Buccaneers Round Table: Mid-Season Tampa Bay Draft Decision

James Yarcho

At this point, I think it’s pretty simple – no matter where the Buccaneers pick in the draft (and as it stands right now, they’re fifth) they have to go after the best pass rusher on the board. The Bucs, for what seems to be the billionth season in a row, have absolutely zero presence on the edge and it has to be the top priority for this team moving forward. There is no need to draft someone on the offensive side of the ball in day one as they’ve done with four of their last five first round picks.

NC State’s Bradley Chubb seems to be the obvious choice right now. His name will begin to pick up steam as we get deeper into the draft season and who knows – he may be long gone by time the Buccaneers actually make their first round selection. However, where they are positioned at this moment, he should be available. The 6’4″, 275-lb end currently has 7.5 sacks and 45 tackles with 16 tackles for loss. through eight games. This is coming off a ten sack, 56 tackle with 21 going for loss season last year.

Bottom line – he’s a monster.

The Bucs can’t continue to ignore the edge rush position. It’s been a weakness going all the way back to the days of Raheem Morris and both Mark Dominik and Jason Licht didn’t do nearly enough to upgrade the position. Licht has tried with guys like Robert Ayers and Noah Spence, but so far Ayers has been disappointing and Spence has been injured in each of his first two seasons. That’s not to say I don’t believe Spence won’t develop into a solid pass rusher, but he has a lot of work to do, starting with getting healthy.

If the Bucs don’t address pass rush with their first pick, it will be a huge mistake yet again. It’s by far the weakest part of the team and much like the “weapons for Winston” campaign last off-season, fans need to be clamoring for a top-tier pass rusher.