With a little over a week until the draft, will the Bucs make a splash by adding a day one starter on the outside?
The cornerback class in 2018 is rich and deep and I went back and forth as to which position is more of a need as we come down to the wire. Having Brent Grimes and Vernon Hargreaves III and others on the outside, is it truly a need to add an immediate upgrade, or will you draft in later rounds to add depth for years to come? The answer is yes to both.
This will be the year to double dip at the position and there are some names in this class whose tape leaps off the page. Let’s cover three of these incredible talents in our latest installment of Drafting The Bucs!
Cornerback:
Minkah Fitzpatrick (CB/S, Alabama, 6’0, 204 lbs.)
Fitzpatrick is a swiss army knife. The only con that is spoken about in reference to this tremendous talent from the deep Sabin class is that teams don’t know where he’ll best fit.
When you have a team like the Bucs who have needs at both cornerback and safety, take a guy that can do both. If you review Alabama film, you see him playing down in the box, ranging at free, and even lining up as a nickel linebacker. It’s incredible impressive and he’s a ball hawk, plain and simple.
Do the Bucs play him on the outside? Sure. Can he play strong safety? Yup. Do you put him in sub-packages with the incredible litany of linebackers to rush the passer? Why not.
I spoke about Quenton Nelson being a can’t miss prospect and probably the safest pick in the draft, Fitzpatrick, our second cornerback to be listed after this, and the premiere safety who will be first prospect in our final column, are most likely going to be the pick for the Bucs on Thursday Night.
In 2017, Fitzpatrick had 60 tackles, one forced fumble, one interception and eight batted passes. Some of you will surely look to the one interception and raise an eyebrow in the vein of the great Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but rest well knowing that he picked off six balls in his 2016 campaign.
Ronnie Harrison gets a great deal of praise for a job well done at the safety position, and rightfully so, but Fitzpatrick was the key to that stellar defense and any film you watch, he’s around the ball.
As we spoke briefly about the one con, his biggest pro is the fact that he will tackle you. He tackles well in space and he brings down the opposition. There is nothing to like and everything to love about this transcendant talent and it really seems that Tampa Bay will be a match made in defensive back heaven for Fitzpatrick on Thursday Night.
Denzel Ward (CB, Ohio State, 5’10, 183 lbs.)
As we spoke at length about Fitzpatrick, we can do the exact same thing when referencing our second prospect in Denzel Ward. Some scouts and many draft boards have Ward listed above Fitzpatrick only because Ward is considered to be the purest true cornerback in the draft.
As with Alabama, Ohio State and Coach Urban Meyer have a storied program that has ushered many current and former stars onto NFL rosters for years at a time and Ward will be another one of those names called on draft night.
As I’ve harped on already, this class is wonderfully deep if you are looking to bolster your roster, and as with Fitzpatrick, if you want Ward, you’ll have to take him early. Some have him mocked going to Denver as early as the fifth pick and some have him going to Chicago with the eight pick, immediately after the Bucs select. This is why the seventh spot is so crucial to long-term success, because with an expected early run on Quarterbacks, Tampa Bay will have their pick of the litter.
In 2017, Ward had 37 tackles, two interceptions and he batted down fifteen passes. Let’s delve into that for a moment. He had two interceptions and as with Fitzpatrick, some of you will question whether or not that warrants a top ten selection, but as referenced, he batted down fifteen balls. That’s incredible.
Some scouts consider him a tad undersized, but if you look to recent drafts and see success with cornerbacks that measure under six feet, you see them playing slot corner or inside, and that seems to be where they spend most of their careers. Ward played exceptionally well on the outside and he measured up against some incredible competition from wide receiver prospects.
Ward looks to play for a very long time in the NFL as he has great speed, monumental athleticism and a hunger for the ball that will see him blanket NFL wide receivers on Sunday afternoons, and both Monday and Thursday nights for years to come.
Joshua Jackson (CB, Iowa, 6’0, 196 lbs.)
To be completely transparent, while I watched many Alabama and Ohio State games, even as a fan of big twelve football myself being from the great state of Oklahoma, if there is one corner that I watched every week this past year on Saturday afternoons, it was this young man right here from the Big Ten conference.
For those who raised eyebrows when referencing the interception totals of Ward and Fitzpatrick, this is where that eyebrow is lowered.
Jackson is not only a disciplined defender, but he has a knack for not only getting to the ball, but pulling it down for the defense. I recall one game where he legitimately scored the first fourteen points of the game for his program and that was on defense!
Jackson had 48 tackles, 18 passes broken up and eight interceptions during his 2017 campaign. As with Ward, not only can you look to his interception totals, but look at his passes broken up. Eighteen, that’s insane.
The most interesting thing about Jackson is that he’s been mocked anywhere from the first to the late second round.
Can you imagine a scenario where you snag a premiere safety in the first and Jackson in the second, or a scenario where you double dip at corner right off the bat and land Ward or Fitzpatrick and Jackson?!
You’ve not only immediately upgraded your DB’s, but you’ve created a defensive scheme that NFC South offensive minds and coaches are going to have to game plan for.
Jackson is one of the most entertaining prospects to watch on tape and it’s an occasion to grab a bowl of popcorn and a cold drink, you’re going to have a great time.
We listed these three dynamic athletes, but we could legimately write chapters on this class. As we dive deep into the day two and day three prospects, we can cover a litany of options that can add value to our beloved Buccaneers roster and it’s nearly time to get very excited about the future of our team.
With one defensive back class addressed, we roll towards our grand finale early next week as we cover the safety class and one name in particular, and he’s from an in-state school. Until then Bucs fans!
