Four First-Round Corners, Or More?
April 25th, 2013
“Here’s the deal, Greg. The draft war room stays at 72 degrees. I can’t play great poker when I’m cold.”
The current draft guru of all draft gurus, NFL Network’s Mike Mayock, who actually played safety in the NFL, has laid out his one and only and much-awaited mock draft of 2013.
Joe scanned it furiously last night to see how many cornerbacks Mayock had coming off the board in the first round. The total was four, including Dee Milliner (No. 10, Titans), D.J. Hayden (No. 24, Colts), Xavier Rhodes (No. 29, Patriots), Desmond Trufant (No. 30, Falcons).
Joe was jacked up to see the corners because the Bucs remain desperate for short term and long term help at the position. (On that note, why the hell is Ronde Barber still leaving the Bucs hanging before draft day?)
There’s lots of hope/excitement surrounding the chance rockstar general manager Mark Dominik moving up from the 43rd overall pick (second round) and into tonight’s first round. The benefit is two-fold: you grab a better prospect and get to sign him to a five-year deal, versus four years for second round picks and below.
Joe would be shocked if the Falcons traded with the rival Bucs, but Bill Belicheat is always a possibility. Perhaps the Bucs could return the Patriots’ fourth-round pick (Aqib Talib) and give up the No. 43 overall pick and swap third round picks to move up?
On the flip side, Joe wouldn’t be surprise to see Dominik, in fact, look to move down tomorrow in the second round and possibly score another third-round pick.
So much will come down to how the cornerbacks move off the board. The Bucs are in need, and how they rank the entire cornerbacks class is a military secret.
April 25th, 2013 at 8:50 am
If his mock were to come true (no one’s ever does) I would hope Schiano would use his good relationship with Bellichik to trade ahead of ATL and take Trufant. NE is known to trade for more picks as they have done so many times before.
April 25th, 2013 at 8:54 am
I agree Dom will move up it down but we will move from Pick 43 bank on it
April 25th, 2013 at 8:55 am
Glad to see we are in a position of mystery and optimal choice coming into draft day.
There are so many options with our 7 current picks, and I like our odds no matter what we do.
After all, Dom got me a Marlin (Revis), and a Hawk (Goldson) too.
We got the prized CB in all of football, and an all-pro FS.
We are in the business of winning some more games in 2013.
Now for the draft, I am curious to see how the board shakes out. I would love to see an elite talent fall into the early/mid 20’s and have Dom pouch them away from the Falcons.
We are in a position of doing whatever we want, and I love it. We are in no way shape or form pigeon holed into taking a weaker player, and we won’t.
I am all for the possibility of trading down and nabbing some more picks. We need talent!
April 25th, 2013 at 8:56 am
Joe,
He is not trading up for a CB.
April 25th, 2013 at 8:58 am
Trading back is fine as long as the Bucs have a quality board like last year.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:01 am
We have already selected the best player available in the 1st round, even coming off the ACL, Revis was the best player available
April 25th, 2013 at 9:02 am
Please trade up and grab Eifert. Give Freeman a multi-dimensional set of receivers, it’ll improve Free’s game, as well as open up holes for Doug.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:03 am
The Buccs have handled free agency just like they will handle the draft. “If Ronde is not on the payroll then he is not on the payroll.” The day Ronde chooses to re-sign as a backup then we will get to see him on the field again and if not then we have had years of enjoyment watching a class act and hall of famer.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:04 am
Ronde will be back, the lack of announcement is strategic I believe. DT in 2nd, CB in the 3rd and RB and WR in the 4th. OT, DE and TE to round out.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:05 am
There are so many good choices in the 2nd round, I haven’t been able to identify that one player that they would move back into the 1st for because from 43 it will be expensive.
They are more likely to move to the top of the 2nd round if they move at all. I would assume CB, DT, DE and another CB would be on their radar screen. Best not to try and predict Schiano!
April 25th, 2013 at 9:07 am
Correction: first CB should have been TE.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:09 am
Oh yeah the big surprise is ronde is coming back tonight at the draft party guys sorry I broke the secret
April 25th, 2013 at 9:11 am
Not a big fan of trading up. We need to improve depth across the board (except WR), so unless you can get exceptional value stay put and get deeper at several positions rather than better at one position
April 25th, 2013 at 9:21 am
If we take a TE it will be 2nd or 3rd. We already have enough project TE’s to use a later round pick. I don’t think we will choose a WR. I think we have enough on the roster for the 3, 4 and 5 spots.
Personally i would want. DT in the 2nd, CB in the 3rd, CB and DE in the 4th, OT in the 5th, LB and and CB in the 6th
April 25th, 2013 at 9:22 am
Ronde is waiting on the Bucs not the other way around Joe. Schiano has yet to define his role. Just look back to last year.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:23 am
I fully expect Dom to trade up into the 1st round tonight…I’m predicting around pick 24-25…and take a guy they really like that falls – because somebody WILL fall. A CB or DT will be ours…
April 25th, 2013 at 9:23 am
TE and DT are bigger needs than CB, although I agree it is still a need. We need starters at DT and TE, while we have 2 starters at CB.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:24 am
Could it be that Dominik already knows Ronde is coming back (or not coming back), but somehow keeps it secret until the draft is over?
That way they are less predictable in either case. It’s the only reason I can think of why its taking so long to make a decision.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:27 am
i have never seen so much man love to a guy that does such a poor job, if you can’t draft’em try to buy’em,
April 25th, 2013 at 9:34 am
Why would the PATS trade, they need a CB too.
April 25th, 2013 at 9:55 am
They have 5 draft picks the pats would trade and they have all the same CBs that they had last year. So they don’t Need one NOW (meaning round 1)
April 25th, 2013 at 10:02 am
I think the Bucs know what Ronde is gonna do, but are keeping it hushed up, to keep other teams guessing about what we will do in the draft.
April 25th, 2013 at 10:18 am
I saw a Foxsports Mock Draft with the Bucs taking Denard Robinson in the 5th round. Thoughts? IMO he’d be an interesting RB/WR Hybrid type that can do a lot of things. Even return punts. I think that’d be one hell of a 5th round pick up
April 25th, 2013 at 10:21 am
I think DT is our biggest single need. A good one (or two) should be available at 43.
April 25th, 2013 at 10:28 am
Tampa will have to trade back into the first round to grab a upper echelon CB. There will be alternatives there in the second round but the question is how big is the gap for those CBs versus the top tier?
I like Jonathan Banks but I’m kind of gunshy after the Myron Lewis experiment. So I’d rather go get quality versus a replica. After all that player may have to start sooner than later
April 25th, 2013 at 11:01 am
Tampa2,
I’m glad the hype died down on Robinson, because I wouldn’t mind the Bucs taking him in one of the later rounds. For a while there I thought he may get pushed up into the 3rd or maybe 4th by ESPN. He supposedly has a lot of learning to do, but if he can be a return man while he does it, I’d be all for that. Same with Greg Reid as a late-round return man and potential backup.
April 25th, 2013 at 1:21 pm
0% chance of Dominik drafting a corner in the 1st or 2nd.
April 25th, 2013 at 1:35 pm
@Joe. Your caption for the photo is a classic .