Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Cornerback target may be a surprise
By James Yarcho
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are likely looking for an upgrade at cornerback in the upcoming draft. The player they have their eye on may not be who you expect.
It seems to be the general consensus that Ohio State Buckeye Denzel Ward is the top corner in this draft. You can read his draft profile here as yours truly – the card carrying Buckeye hater – is the one that reviewed the film and walked away more than impressed with Ward’s talent. For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however, they may be more impressed with some other corners in the upcoming draft. For instance, they will have Iowa corner Joshua Jackson coming in to visit and have already used a visit on Louisville corner Jaire Alexander – whose profile you can check out here.
From the sounds of it, if corner is the pick in the first round, the Buccaneers prefer Alexander over Ward.
According to Pewter Report’s Trevor Sikkema, Alexander is the guy despite multiple recent mock drafts have draft experts and pundits pairing the Bucs with a former Buck;
Contrary to, like, every mock draft out there recently, if the #Bucs are picking a cornerback in the first round, it will be Jaire Alexander, not Denzel Ward. https://t.co/w0VVEE2dRv
— Trevor Sikkema (@TampaBayTre) April 9, 2018
Alexander has plenty to be excited about. Even though he is another smaller corner – 5’11”, 190 lbs – Alexander is one of the most impressive athletes in the draft.
His career at Louisville ran into some injury issues, but Alexander finished with 77 tackles, fifteen passes defensed, seven interceptions, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery in 29 games.
It seems more and more likely that, unless there is some shocker within the top six picks, the Buccaneers will walk away from day two of the draft having taken a cornerback and a running back in the first two rounds of the draft. They are bringing in numerous players at both positions and seem to be gearing their focus in that direction.
Related Story: Jaire Alexander Draft Profile
It shouldn’t come as a surprise after a free agency period of addressing the trenches that corner and running back are the two glaring needs remaining on this team. The ideal situation is still to have either Bradley Chubb or Quenton Nelson fall to the Buccaneers at seven, but the growing feeling is that the neither will and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can turn their attention to one of the dynamic backs or shut down corners in the first round.