Tampa Bay Buccaneers likely to address WR in 2020 NFL Draft

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had one of the most explosive wide receiver cores in the league last year, but the position will be addressed in the draft.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have some major decisions to make over the 2020 offseason and one of them will be what to do with WR Breshad Perriman.

Perriman had a solid year as the Buccaneers’ third wide receiver target and finished the season with 36 receptions for 645 yards and six touchdowns in 14 games.

Despite Perriman’s success as the third-man in the receiver group, the Buccaneers may have to look towards the draft to find a new WR to mesh with Chris Godwin and Mike Evans.

Why?

The uncertainty of getting a deal done with Perriman.

While the Tampa Bay faithful would love to see Perriman back at WR- and there’s no indication that he wants to leave- the truth of the matter is that he may be able to make more money elsewhere. If Perriman is going to demand an upgrade in pay- which is very likely- it may be more beneficial for the Buccaneers to address that third WR spot in the draft, using a rookie contract to create more space in the salary cap.

Perriman is certainly a talented WR, but there’s no reason to believe that his production in 2019 can’t be matched by another rookie- should it be the right rookie.

This is a deep 2020 class at WR with several guys who could be factors at the next level without using a pick on one of the elite receivers- Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb or Henry Ruggs III– in the first-round.

If the Buccaneers elected to part ways with Perriman, the organization could address the wide receiver in one of the middle rounds (2-4) and still get a valuable prospect.

For example, a potential get in the second round would be LSU WR Justin Jefferson. Jefferson is a 6-foot-3, 192-pound body with solid speed and great physicality. Other prospects like Denzel Mims (Baylor), Bryan Edwards (South Carolina), Antionio-Gandy Golden (Liberty), Michael Pittman Jr. (USC) and Chase Claypool (Notre Dame) would also fit Perriman’s build and would be available in later rounds- most of which would be after Round 2.

Nothing is set in stone, but there’s reason to believe that the Buccaneers elect to save cap space and look to the draft WR depth this offseason but that will all depend on the asking price coming from Breshad Perriman.