Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Final seven round mock draft

Paris Ford – S, Pitt

With the 251st overall pick, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select Paris Ford, a safety from Pittsburgh.

The Buccaneers secondary is certainly not a weakness, but perhaps not as strong as the front seven. Safety Antoinie Winfield Jr. had a strong case for Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2020 but made up for it by chucking up the deuces right in Tyreek Hill’s grill in an iconic Super Bowl moment.

The other safety, Jordan Whitehead, is due to be a free agent at the end of 2021 though, and perhaps the Buccaneers can turn to the draft for a potential replacement. At six-feet-one inch and 197 pounds, Ford is a big safety out of Pitt that has some potential.

Big safeties aren’t commonplace in the NFL, but if you have a big physical one, it can pay off in dividends. While he is tall, he isn’t that heavy, so while he meets ball carriers with bad intentions, he doesn’t quite have the strength yet to really lay the boom. That comes with weight room though, and Ford is already a ball hawk with great anticipatory instincts and skills. If Ford becomes a player, he and Winfield could be a dominant ball-hawking duo in the Bucs back-end for years to come.