Back at the owners meetings in Palm Beach — boy, that seems like a month ago; it was last week! — Bucs coach Todd Bowles made no secret that he wants a new corner, maybe more than just one.
Not only did Bowles grouse about needing a corner, he fretted about corner depth (was that meant to be a wakeup call to Josh Hayes?).
So this got Jenna Laine of ESPN thinking: The last time the Bucs had a terrible secondary, it was for two reasons. The first was, yeah, the Bucs really did have a bad secondary. And the second was it had a horrendous coach, the notorious Mike Smith, who was fired midway through that 2018 season.
The spring after the Bucs brought in Bucco Bruce Arians (and Bowles, too), Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht loaded up on cornerbacks in the draft, selecting Sean Murphy-Bunting and Jamel Dean in the second and third rounds, respectively.
A year, later, Super Bowl, baby! (Boom, boom, boom, BOOM!)
And while Dean is with the Bucs, some fans are done with him and it seems Dean might be curled up near Bowles’ doghouse. So Laine is beginning to think Licht may just repeat what he did in 2019 and draft two corners.
Don’t be surprised if the Buccaneers ____ in this draft.
Select more than one cornerback. The Bucs don’t want to be caught flat-footed again like they were last season with injuries, and not only do they need a starting-caliber player, but depth is also a concern. Coach Todd Bowles said at the league meeting, “We don’t have a lot of depth. That’s crystal clear. … We hopefully will address that at some point in the draft as well.” Keep in mind that they doubled up on the position in the draft in 2019, selecting Sean Murphy-Bunting in the second round and Jamel Dean in the third.
And that was a wise move. While SMB was serviceable, the Bucs certainly don’t want a second-round pick to be just serviceable. To be fair to SMB, his pick at midfield late in the first half in the 2020 NFC title game set up the second-greatest play in Bucs history: the Tom Brady bomb to Scotty Miller to give the Bucs a 21-10 lead just before halftime.
The Bucs won by five, 31-26. Take away SMB’s pick, the Bucs likely don’t win that game.
So yeah, Joe is OK if Licht tries to recapture magic.
