Da'Quan Bowers is a Tampa Bay Buccaneer!

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers just hit a home run in the second round selecting Da’Quan Bowers to team with Adrian Clayborn as defensive ends. The Bucs now have two of the top pass-rushers in the draft in their first two picks and they are going to enter 2011 with potentially the most talented young line in the NFL. Gerald McCoy, Brian Price, Da’Quan Bowers and Adrian Clayborn, I’ll give you a chance to go change your pants…

This is an incredible turn of luck for the Bucs, Bowers has top-5 potential and he fell all the way to 51. Now the Bucs get arguably the most talented pass-rusher in this year’s draft-class, a guy who registered 15 sacks in 2010, and he comes cheaply in the 2nd round. This could be the steal of the draft and the Bucs D-Line just went from mediocre to promising.

We will have more later on in the evening, but words can’t describe how good the Buccaneers’ draft currently looks. Bowers and Clayborn together form an impressive young tandem that should bother the quarterbacks in the NFC South for years to come. This is a great day to be a Bucs fan and the Bucs still have another pick to spend. Stay tuned for all the coverage and I’ll have a much more in depth analysis of Bowers later tonight, but of all the outcomes the Bucs could have gotten in this year’s draft, this beats them all. The Bucs have arguably the best first two rounds in the entire draft, they have addressed their needs along the defensive line and Mark Dominik continues to impress. Hats off, Mark. Very impressive.

The Bucs could trade up today and grab Da'Quan Bowers.

Yesterday’s top ten was capitalized by a move up from the Atlanta Falcons to grab Julio Jones, a very bold move that despite it’s fair share of criticisms I found to be extremely impressive. The Falcons see themselves as a team close to the top and just added an extremely impressive weapon to an already potent offense. The Bucs on the other hand were a bit conservative, acting very intelligently and picking up Adrian Clayborn, but hardly making a sexy pick or a bold move in the process.

Today, the Bucs could be bold. After getting a hulking, run-tough defensive end to play the right side, the Bucs could trade up and grab the former belle of the ball, Da’Quan Bowers. Bowers’ knee injury has caused him to plummet from potentially top 3 to still being on the board at pick 33 in the start of round two. You can’t help but feel for the kid, but he’s also going to have a lot of incentive to prove a lot of teams wrong and he won’t be around long in round two. The Patriots currently occupy the 33rd pick and I’m not sure they’re going to be interested in Bowers. But what they are typically interested in is accumulating more picks. The Patriots trade down more than any team in the league, if the player they want isn’t there or could be had later, they’re taking calls.

Based on the value chart NFL teams use to quantify picks, the Bucs could trade up from 51 to 33 by offering New England their 3rd round pick this year or next. There’s obviously other ways to play around with the trade too, but based on the value of the picks the 33rd pick is valued at 580, the 51st is 390. The Bucs’ 3rd round pick this year is 170. I’m assuming Belichick would be a stickler and ask for the Bucs’ 6th this year too. That would put it at approximately 577-580. The Bucs could certainly spring up and grab Da’Quan Bowers and frankly, I wouldn’t be opposed to being done for the day knowing next year Bowers, Gerald McCoy, Brian Price and Adrian Clayborn would be tormenting opposing offenses. That would be addressing the defensive end position aggressively and I think Tampa would be a force because of it.

Of course, Tampa could get stuck in a bidding war. They may have to go above value to get the pick, but on the other hand the Patriots could also be disinterested and the Bucs could get the pick cheaper from another team. Regardless, I think it would be worth the price to move up and grab Bowers. The tandem of Bowers and Clayborn with McCoy anchoring the middle would have massive potential. I’d love to see it actually unfold in Tampa.

Adrian Clayborn is happy to be a Buc.

Adrian Clayborn may not be who you wanted to pick at 20, but he sure isn’t going to let that stop him from winning you over. I’ve been very critical of the pick, not of Clayborn, but of whether he was the best player available and the ideal fit. At the end of the day though, Mark Dominik and Raheem Morris both know what they wanted and they’re ecstatic, and Clayborn has already started ingratiating himself to the Buccaneer fan-base.

“It’s a long wait, but it was well worth it,” Clayborn said. “Tampa is where I wanted to be and I’m glad I got to them and I’m glad they picked me. I’m glad to be a Buc.”

“I just got off the phone with McCoy,” Clayborn said. “I’m just excited. He was talking to me a little bit. I know that defense is what I can thrive in, so I’m just excited about it. He just called me and just that they got a great pick in me. He’s excited and I’m excited to work with him and everybody else. He talked to me about is guiding me the right way through this whole process and I’m excited to have a guy like that to help me out.”

Obviously part of that is obligatory, every player is thrilled to be picked by the team who drafted them (except Eli Manning and John Elway, both of whom inexplicably get passes for throwing $#@%-fits before they every threw passes in the NFL). Clayborn is making the press rounds in Tampa now, and listening to him talk about the game and the violence of the position, you realize this guy for as seemingly fun-loving as he is off the field, must be a Jeckyll and Hyde type on it. Clayborn told 620 AM in Tampa last night he looks forward to kicking offensive lineman’s asses and that if you’re not into the violence of playing on the D-line, you’re lined up in the wrong place. Now we know what Raheem Morris meant when he called Clayborn a “Rambo” character.