Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Grading the first round
By James Yarcho
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made a surprise move for Vita Vea and picked up two additional draft picks in the process.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers is as divided Friday as they were Thursday night, if not more so. Many were not thrilled with the pick of Washington defensive tackle Vita Vea with their first round selection. Some feel it was the final piece of a completely revamped defensive line that is looking to improve from their worst in the NFL ranking in 2017.
I’m sort of in between.
I was taken by surprise with Vea being their guy, as most everyone was. Yes, there were more pressing needs. Yes, Derwin James is a great talent that would have filled one of those needs. But I understand what Jason Licht is going for. I understand the emphasis he’s putting on the defensive line – and the rotation they have created.
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Vea joins Gerald McCoy, Beau Allen, Jason Pierre-Paul, Vinny Curry, William Gholston, and Noah Spence to form (on paper) one of the best defensive lines in terms of pure talent that we’ve seen in Tampa Bay for over a decade.
The NFL is a copycat league and 31 coaches and general managers witnessed the Philadelphia Eagles win a Super Bowl with an incredible rotation of defensive linemen. Are the Bucs the Eagles? No, but they took great strides to get to that point.
The trouble for opposing offenses now is the inability to cover two massive tackles in the middle while also stopping an edge rush of JPP, Curry, and Spence. Vea eats up so much space that they’ll either have to double team him from a sheer mass standpoint, leaving one-on-one matchups for McCoy or they continue to double McCoy and Vea can use his brute strength to overpower those in front of him.
The other thing to consider when grading this round – eve though you can’t truly get a grasp on the true grade of the pick for a few years – is what Jason Licht also received. Gaining the 53rd and 56th picks in the draft not only reloaded the pick they lost in the JPP trade but gave them an additional pick in the top 60 they didn’t have before.
As David Harrison pointed out on the Locked On Bucs Podcast (you can listen below), Licht took three picks in the top 70 and was able to turn them into Jason Pierre-Paul, Vita Vea, and three more picks in the top 60. That’s a great, great haul for this team.
Now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can turn their attention to round two where they can look to add players like Derrius Guice, Joshua Jackson, Donte Jackson, Ronnie Harrison, Nick Chubb, Ronald Jones, Isaiah Oliver, or Justin Reid to fill the needs remaining at running back, cornerback, and safety.
Next: Projections For Round Two
Overall, despite the backlash from some, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in a great position right now. They came into the draft with more needs than picks and that is no longer the case. When grading the round, you take the round as a whole, not just the one player. And for the first round, Jason Licht did a pretty great job.