don’t draft one of these two because they aren’t available or they simply don’t see the position as a first-round need, then which direction do they go?

Option 1: Draft a Defensive Back

Tell a Buccaneers fan two months ago, their team could potentially land the aforementioned Peppers from the Michigan Wolverines and you’d have been laughed off Twitter, Facebook or out of whatever Buffalo Wild Wings you were sitting in.

Now, tell them they’re team should take him – because he’ll almost certainly be available if recent murmurs continue – and they may tell you you’re crazy and that he’s Mark Barron Part 2.

This is the position we’re in though, and it warrants some examining despite the fact the team’s secondary stepped up pretty impressively down the final stretch of games in 2016.

Keith Tandy looks like a guy with real starting potential and Bradley McDougald may not have gotten a Pro Bowl spot, but he wasn’t exactly a consistent liability back there either.

So, outside of Peppers, who could the team be looking at?

Well, Jalen Tabor (Florida) is a name who could still be sitting on the board. This pick would be interesting on two levels: the first being he is the former teammate of the Bucs’ 2016 first-round pick Vernon Hargreaves III, and the second being he plays the exact same position.

Two cornerbacks in consecutive first rounds would be a first for this franchise and I’m not certain it wouldn’t be for any franchise in the NFL.

In fact, Tampa has only drafted cornerbacks in the first-round three times up until now, so doing it in back-to-back years seems unlikely.

Plus, the team needs an impact safety if they’re going DB in the first, right?

Well folks, there simply aren’t any. Currently, the only NFL ready safeties projected to go in the first round by many, and certainly by Luke Easterling of the DraftWire are LSU’s Jamal Adams and Ohio State’s Malik Hooker.

Barring a last-minute weed smoking video being blasted on their Instagram accounts, they aren’t getting anywhere near #19.

Following those two, there isn’t another safety projected to come off the board until 20 picks after the Buccaneers’ first selection. That’d be quite the reach if you ask me.

All this being said, defensive back at 19th simply doesn’t look to be in the cards at this point.

Dec 30, 2016; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles running back Dalvin Cook warms up before a game against the Michigan Wolverines at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports

Option 2: Dalvin Cook

Ok, we all know who Dalvin Cook is, and we all know how electric he can be.

There are two problems with this scenario though, and one is named Doug Martin.

I get it, he popped hot for Aderall and is rumored to be a big-time “Molly” user. The one time you don’t want to see your running back rolling is in the Tampa night life, I get it, but let’s not act like he murdered a child here.

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The man made a mistake, and while it certainly doesn’t add to the aesthetics of it his problems came to a head one-year into a big contract, it’s the first he’s made to this point.

Currently, the running back is still on the roster, and until he’s not he is the best thing the Buccaneers have in their backfield.

No, I haven’t forgotten the three games he’ll miss at the beginning of next year, but if you’re suggesting the team drafts a first-round running back to plug a three-game hole then I’m afraid our time here is up and you’ll have to leave.

I don’t know what the future holds for Martin and Tampa, but I imagine Jason Licht is interested to see how his time in treatment goes before making any rash decisions, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a contract re-negotiation isn’t underway shortly including some random testing clauses in there as a security blanket.

Now let’s talk about Mr. Cook.

The young man is talented, there’s no arguing the fact, but is he really first-round talented? Understand, while Ezekiel Elliott may have run the paint off the field in Jerry’s World this season, he did it behind an All-Pro caliber line. No, not lineman, the entire line.

The Bucs simply don’t have the front-five they have in Big-D and they aren’t getting it any time soon, so a running back who needs holes to open for him will not be as flashy as Zeke was in Dallas this year.

Now, get him some space and a line to part the defense, and the Florida State stud will make ESPN’s Top-10 all year long. Again, that line doesn’t exist in the Bay, at least not yet.

Cook would sell jersey’s, but at the end of the day, it’s just not a pick worth taking while Martin is still around.

Option 3: Trade Up for the Buckeye

I don’t know the math on trading up from 19 to 10 off the top of my head, but I imagine it involves something similar to what Kevin Costner gave up in the movie “Draft Day”, and I mean the trade before he became the unlikely hero with the Hollywood baby mama to go with his firing dad drama.

