Buccaneers make their first terrible pick of the draft

Punters do not matter. We aren’t sure how the Buccaneers ended up forgetting this when they spent a fourth-round pick on the position.

Let’s get the nice stuff out of the way first. The Buccaneers just brought in a better punter than Bradley Pinion that is going to be a fraction of the price.

Tampa will be able to use the freed up money to sign a few more depth options, and the added bonus is that the special teams unit should improve marginally.

However, drafting a punter is always a massive mistake.

Special teams matter very little in the modern NFL. People may call them “a third of the game,” but the total snaps and the total impact show this to be anything but true. All you need in the modern NFL is for your special teams to not suck. Great teams don’t need great special teams. Even the Bucs were able to win the Super Bowl and make a playoff run in 2021 with below-average punting, coverage, and returning.

Jake Camarda improves the punting, but it doesn’t make any difference for how good this Buccaneers team will be.

NFL games are won on offense in the modern era. Defense matters slightly less but still has a place every once in a while. No game is won on special teams. They can be lost due to a foul special teams unit, but that is a worthy risk if you are finding other ways to improve the offense and defense.

This pick changes nothing for the Bucs in 2022. The odds of winning didn’t improve at all. The position got better, but there was no need for it to do so. There were always going to be punters available on the free agent market that could be as cheap as Camarda with less money tied into the overall decision.

The rest of the draft has been good for the Bucs, but man. A punter is a very bad look.

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