Buccaneers: Training camp position battles to watch

Strong Safety: Justin Evans – VS – Chris Conte – VS – J.J. Wilcox

With the reporting by ThePewterPlank.com own James Yarcho that Keith Tandy was pretty much locked in as the starting free safety.

Then the battle to watch during training camp is the battle for strong safety.

The battle between Chris Conte, free agent signee J.J. Wilcox, and second round draft pick Justin Evans should be an interesting one, but with Evans and Wilcox sitting out all of OTAs and much of mandatory minicamp with minor injuries Conte is getting the most reps at strong safety next to Tandy.

Conte clearly has the most experience playing safety in 85 career games starting in 76 of them with 379 tackles and thirteen interceptions, but per Profootballfocus (PFF) he also at times has been rated as one of the worst safeties in the NFL.

While playing in 714 snaps (fourteen games/starting eleven) last season for the Buccaneers he had 69 tackles and two interceptions including a game sealing one against Kansas City, and was not playing too bad before falling to injury and being replaced by Tandy.

Wilcox was brought in via free agency playing safety in 58 career games starting 38 of them with 214 tackles and five interceptions. While playing in 555 snaps (thirteen games/starting four) for the Dallas Cowboys last season he had 45 tackles and one interception mainly as a backup to Byron Jones.

Justin Evans was drafted in the second round and is known as a thumper and one of the better athletic cover safeties in the FBS. While playing in 25 games at Texas A&M he amassed 165 tackles and five interceptions.

With the Buccaneers letting Bradley McDougald leave in free agency I think that they really hoped that Justin Evans would win the strong safety starter position with a rotation of Wilcox.

But with Evans and Wilcox both missing OTAs and most minicamp due to injuries they are both already behind in reps and Conte may win the strong safety position by default.