I love Malik Hooker from Ohio State and I sincerely hope he doesn’t go to any team in the NFC South if he doesn’t come to Tampa because watching Mike Evans and the other Buccaneers wide receivers try to work anything past 10-yards would be a nightmare for a long-time after.

If you clicked on the link above then you’ve probably already seen he’s projected to go to the Bills at 10 according to Mr. Easterling. This seems like a good spot for him, and it’s one spot earlier than the Saints could possibly look at him at 11th overall.

Of course, this is if the Panthers don’t go after him with their pick at number eight. Seems they could use some secondary help these days.

Back to the Bucs though, the only teams who should be making these kinds of future mortgaging trades are teams one player away from being Super Bowl favorites (not TB unfortunately) and teams who’s leadership is so desperate to spark their fan base they’ll give away anything to get a blonde-haired quarterback (looking at you Rams).

This team isn’t either of those, so this trade makes zero sense, and shouldn’t happen under any circumstances.  I’d be the first one to get a customized jersey to hype up the young safety, but it just doesn’t seem plausible.

Option 4: Protection for Winston

Ryan Ramczyk and Cam Robinson are two offensive tackles who look like quality NFL players entering year-one.

Whether or not the Buccaneers have confidence in Donovan Smith to continue developing as Winston’s blindside protector, this team does need some offensive line help, and there’s never a bad time to get a top guy at this position.

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There’s no Laremy Tunsil this year, but Ramczyk and Robinson are a solid 1a and 1b in this year’s class for any team looking to get a solid upgrade to the shaky side of their line.

For the Bucs this is their right side. Whether it’s because of injury or age – both young and old – the right tackle position gave this team headaches all season long and it needs to be addressed.

No fan base floods the team store following a day one tackle selection, but the fans will flood the stadium when their quarterback can take a second to breath in the pocket because he’s better protected.

Putting either Smith or one of these guys on the right side next to Ali Marpet would be an upgrade, and while it may not light the fireworks on draft night, we could hear plenty more cannon fire if the guy they take pans out to be as advertised or better.

This scenario has potential, and there’s enough depth at other positions of need to make Bucs fan’s happy in rounds 2-7 if this is the direction Jason Licht goes.

Option 5: My Favorite

So, when you write the column, you get to say which idea is the best and this one is it!

If this team doesn’t go with Davis or Ross because they’re either gone or the team scouts simply aren’t willing to put their names on them, then this team needs to trade back to the second round, stock pile some picks and select safety Budda Baker (Washington) and wide receiver Dede Westbrook (Oklahoma) in the second round.

Following this, they could theoretically pick up Florida State tackle Roderick Johnson in the third-round, although they may have to trade back up to pull this off.

Let’s look at this and take off the Madden glasses for a minute though.

If the Buccaneers trade their top pick to say, the Bengals who are looking to re-load their roster and get back into the post-season after a disappointing 2016, then Cincinnati can take either receiver the Bucs pass on or (if neither is available, which is the likely scenario in this daydream) they collect cornerback Gareon Conley from Ohio State to go with the Easterling predicted selection of Solomon Thomas on the edge.

Who cares what the Bengals do with their pick though? With the 41st pick, Jason Licht takes Westbrook which gives his head coach the speed he’s looking for on offense. Then with the 51st pick, they secure Baker to give Smith at worst a top back-up to play behind the new force duo of Tandy and McDougald.

If I get my wish, then the Bengals also give up their 73rd overall where the Buccaneers take Roderick Johnson who may just be able to take over full-time duties on the right side by the end of his rookie season.

That’s not a bad haul, and barring the Bengals forcing a swap thirds type of scenario, the front office would still have a third in their pocket to go and take Jake Butt from Michigan if his injury sinks him to the late-third, or running back Jamaal Williams from BYU who is building an underground fan base as this year’s potential Jordan Howard.

So these are the options as I see them. Like I said, since I wrote this I get to say Option 5 is the best option.

We live in great times today though, and you have the freedom of your keyboard or touch screen to tell me I’m wrong or right, and I hope you do so.

Which option is your favorite, or is there a different option we haven’t even discussed yet? Let me know in the comments, or as always, you can find me on Twitter.

The Pewter Plank will have plenty more between now and draft night, so come back often to check out what we have to say. Thanks for reading, and Go Bucs!

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