Buccaneers rankings: How the receivers stack up in the NFC South
Third Receiver
So, like I said in the beginning, third receivers are almost as popular as starters these days, especially when teams like the Bucs use them so often.
Which team has the top slot guy? Well, this is often times up to interpretation and is going to take some predicting as well.
4. Russell Shepard, Carolina Panthers
Shepard isn’t your normal slot receiver type, but fans of the Bucs will remember him fondly.
He’s an all-out effort player and takes advantage of the opportunities presented to him.
He may not dominate the slot in traditional ways, but he knows how to work a seam well enough to find space against defenders.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Through effort and his quarterback’s confidence in him to give maximum effort, he’ll get snaps.
The fact he isn’t much different skill-set wise than the two who came before him means he isn’t going to scare anyone all that much either though.
3. Adam Humphries, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Going from undrafted to playing third receiver for the Bucs is quite the accomplishment.
This doesn’t mean Adam Humphries is satisfied at all though.
55 catches and 622-yards is a solid line, but the addition of Jackson is likely to eat into his numbers more than anything.
The addition of rookie Chris Godwin will also take away some looks from the fan favorite, and I’m not sure he brings enough to the field to stop it from happening.
In the end, he hasn’t been consistent enough over multiple years to really have a firm spot on his team’s game plan, and doesn’t change the pace of the game enough to make splash plays.
2. Taylor Gabriel, Atlanta Falcons
When Gabriel hit the open market from Cleveland I was one screaming as loud as I could type for the Buccaneers to bring him in.
Unfortunately, they didn’t, and I had to watch him land in Atlanta.
35 catches and 579-yards later he was playing in the Super Bowl and the Bucs were at home after barely missing the playoffs.
I’m convinced had Gabriel been in Tampa, they’d have gotten one more win to get to the post-season.
No sense crying about it now, but Gabriel looks like a candidate to really increase his usage in 2017.
Ryan is pretty comfortable with his usual suspects, but after a solid year where the former Brown hauled in six touchdown passes from Matt, I think there’s some real rapport building here.
NFC South secondaries better keep the lid on their defense, or Gabriel will bust out big.
1. Willie Snead, New Orleans Saints
Let’s be clear. I prefer Adam Humphries and Taylor Gabriel over Willie Snead in a vacuum. However, I can’t deny Snead’s back-to-back seasons with more than 60 catches and over 850-yards for the New Orleans Saints.
The way he has been deployed and utilized by his team is masterful, and quite honestly he’s done it while maintaining a bit of anonymity.
Even his own team hasn’t seen enough to offer him a long-term deal.
I don’t know about you guys, but if I had a player who could bring in nearly 1,000 yards per season while playing third fiddle and not getting upset about it, I’d lock that guy down quick.
He may not garner a whole lot of attention outside of his locker room, but Snead is as important to his offense as any other player on the field.
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The Saints get the win here, but the Bucs’ third guy is no slouch. The gap between one and three on this list is closer than some might think.