The Buccaneers must end the Vernon Hargreaves era now
By Cory Kinnan
Hargreaves in 2019
While he put together a strong summer and returned an interception for a touchdown in the first game of the season against the San Francisco 49ers, Hargreaves has put together a terrible 2019 campaign. He has tallied just four passes defended in addition to his one pick and is grading out at an absolutely abysmal 45.3 according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).
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The Bucs picked up Hargreaves’ fifth-year option for the 2020 season, but can cut bait at any time and still take on no dead money. As his salary will check in at close to $10 million next season, it seems like a rather obvious move for the Buccaneers to make as they have holes to fill on both sides of the football and throughout their roster.
In fact, Hargreaves was benched in yesterday’s game after he failed to hustle to make a tackle on a big catch and run by Cardinals’ rookie wide receiver Andy Isabella. However, the Bucs put him back in the game just the next drive, and he nearly cost them the game after getting flagged for defensive holding on a game-winning fourth down play that gave Arizona new life.
From his injury history, to bad judgement in terms of the video of him smoking, to subpar play on the field, there is no reason for the Bucs to give the Hargreaves experience any more time, let alone another season. The pewter and red field one of the worst secondaries in the entire league, and the below average play of their former first overall pick is a big contributor to that.