Buccaneers Draft Comparative: Corey Davis and John Ross
Special Teams
Most first-round picks aren’t asked to contribute on special teams as they are leaned on for a big chunk of snaps whether they’re on offense or defense, and the Buccaneers don’t seem to feel too differently about it.
Still, it’s nice to have the option if it would come up, and in a league where there’s always some team getting hit hard by the injury bug, you’ll definitely have it come up at some point.
John Ross has return experience and success doing it. With four career return touchdowns as a Huskie the speedy receiver has multiple returns of 100-yards and had a 92-yarder in 2016 while filling starting receiver duties.
He’s a touchdown in a can, and anytime he gets his hands on the ball he’s a threat to take it to the house. Which is really good considering his perceived limitations entering his first pro season.
Not unlike Brandin Cooks of the New Orleans Saints, size and route running are all going to be concerns for this young man and likely won’t go away for his entire career.
If you look at it the way Steve Smith did, then you can show the league there’s no reason for him to do anything other than what he does best, because he does it better than anyone in the league.
If not, then Ross will need to lean on his special teams abilities to stay on rosters while he develops his game fully.
Davis on the other hand, has little to no special teams experience with one return of zero yards to his record.
Being the type of prospect who figures to get on the field with the offense early and often makes it seem irrelevant, but if a team drafts him and he can’t translate his college film to NFL play, then they’ll be left with a first-round bench player who will have to learn how to play special teams if they’re going to get anything from him at all.