Bucs In Draft-Turning Seat At No. 7
April 7th, 2014
Former NFL player Bucky Brooks, one of NFL Network’s three full-time draft gurus, has penned a piece for NFL.com naming five potential draft picks that could alter the course of next month’s NFL draft.
Why? Brooks believes these five players — non-quarterbacks — represent the final shot at a blue-chip player at their respective positions. That means some teams will go into desperation mode just before a player from this group is likely to be drafted.
The list includes the following:
Mike Evans, Texas A&M
Taylor Lewan, OT, Michigan
Eric Ebron, TE, North Carolina
Dee Ford, DE, Auburn
C.J. Mosley, LB, Alabama
The theory is simple. For example, Brooks speculates Sammy Watkins will be the first wide receiver taken, and teams are less likely to seek a trade up for Watkins because Evans also is an assumed impact star receiver and teams would rather wait to see how far Evans might fall because they’d have to give up less to draft him in a trade scenario.
Lewan fits the mold once fellow tackles Greg Robinson and Jake Matthews are drafted. In the case of Ebron, he’s the only consensus blue-chip tight end prospect.
Interestingly, Brooks believes the Bucs are one of the small handful of teams where Evans, Lewan and Ebron might land. Joe wouldn’t go that far. But the whole discussion highlights the fact the Bucs could be in an ideal position to trade down.
The Giants with the No. 12 overall pick might be aching for both Lewan and/or Ebron by the time the Bucs are on the clock with the No. 7 overall pick. The Browns, for example, might be willing to deal a package of picks to the Bucs for Evans, if Cleveland has already secured its QB of the future with their No. 4 overall pick. Joe wouldn’t mind taking the Browns’ 26th overall pick this year, their second-round pick, and their 2015 first-round pick.
Sure, Joe wants to see the Bucs draft Johnny Football or Teddy Bridgewater, but there are strong odds both will be unattainable. Trading down, assuming Lovie Smith and Jason Licht are strong evaluators, absolutely could do wonders for the Bucs.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:13 am
I would not be surprised or upset if the Bucs traded down at 7 to gain more picks. This draft is deep at several positions and we need all the help we can get! If there is a good offer for the 7th spot, I’d make the trade to the middle of the round….take a guy like Ebron or Barr…and use the extra pick(s) we would get on O-line depth, slot WR and maybe even an extra DE.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:17 am
(I posted this last week)
I am so paranoid about the draft now that the Bucs have traded Mike Williams. The easy thing to do now is assume that they must take either Sammy Watkins or Mike Evans with the 7Th pick.
The thing that keeps ringing in my ear is Licht saying that they believe there may be a franchise QB in the draft and it’s not who everybody is thinking about. Then there are the planned visits. Why would you bring in players scheduled to go in the late 1st round if you didn’t think under some scenario, you might be interested?
The Wild card in this draft in my opinion is not the Texans, it’s the Browns who have the 4th and 26th picks. The Browns are likely to take a safe pick at #4 and trade back into the top ten to get a QB. Or maybe they took Manziel at #4 and want to trade back to pair Evans with him.That trade spot is ideally the Bucs at #7 – the team most likely to trade down and Evans and a premium QB is likely to be available at #7.The Bucs could take Derek Carr, Brandin Cooks, CJ Moseley, Dee Ford (coming in for a visit), Kelvin Benjamin, or a top OG/OT with the 26th pick, plus get a 2nd and a 4th round pick.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:21 am
The dream scenario is for the Bucs to trade down. Lovie/Licht have had to hit the rest button, after 5 years of total mismanagement of the Bucs.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:25 am
I’d be cool with Mike Evans. Slightly off topic but no one seems to be talking about it with all these teams letting good receivers go (Mike Williams, Desean Jackson, Hakeem Nicks etc.) but there is no point dealing with a problematic receiver or paying a receiver too much money with how loaded this draft is. We can easily find another Mike Williams and it certainly does not have to be in the 1st round.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:25 am
The WR that built Johnny Football
Hope Evans does trademark it
April 7th, 2014 at 11:26 am
I have a feeling Marqise Lee will drop like a stone. In the scenario Joe described with the Browns, either Lee or Benjamin have a decent chance of being at 26 and would be great picks for an every down #2 wideout.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:38 am
We all know the Bucs will not be able to draft a top Qb without moving up after this year unless it means another new regime. Draft. The. Quarterback. It’s mind bending that a 35 yr old career backup(who I’m excited about) and a 3rd round draft would stop the Bucs from drafting a franchise QB. U could draft a de end any day. Watkins or clowney or QB. It’s rly that simple. Robinson is a stud but they need a QB. No player besides clowney is a player we can’t get next year. But in this league, were not getting a Super Bowl QB outside the 1st ten picks. Russel and Kap are rarities. Don’t plan on a rarity taking this team to the title game. Draft a QB and RayJay sells out all 8 games(if it’s one of the big 3) and Joe after Manziels pro day I must again tip my hat to you sir.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:41 am
Macabee- you posted the exact same thing already about Cleveland being a wild card. U don’t think Houston decides the draft? They get clowney everything’s normal. They get Manziel and the QB panic sets in same panic that saw Ponder go 12th
April 7th, 2014 at 11:42 am
the only guy that we should trade back for is Brandon cooks we can probably get a extra 2nd or 3rd rounder because he is most likely a mid too late first-round pick
April 7th, 2014 at 11:48 am
Broy3434 Says:
“We all know the Bucs will not be able to draft a top Qb without moving up after this year unless it means another new regime.”
