Buccaneers get criticism of 2023 draft class from NFL expert
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a huge draft, where they acquired some good, young talent. But one NFL expert gave them some criticism recently. The Buccaneers had several needs going into this 2023 NFL Draft. As Warren Sharp, a guy who many consider a brilliant mind in football, said, they need a quarterback, offensive line […]
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a huge draft, where they acquired some good, young talent. But one NFL expert gave them some criticism recently.
The Buccaneers had several needs going into this 2023 NFL Draft. As Warren Sharp, a guy who many consider a brilliant mind in football, said, they need a quarterback, offensive line help, and more depth in the secondary. All of those are fair to say.
They ended up grabbing Baker Mayfield in free agency, which will likely be their starting quarterback. But even then, they still needed a quarterback considering Mayfield hasn't been great on the last three teams he has been a part of. He has shown great moments, but that's about it.
They brought back cornerback Jamel Dean on a four-year, $52 million deal. They signed offensive guard Aaron Stinnie to a one-year deal worth up to $2.5 million. And they agreed to a one-year deal with defensive tackle Greg Gaines and defensive end Patrick O'Connor. All of those signings are fine, but they still needed to address certain things in the draft, and frankly, they didn't do a great job of that.
Now, that doesn't mean they didn't bring in good players, because they did, in my opinion. Calijah Kancey, to me, is one of the best defensive players in this draft, and he will be going to a coaching staff that knows how to develop talent. They were also able to get a great offensive lineman in Cody Mauch in the second round and safety Josh Hayes in the sixth round. Those two were picks that addressed the needs. But, they could have done better, and I think one CBS Sports analyst agrees.
Ryan Wilson, of CBS Sports ranked every team's draft class from 1-32, with No. 1 being the best draft class. The Buccaneers fell right in the middle at No. 17. Wilson said the best value pick the Buccaneers had come in the third round.
Best value: YaYa Diaby is a twitched-up pass-rusher who can line up just about anywhere. He weighs 266 pounds but ran a 4.51 40 at the combine. We loved his tape in the fall, and his ability to win from various positions along the defensive line makes him a lot of fun to watch (and it's why we had a mid-Day 2 grade on him.)
Wilson also had the Buccaneers making a surprising pick:
Most surprising pick: SirVocea Dennis has some fun tape — he'll come downhill with his hair on fire and shows legit blitz ability for an off-ball linebacker — but we wonder about his play strength and how well he can play in coverage.
They could have drafted the secondary earlier and maybe even taken a quarterback at some point during the draft. They had opportunities but didn't really show an effort outside of the two picks in Mauch and Hayes. Now who knows, they could end up being really good players. Or, they could end up being bad. As of right now, we just don't know.
But, we do know that on paper they drafted some good players, they just didn't happen to address some of their biggest needs.
