After losing Sean Murphy-Bunting to the Tennessee Titans, there are a few potential sleeper options on the free agent market the Buccaneers could sign to replace him.
NFL Free Agency is starting wind down, but the work is far from done for most teams around the league. The first wave has crashed and rolled back, but there’s still value to be found with remaining free agents, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be in the market to add some potential high-impact players for next season.
To be clear, any move the Bucs make will require a move to free up some cap space. Tampa Bay stunned everyone by entering the offseason with almost no cash to spend yet managed to re-sign Jamel Dean, Lavonte David, and a handful of other players while also giving deals to Baker Mayfield and Chase Edmonds.
Right now the Bucs have less than $1 million in cap space to play with, as Spotrac has the team about $733k above the cap. That’s not a ton of wiggle room, and the NFL Draft will complicate the situation if the Bucs make more moves, but holes on the roster need to be filled.
Specifically, Tampa Bay lost cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting to the Tennessee Titans in free agency. While the Bucs were able to keep their top cornerback duo of Dean and Carlton Davis together, the loss of SMB creates a need for a No. 3 corner.
Here’s a quick look at recent cornerback deals this offseason to get an idea of how affordable the remaining free agents might be:
- Emmanuel Moseley: 1-year, $6M
- Chauncey Gardner-Johnson: 1-year, $8M
- Sean Murphy-Bunting: 1-year, $5M
Jamel Dean was brought back to Tampa Bay on a four-year, $52 million deal that averages about $13 million per year. Jonathan Jones signed a two-year, $19 million deal with New England that averages about $9.5 million while Byron Muprhy’s deal with the Vikings averages about $8.7 million.
All of this is to say, it’s not an overpriced market at cornerback and the price on remaining free agents doesn’t appear to be going up. We’re only a week into the new league year, but it’s starting to look like the crop of corners who remain might be able to get reeled in on one-year deals that set them up for bigger paydays next season.
That’s good news for the Bucs, who might still be able to get some value out of the market and add a solid No. 3 or No. 4 cornerback at the right price.
Key Metrics from 2022
- Targets: 53
- Passes Allowed: 38
- Interceptions: 0
Next to Dean, Rock Ya-Sin was the youngest cornerback hitting the market this offseason. Unlike Dean, he remains unsigned despite having a rather productive year with the Raiders.
Ya-Sin regressed a bit according to his PFF grade, taking a step back from a 69.9 grade in 2022. He has posted 27 pass defenses and 2 interceptions in 52 games during his career, but might figure to be a slot or two higher on other team’s depth charts than what the Bucs might be looking for out of him.
Still, the market hasn’t been as great as some might have expected, which could put Ya-Sin in a position to find the best one-year deal he can find in order to set himself up for a bigger payday next offseason. There’s reported interest from Baltimore, which might be a better situation than Tampa Bay, as well as a potential reunion in Indianapolis.
A year with Dean, Davis, and working with Todd Bowles could be a win-win situation, though.
2022 Key Metrics
- Targets: 62
- Passes Allowed: 44
- Interceptions: 1
The knee-jerk is to assume that Peters will be too expensive for the Bucs, but it feels like his price is starting to come down for a few different reasons. Right now his market isn’t too hot, which might have to do with missing the last few games of the season with an injury or how he’s known to blow up on the sideline as much as he’s likely to blow up an offense.
Peters has a history of being a little out of control, but his play on the field speaks for itself. He’s an All-Pro cornerback who has been to three Pro Bowls and once led the league in interceptions. But none of those accolades have come this decade, and he’s going to be 30 years old when the new season begins. That all stacks up to a risk, but one the Bucs might be wise to gamble on.
It doesn’t appear as though the price tag on Peters will be terribly high. He’s a prime example of a player looking for a one-year hoping to cash in next offseason. His projected salary is around $7.5 million, which might be aiming a little higher than what he’ll end up getting. If the Bucs can land Peters at closer to $4 million, it might be worth finding ways to dump salary elsewhere on the roster to try and form a pretty solid three-headed cornerback monster of Jamel Dean, Carlton Davis, and Marcus Peters.
2022 Key Metrics
- Targets: 32
- Passes Allowed: 22
- Interceptions: 0
If Peters is more of a grand delusion, then Shaquill Griffin might be a more realistic gamble for Tampa Bay to take.
Griffin flamed out hard in Jacksonville, putting him in a position to find a low-price deal that he can use to prove himself ahead of free agency next year. He signed a three-year, $44.5 million contract with the Jaguars back in 2021 but missed most of last season with a back injury.
Things seemed to be going well the year prior, though, as Griffin was one of a few players to accel despite the general awfulness of the short-lived Urban Meyer era. He posted a 72.0 PFF grade in 2021, which seems to be getting lost in his lower grade for last season. Most of that is likely due to Griffin only playing until Week 6, and the Bucs would be betting on him returning to his 2021 form.
He also comes out of the Seattle Seahawks system, which means he has loose ties to new offensive coordinator Dave Canales, although that’s more tangential than an actual selling point. Still, there’s familiarity in the building for Griffin, and a clear opening as the Bucs No. 3 cornerback. His asking price shouldn’t be wildly out of Tampa Bay’s range, as a one-year deal around $3 million might be enough to get something done.
2022 Key Metrics
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- Targets: 51
- Passes Allowed: 38
- Interceptions: 3
If there’s an ideal low-risk, low-price gamble for the Bucs to take in finding a replacement for Sean Murphy-Bunting it might be Bryce Callahan.
This is a quintessential case of a veteran looking for any decent deal he can find while still seemingly having something left in the tank. Callahan’s best years are behind him, but he’s shown enough consistent flashes throughout his career in Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles to fill the No. 3 cornerback role for the Bucs at the right price.
Callahan is a great natural slot corner with decent ball skills and veteran savviness. He checks a lot of boxes that Todd Bowles might look for in a guy to slide behind Jamel Dean and Carlton Davis in the secondary, or even use as more of a depth piece if a true No. 3 cornerback is found in the draft.
That’s the thing with Callahan, he won’t be expensive and will be easy to slide around the depth chart. It’s hard to imagine a deal being north of $2.5 million, and that’s talking the high-end range. If this were baseball, Callahan would be an infielder your favorite team signs late in Spring Training who fills some depth need on paper but could end up being a more meaningful contributor once the season starts and games start mattering.