A lack of quarterbacks taken early in the draft leads to Tampa Bay being left with a difficult choice at number nine overall; take the best available player or look for trade partners.
Truth be told, I’d like to see the Bucs trade out of here with the Jets and add some picks to their portfolio. Moving to 20th, Tampa would still pick from a good group of players who could help them this year, and add some more depth with the gained picks later on.
However, we don’t do trades in this mock draft, so with the 9th overall pick the Buccaneers select defensive end Shaq Lawson from Clemson.
Jacquies Smith was injured, and William Gholston was good when he was on and bad when he wasn’t. In addition to penalties, the latter has a lot of developing left, but has potential.
Lawson would make Bucs’ fans nervous as the team has not fared well with Clemson draftees in the past, or first round d-line picks for that matter, and Lawson is coming off of an injury plagued season ending.
For discussion purposes, if the Jets were to trade up to 9th, I believe they would do so to grab Carson Wentz if they re-sign Fitzpatrick, or Jared Goff if they don’t.
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