Don’t include me in you’re “we all know”, as of right now I think the Bucs are going to go 5-11 or 6-10. So they won’t have to move up too far in next years draft.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:53 am
@Joe
In the Spirit of the Great Bobby Beathard I was thinking something similar
-Trade our Number #7 (2014) 1st Round Pick to Cleveland
• 26th Cleveland to Tampa Bay (1st 2014)
• 35th Cleveland to Tampa Bay (2nd 2014)
• 83rd Cleveland to Tampa Bay (3rd 2014)
or
-Trade our Number #7 (2014) 1st Round Pick San Francisco
• 30th San Francisco to Tampa Bay (1st 2014)
• 56th San Francisco to Tampa Bay (2nd 2014)
• 94th San Francisco to Tampa Bay (3rd 2014)
Over Looking his last couple years in San Diego-The Great Bobby Beathard- had a penchant for trading away 1st round draft picks-He would trade back and grab a cluster of good premium prospects (More Is Better)
Sure folks called him crazy at the time-But now looking back on Beathard’s record shows- that he had a hand in seven teams that reached the Super Bowl with the Dolphins, Redskins and Chargers. Four of those teams won Super Bowls, and he gained his reputation as “the smartest man in football.
Note: Bobby Beathard drafted 17 quarterbacks prior to Leaf’s selection, but none in the first or second rounds-(Should have stayed true to his formula)
• Beathard had seen Don Strock, a fifth-rounder with the Dolphins in ’72, become a vital quarterback on championship teams.
• Even though he didn’t draft Joe Theismann with the Dolphins — Theismann was a fourth-round pick by Miami in ’71 and signed by the Redskins in ’74 out of the CFL
• When Tampa Bay gave up on Doug Williams, a former No. 1 pick, Beathard brought him in to rescue the Redskins in 1987
• Beathard took Mark Rypien in the sixth round in ’86; Rypien won a Super Bowl in ’91
• Beathard also used a sixth-rounder to select Stan Humphries in ’88, his last draft with the Redskins. Humphries led the Chargers to their unlikely Super Bowl appearance against the San Francisco 49ers, albeit it a losing effort.
• Beathard selected Indiana quarterback Trent Green in the eighth round of the ’93 draft- As a St. Louis official recently noted, it could have been Green, not Kurt Warner, who led the the Rams to their Super Bowl title had Green not suffered a major knee injury late in the ’99 preseason.
April 7th, 2014 at 12:08 pm
Hmmmm …. Well so far with our brand spanking new baby 1st time GM, in exchange for Revis,Joesph,Penn, and Williams we have exactly one 6th round pick. We might just want to stay put and pick at 7.
April 7th, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Broy3434,
I have no idea with a degree of certainty who will pick who in the top 10 picks of the draft. My post was if the Bucs desire is to trade down, then the Browns are the team that could be their greatest opportunity because they need a QB and they have 2 1st round picks. There are a myriad of things that could happen, I simply pointed out one that would favor the Bucs if they would prefer to trade down. They may not!
April 7th, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Remember Thurston Howell III better half Lovie’s DNA is DEFENSE. Bucs have set themselves up nicely for the draft. Nice stable of RBs, and young QB. Unless it’s Watkins at 7 rule of thumb is don’t draft a WR in 1st round. Logical thing with a deep draft is to move down if possible, which I believe Bucs will and should do. Look for Licht/Smith to move down and select a defensive player. D.Ford? Also don’t be surprised to see Tim Wright moved to WR.
