After giving up over 300 yards and four touchdowns through the air in a loss to the New Orleans Saints, the Buccaneers must look in the mirror for blame.
Hopes were high, just to have them come crashing down for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after they were beat in a divisional matchup against the New Orleans Saints. In a 31-24 defeat at the hands of the Saints, the Buccaneers’ defense surrendered 314 yards and four touchdowns through the air to backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
Exposed, the secondary looked raw, outclassed, and undisciplined; the Buccaneers have nobody to blame but themselves as the current secondary consists of numerous players taken in rounds one through three. To make things a bit sweeter for the Bucs is that their current best player in their secondary is a fourth round gem in safety Jordan Whitehead.
Outside of Whitehead, the Buccaneers have used on first round pick, four second round picks, and two third round picks in the past two years in order to address the struggles in their secondary. While it is still too early to tell with Sean Murphy-Bunting, Mike Edwards, and Jamel Dean, it looks like the Buccaneers have struck out on the majority of those picks.
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To be fair, safety Justin Evans was off to a promising start to his career, but regressed last year before hurting his foot, an injury he has yet to recover from as he is still on injured reserve. Carlton Davis is the only other player in the secondary that a case could be made for as a successful draft pick and is currently the best cornerback on the roster.
Vernon Hargreaves was taken in the first round of the 2016 draft, and outside of a laundry list of injuries, has not looked great on the field for the pewter and red. Even though he was drafted just a year ago, M.J. Stewart does not look the part of an NFL cornerback, and was even benched for Murphy-Bunting in today’s game before the ejection of Davis forced Murphy-Bunting to play outside.
Unless Murphy-Bunting, Edwards, and Dean (who has yet to be active for a regular season game this season due to an injury) are all home runs, then the Buccaneers’ front office can do nothing but look in the mirror in order to figure out what has gone so wrong in this secondary. A ton of assets have been invested into this secondary, but the Bucs have not seen any positive results from the unit.
After entering today’s game ranked as the sixth best defense in the league and 16th against the pass, the pewter and red unit is sure to freefall in the rankings. At this point, it would not be surprising to see yet another early round pick used in their secondary in the 2020 NFL Draft.