Because they won the Super Bowl, the Bucs hold the 32nd overall pick in the first round of the upcoming NFL Draft which kicks off on April 29.
Like most reigning Super Bowl champs, the Bucs’ roster doesn’t have a lot of holes in it. In fact, Tampa Bay is the first team in the salary cap era to bring back all 22 starters from the big game. So the Bucs clearly don’t have a lot of immediate needs to address.
They do, however, need to consider the future, and certainly will, but who says Tampa Bay needs to draft someone in the first round to accomplish that? Most of the Bucs’ needs could easily be filled in the second and third rounds, so why not trade out of that first round pick to gain some future draft capital?
You might be thinking, “Well, sure, that’d be great, but it’s the number 32 pick, not a lot of teams are going to be clamoring for it.” And in a sense, that’s absolutely true. The Bucs are not going to get an offer anywhere near the one that, say, the Dolphins got from the 49ers for the No. 3 pick (a whopping three first round picks to move up nine spots).
But that doesn’t mean Tampa Bay can’t get anything. Every first round pick gets a four-year contract with a fifth year option, something that second round picks don’t. There will be teams that see a guy they like and want to try and lock him up for five years instead of just the four years that second rounders get.
Teams near the beginning of the second round that would maybe be interested in the Bucs’ first rounder? I say the Dolphins, Jaguars and Jets are the most likely candidates. These teams have needs across the board, including offensive line help, corners, and edge rushers, all positions that will be plentiful in talent, even at the end of the first round. The Bucs could get some future picks from any of them (maybe a future third or a fourth or fifth from this year) and still not be too far back to try and draft someone they really want, assuming they trade back with one of those teams for their second round pick.
Given, if someone like interior lineman Christian Barmore or an elite edge rusher the Bucs really like falls all the way to 32, the Bucs may be inclined to stay put and take their guy—no one would bat an eye, because it would be the right move. NFL teams generally want to secure the guy they want, they don’t want to risk losing out on him because they were too greedy.
Hopefully the Bucs get to take one of those guys mentioned before, because as the Super Bowl showed, you can never have enough defensive lineman. But if not, they can always trade back and take care of some of their other needs.
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This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2021.
