Buccaneers: Luke Willson Would Be a Solid Second Level Free Agent Signing
The Buccaneers would be wise to look at Luke Willson in wave two of free agency.
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The Buccaneers are always looking for weapons to help their young quarterback, Jameis Winston. Mike Evans was targeted the most of any receiver in the league last year, despite the emergence of Cameron Brate. They need to spread the wealth around.
The Bucs have already added DeSean Jackson to the mix who will help open the field up with his speed. There is no doubt that he will make the Bucs a different team, but there is always room for more.
Adding a capable pass-catcher to the building will never hurt.
Now that we are into the second wave of free agency, the next group of players starts to enter into the mix. There are some stars left, like Malcolm Butler, but generally speaking we are onto level two. That doesn’t mean there aren’t valuable players, here, however.
Enter Luke Willson, tight end, formerly of the Seattle Seahawks.
Now, he has not been known as a big performer, but he is a consistent one. Take a look at his stats:
| Games | Receiving | Rushing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Age | Tm | Pos | No. | G | GS | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Lng | R/G | Y/G | Ctch% | Rush | Yds | TD | Lng | Y/A | Y/G | A/G | YScm | RRTD | Fmb | AV |
| 2013 | 23 | SEA | fb/te/wr | 82 | 16 | 7 | 28 | 20 | 272 | 13.6 | 1 | 39 | 1.3 | 17.0 | 71.4% | 272 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |||||||
| 2014 | 24 | SEA | TE | 82 | 15 | 10 | 40 | 22 | 362 | 16.5 | 3 | 80 | 1.5 | 24.1 | 55.0% | 362 | 3 | 0 | 4 | |||||||
| 2015 | 25 | SEA | te | 82 | 14 | 7 | 26 | 17 | 213 | 12.5 | 1 | 24 | 1.2 | 15.2 | 65.4% | 213 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |||||||
| 2016 | 26 | SEA | te/wr | 82 | 11 | 6 | 21 | 15 | 129 | 8.6 | 2 | 19 | 1.4 | 11.7 | 71.4% | 129 | 2 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| Career | 56 | 30 | 115 | 74 | 976 | 13.2 | 7 | 80 | 1.3 | 17.4 | 976 | 7 | 0 | 10 |
Willson always seems to make the plays when needed, and he has good hands. Look at his catch percentage. It’s always over 50%. For his career, he has caught 74 passes out of 115 targets, for a percentage of 64.3%. He may not be someone on the field all the time, as he only was on the field for 420 snaps (per Pro Football Focus). However, when called upon, Willson makes plays.
He also is a great size for a red zone threat. At 6’5″ tall, Willson gives Winston yet another tall option in the red zone. The more hands through the trees that are wearing pewter, the better.
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He isn’t a high-profile signing, but Willson would be a low-cost, high-reward asset as the Bucs move forward toward making that jump to the playoffs.