Buccaneers Rankings: How the secondary rates among NFC South rivals

Our last look at where the Buccaneers position groups rank in the NFC South looked at receivers. Now, we’ll look across the formation at those who cover.

Julio Jones, Mike Evans, Michael Thomas and DeSean Jackson are going to give defensive coordinators fits in 2017.

In a league stacked to make the passing game more and more effective, it’s important to have savvy defenders.

Cornerbacks are the first line of defense while safeties split time between pass coverage and run support.

Coming into these rankings, I fully expect this to be the most disputed batch of them all.

At the end of the day, it’s just not possible for someone outside of the huddle and meeting room to know exactly how blew which coverage or was caught out of play.

We see a safety trailing a deep pass and most of us automatically jump on the safety. Really though, do we know where he was supposed to be?

Occasionally you can get a glimpse of a position coach lighting up a specific guy. This gives us the biggest key to who messed up.

Those instances are few and far between though, and beyond looking at straight man coverage, it’s difficult to assess.

Still, we’re going to give it a shot, and see who comes out on top.