The Buccaneers entered the 2016 off-season with questions at wide receiver, and continue to have questions entering Week 8 of the NFL’s regular season.
When the final Buccaneers‘ game of the 2015 season ticked down to zero earlier this calendar year Mike Evans was surrounded by questions about his hands, Vincent Jackson was battling injury, Austin Seferian-Jenkins was fighting maturity issues and the entire team was left wondering what could have been after a four-game losing streak to end the season.
10 months later the team is at .500, V-Jax is done for the year due to yet another injury and ASJ is in the Big Apple after his “huge” mistake.
So the Bucs are still looking for the future of their receiver corps. Adam Humphries is an average to slightly above average slot guy at this moment in his career with plenty of upside potential waiting in the wings. Russell Shepard showed up just in time during the team’s Week 7 win, but if he was a legitimate number two wouldn’t he already have shown it?
Louis Murphy is coming back at some point this year…we think, but beyond those players there just isn’t much to be said of Tampa’s wide receiver depth.
Of course, trades are always an option, but often require the team receiving the player to give up more than the player received is really worth.
Then there’s free-agency. Players who still have the itch to play, have stayed in playing shape and are good enough to come on to a roster mid-season and find a way to make a difference.
Recently the Bucs worked out veteran Nate Washington, and here we’ll look at what we think about the possibility of adding Mr. Washington and a few other veteran receivers who may not come with high price tags, but could pay big dividends should Jason Licht take a flier on him.