April 7th, 2014 at 12:12 pm
We need so much I don’t know where to start ….. I guess evans
April 7th, 2014 at 12:15 pm
Get one of the Top Four QBs at 7, and what positions do we need then? We need a great MLB but we can definitely get the Michigan State’s MLB at 2 and maybe as low as 3rd. We need a backup three technique for the DL, but we can get the three technique DL from Syracuse with 10 sacks last year in the 3rd round (just one less sack than the top DL prospect). At 5 you get LSU’s Guard. We now have a 6th pick and you can still get a good WR there because there are so many in this draft. With the 7th you go with the best athlete who can still be a very good Special Teams Player. You don’t need to drop down in the draft for more picks, because we could still pick up a free agent to fill any hole we missed. If we miss any WR in the draft or free agency, you just move Wright over to Wms position–and you know he can catch just as well as Williams and is bigger, and you have the Giant’s TE who can really catch well, so then you have three reliable receivers out there. There are five burners on the team that can compete for the slot receiver position and likely either Page or Murphy or Demps could win that job and with expert coaching any of those three can be as good as anyone in the draft.
April 7th, 2014 at 12:23 pm
Besides Late 1st round pick-In the above scenario
• JaWuan James(OT/G) Tennessee 6-6 311 (2nd rd projection)
• Troy Niklas (TE) Notre Dame 6-7 270 (2nd rd projection)
• Josh Huff (WR) Oregon 5-11 206 (3-4th rd projection)
• E.J. Gaines (CB) Missouri 5-10 190 (4th rd projection)
• Seantrel Henderson (OT) Miami (Fla.) 6-7 331 (5th rd projection)
• Isaiah Crowell (RB) Alabama State 5-11 224 (5-6th rd projection)
April 7th, 2014 at 12:24 pm
owlykat…you’re assuming all the WR’s will stay injury free all season long. What if VJax goes down for the season with an injury. Who becomes the #1 then. Tim Wright?
No no no this team needs quality depth at WR, not to mention a few other positions.
Forgot to mention Vjax is getting slower by the day.
April 7th, 2014 at 12:25 pm
I would love that trade if it were to go down. Picking up that extra #2 this year would be huge. Makes it easier to come out of the first 3 rounds with 2 WR or 2 OL.
April 7th, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Looks to me like the Bucs are covering their bases soup to nuts as for as QBs go. Teddy Bridgewater is in Tampa for a workout!
April 7th, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Joe, I’d take that deal in a second. So fast they couldn’t reconsider. You gotta think Cle will have a high-ish pick next year too. That’s science.
But I’m not sure the value-points system allows us to take that much from them for 19 slots. Dimitrof* gave us that much for. Julio, but everyone thought he was nuts too…..gave up wayyyyy too much.
April 7th, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Macabee,
I hope Teddy brought his pretty little glove. Lord knows he can’t throw without it.
#not a top draft pick
April 7th, 2014 at 12:42 pm
@stevek
Be nice
April 7th, 2014 at 12:51 pm
Trade back and grab brandin cooks! We need picks……
April 7th, 2014 at 12:55 pm
@panhandle
Brandin Cooks-Solid (Drops passes with game on the line, but solid)
April 7th, 2014 at 12:57 pm
Trade up for Robinson….PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 7th, 2014 at 1:00 pm
I would not fall out of my chair is Jackson is traded on draft day to somebody making a Super Bowl run.
Broncos maybe as they lost Decker.
Unlikely I know but a lot of unlikely things have already happened.
April 7th, 2014 at 1:01 pm
@MadMax
Yeah, Robinson is gonna be a beast. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
April 7th, 2014 at 1:04 pm
@Eric
Over the next 12 months, it gonna be interesting to see how we handle
• Vincent Jackson
• Dashon Goldson
• Carl Nicks
April 7th, 2014 at 1:09 pm
Especially when you consider what can transpire with 2015 Free Agent Class
-Earl Thomas, FS, Seattle Seahawks (1st round, 2010): Some regard the two-time all-pro as the keystone of a defense that’s approaching legendary status. If New Orleans Saints FS Jairus Byrd is worth $9 million per season, there’s little doubt Thomas will become the first at his position whose yearly salary averages eight figures. (Seattle has major cap concerns in 2015)
-Ndamukong Suh, DT, Detroit Lions (1st round, 2010): No quarterback wants to step up in the pocket against Suh, who also feasts on running backs and blockers. And his on-field rage would be welcomed by clubs lacking the coveted junkyard dog mentality.
-7. Jimmy Graham, TE, New Orleans Saints (3rd round, 2010): Depending how this year’s anticipated franchise tag standoff pans out, Graham could be looking at a tag worth upward of $12 million in 2015 if he’s franchised a second consecutive offseason rather than locked up in the coming weeks. But whether it’s this year or next, he’ll eventually become the league’s first $10 million-per-season tight end and deservedly so.
-9. Greg Hardy, DE, Carolina Panthers (6th round, 2010): Like Graham, he seems more likely to land a multi-year agreement sooner than later. If not, the Panthers would have to pony up about $16 million to tag Hardy again in 2015. Given the premium on pass rushers in today’s NFL — and especially ones also stout against the run — he might even be worth it.
