Receiver Isn’t A Major Need
February 24th, 2025
Bucs GM Jason Licht.
The way Joe looks at it, the Bucs need to do the following with the No. 19 pick in April’s draft, and Joe can sum it up in three words:
Defense, defense, defense.
That doesn’t mean there may not be a hole on offense. Walter Cherepinsky, the Oz behind WalterFootball.com, seems to believe receiver may be a bigger need than Joe believes.
Wide Receiver: The Buccaneers could stand to add some depth at receiver behind Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan if Chris Godwin leaves via free agency.
Joe first has to see what Chris Godwin does. If he leaves, yeah, that’s a hole, unless the Bucs believe that promising second-year receiver Jalen McMillan, who came on strong in the final weeks of the season, is ready to step in as the Bucs’ No. 2 receiver.
McMillan might be, but Joe isn’t there yet and would like to see how McMillan progresses.
Could the Bucs use depth behind Mike Evans and McMillan? Of course. While Sterling Shepard was OK coming off the bench, he made enough boneheaded mistakes to make Joe squirm.
If the Bucs want to draft another receiver on the third day of the draft, Joe wouldn’t be upset by that. If Godwin leaves, Joe wouldn’t be mad if the Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht used a second-day pick on a receiver.
Joe wonders if pending free agent Tyler Boyd has any gas left in the tank. When he wasn’t the focus of attention from defenses in Cincinnati, Boyd put up damn good numbers.
Of course, Boyd is 30. That’s when most receivers see production fall off the cliff.
February 24th, 2025 at 12:26 am
Joe … ‘Defense, defense, defense.’
You had it right there Joe. When it comes to holes to fill (for starters AND key rotational players) they all exist on the defensive side of the ball. If we’re gonna challenge for the Super Bowl, we need to focus there.
February 24th, 2025 at 1:25 am
Amen and amen.
February 24th, 2025 at 1:43 am
Unless we are just building for the future and have decided we are not going for the Super Bowl this year we need to fix the defense. Drafting WR should be for next year when we hopefully have way fewer holes on defense. All these draft experts mocking WR at 19? Yet again these hacks have not bothered to do their homework.
We need two ILBs if LVD retires. We need at least one OLB and maybe a starting true sack man FA. CBs and CBs since Dean can’t stay healthy and no one has stepped up really. Also since Roger and Rich have made sure to tie the hands of all DBs these days. Can you say flag happy. Who knows with safety…AWJ and Whitehead were dinged up all of last year and nobody really stood out to me back there. Can we get some extra picks please Mr Licht? Cuz we need a punter too.
Go Bucs!
February 24th, 2025 at 3:52 am
Resign Godwin draft all Defense
February 24th, 2025 at 3:59 am
BTW Joe, I view the Bucs situation right now as being very similar to what we faced in 2020- 2021. We had the foundation at the start of 2020 of an excellent team, but needed to add several pieces to put us into Super Bowl contention.
But add them we did: Brady, Gronk, Fournette, Brown in free agency, plus Wirfs & Winfield in the draft. And that doesn’t count some of the critical re-signings that we made, guys like RNR, Minter, Adams among others.
We’re at a similar point right now IMO, except it’s reversed: we need defense as opposed to offense. If we can fix our defense like we ‘fixed’ our offense in 2020, then I’m convinced that we can compete for the Super Bowl this year and next, maybe even beyond that.
And yet to us, it’s all speculation at this point. We have no idea at this moment in time who of our own UFAs we’ll re-sign in free agency. We also have no idea who TB & JL might sign from other teams (trades or FAs) to fill some of our holes or upgrade our starters/depth. And the draft is nothing more than one big guessing game. We might know who we’d like to draft, but who’s really gonna be there when we pick? Still, guessing is fun, so please keep the articles on that coming. JBF definitely leads the pack and sets the table.