Buccaneers Week 8 mock draft after loss to Titans
By Jacob Holley
Round 4. Ohio State. LB. player. Pick Analysis. Pete Werner. 812. Scouting Report
The Buccaneers linebacking corps has looked depleted this year after losing Kwon Alexander, who has moved on to greener pastures with the San Francisco 49ers.
Devin White has looked solid in his debut season and Shaq Barrett has been a monster off the edge. However, there’s not much depth to the position past those two. You can call Jason Pierre-Paul and Carl Nassib linebackers, but they’re more like drop-defensive ends in this system.
The defensive line has looked fairly decent, but having some more talent across the center of the field, especially in Bruce Arians’s new 3-4 defense, would be huge for the defense.
Pete Werner was undersized coming out of high school, but he’s bulked up to 240 lbs since then and grew into his position at linebacker.
Off the field, he’s an Academic All-Big Ten conference player and has been starting since his sophomore year, when he was fourth in total tackles on the season.
He, like J.R. Reed, is a heat-seeking missile when it comes to tackling the ball carrier. He’s already eclipsed half of his tackle-for-loss numbers from 2018.
The downside is that in two seasons as a starter, Werner has never recorded an interception. In a high-powered passing conference like the Big Ten, that’s not a great stat.
Still, the Bucs are lacking at linebacker and he’d be a good addition.