Buccaneers created their own cornerback problem
Look, yes, hindsight is 20/20. But future decisions often have plenty of context, reasons for both optimism and pessimism, and straight-up warning signs that can make you feel like people are saying "I told you so" after things go south. That's the exact case with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their cornerback depth. Or, lack […]
Look, yes, hindsight is 20/20. But future decisions often have plenty of context, reasons for both optimism and pessimism, and straight-up warning signs that can make you feel like people are saying "I told you so" after things go south.
That's the exact case with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their cornerback depth. Or, lack thereof.
Tampa's lack of depth is a product of the team's decisions to sign both Carlton Davis III and Jamel Dean to large contracts over the last two offseasons. Neither player played a full season leading into their new deals and there were plenty of times when both players left games early due to injury.
Sure enough, the defense ended up without both on the field by the end of Monday night's blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Davis was ruled out before the game with the turf toe injury that also held him out of Week 2 and Dean exited with a shoulder injury. Even backup Dee Delaney got dinged up and left for a little while, leaving the Bucs with next to nothing at the position (with all due respect to the guys out there).
Sure, you can't expect backups to play like the premier corners Davis and Dean represent, especially against the likes of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. But at the same time, it's easy to see that the Bucs' depth is objectively worse than most NFL teams. Zyon McCollum looks improved, but it's a very small sample size and then there's Delaney and undrafted rookie Derek Pitts Jr.
And the worst part is you can't fully rely on Dean and Davis to stay healthy throughout the year. Your always going to have to keep it in the back of your mind that both guys could go down for an unextended period of time. You don't want to base process off injury luck, but sometimes you have to with certain players and these guys fit the bill.
“We’re thin right now. You know, we’re playing backups right now, but those guys understand the gameplan," Todd Bowles said Monday. "We’ve got to do a better job of executing certain things. But, for some of the guys it’s their first time playing, so we’ve got to get used to that. They’ve got to make plays. We’ve got young guys – nobody is going to feel sorry for us and we’re not going to feel sorry for anybody."
Tom Brady's $35 million dead cap hit also has something to do with it, as well, but ultimately, it was the Bucs' decision to allocate this much money to their cornerbacks with an injury.
But what's done is done. The team created the problem, now, it's about working themselves out of it. Unfortunately for them, it's something they can't control – in terms of player health. They're just going to have to try their damndest to get the depth guys up to speed and playing well as quickly as possible.