-Per:@ByNateDavis
April 7th, 2014 at 1:11 pm
Personally I like Beckham Jr more than Lee, and its very possible hes around at 26 if we trade back
April 7th, 2014 at 2:38 pm
This is probably the most logical story I have seen in a week.
April 7th, 2014 at 2:47 pm
Buc1987- u actually think the bucs don’t win 7 games. Regardless even if they do the only Qb’s coming out next year that are better than even Bortles are only Winston and Mariota and I’d rather have Manziel than Mariota personally. Those two will go 1st and 2nd and that’s a guarantee. The Bucs aren’t going to pay a kings ransom for one of them to move up so I’ll say again. The 7 pick has to be Bortles Manziel or Bridgewater. All elite position players (Watkins clowney, Mack and Robinson) will likely be off the board as deep as the draft is. This fan base will pay dearly if we do not use our 7 pick on a QB. It’s 2014 man and our d won’t be Seattles now or in 5 years.
April 7th, 2014 at 2:49 pm
I apoligize if saying we and our offends anybody. I’m aware it’s not me. Just a figure of speech/ habit. Regardless of what happens, if they don’t draft a QB, I’m sure they will draft a damn good player.
April 7th, 2014 at 4:18 pm
What makes everyone believe Jason Licht can get more than a 7th or 6th rounder for a trade down???
He sure hasn’t been able to get more so far. Heck, any picks he does get will probably be fore next years draft.
April 7th, 2014 at 4:26 pm
I would be all for trading down if Jason Licht were not the one doing the deals. As it stands? Stay at 7 and take BPA.
April 7th, 2014 at 5:25 pm
stevek
As I said in another thread. Manning wears a glove too.
April 7th, 2014 at 5:58 pm
Bridgewater, Bortles, Manziel, McCarron. Murray
Equal
Ponder, Gabbert, Freeman, Sanchez, Clausen, Weeden and dozens more!
Busts!
We need a SURE FiRE starter on Offense or defense.m
WR/OG/LB/CB/DE/FS/OT
We honestly need TALENT at all of these positions.
Fast!
Trade down?
I like Beathards resume.
@LuvmyBucs
@thx for the history lesson!
I enjoyed it!
I love the Bucs too man! A looooot!
April 7th, 2014 at 6:21 pm
Bucs need to take a playmaking WR if they have any hope of giving their quarterbacks something that resembles a competent offense. Outside of Vjax and Doug Martin they literally have no offensive weapons. We won’t win if we can’t put points up. And I don’t want to hear how “deep” this draft is because it’s purely speculation at this point…no one has stepped on a pro field yet and played at the speed of the pro game. So why not just stay at 7 and go with a proven pick in Mike Evans? Offensive needs far outweigh their defense, as Lovie has basically made his defense through free agency
April 7th, 2014 at 6:59 pm
considering his age and lack of explosion right now, I would trade vincent jackson for a third rounder this year. I would hope to trade glennon for a third rounder this year and trade back up to the second round. Take C.J. in the 1st, wr in 2nd, ol in 2nd, wr in third, DL in 5th, OL in 6th and wr in 7th
April 7th, 2014 at 7:18 pm
I think about a lot of these scenarios and honestly I’m happy with just about all of them. Watkins? Great. Mack? Great. JF? Thanks to Joe, great. Trading down for more picks? Great. But every time I read or hear about Bridgewater, I’m a little nervous, just feels like he might be a disappointment.
April 7th, 2014 at 8:08 pm
As of right now QB is not a strong need. We can wait until there is a better crop next year. We have 5 picks currently, don’t waste it on a could be franchise QB who we would be stuck with for 3 years. Get the need at D and O. If we trade down and get more picks then great. Carr or somebody else will be there.
April 7th, 2014 at 9:05 pm
Really am I the only one with Beckham Jr love? That kid ran a 4.31 and all the film I’ve watch the kid attacks the ball, catches with hands..plus he is bigger than watkins
April 7th, 2014 at 10:39 pm
LUVMYBUCS Says:
October 26th, 2013 at 12:51 pm
Think about it-the 49er’s have made in consecutive years, have played in the NFC Championship. Sure them have a great defense, but they also have an equally dominating offensive line. IMHO draft a couple mean SOB’s
1st-Taylor Lewan OT Michigan 6-7 315
2nd-Cedric Ogbuehi OG/OT Texas A&M 6-5 300
3rd-C.J. Fiedorowicz TE Iowa 6-6 265
IF you can trade
Revis & Jackson
+ Trade back a few spots
Now you can grab
Additional-2nd round pick- Odell Beckham Jr. WR LSU 5-11 193
April 7th, 2014 at 11:18 pm
@teacherman777
You welcome brotha; we all do