Buccaneers pull off huge trade in 3-round NFL mock draft

Round 3

Bringing back Jamel Dean and Lavonte David was a critical part of keeping the defensive core together, but not everyone was able to be brought back. In retaining Dean and David, the Bucs had to sacrifice Mike Edwards, Sean Murphy-Bunting, and Keanu Neal, among others.

That creates a depth issue for the Bucs on defense, specifically at safety. Tampa Bay signed Ryan Neal in free agency, someone who is a sleeper to be a stud safety for Todd Bowles, but he doesn’t fix all of the problems. The Bucs need more secondary depth, and they can find exactly that on Day 2.

Brian Branch is in the mix for the Bucs at No. 19, but there’s a pretty wide gap between him and the next crop of guys at his position. That doesn’t mean the second-tier guys aren’t capable of being phenomenal contributors. Jammie Robinson is two things: a guy who can play all over the secondary and a local kid from Florida State. Those are huge boxes to check in Tampa Bay, and Robinson has room to develop into a number of different things on defense.

Robinson is a Do-It-All Safety Who brings a ton of experience, having started since his days as a true freshman at South Carolina. He’s made his bones with the Seminoles, and PFF graded him 80.6 with “ability to adjust on the fly and break laterally is arguably the best in the draft class”, which is the type of stuff you want to hear about a safety.

Pairing him with Antoine Winfield and Ryan Neal could give the Bucs a great rotation of safeties and depth at a position that the team needs to find ways to replenish without breaking the bank. Landing a good safety is hard, but Robinson seems like he has the tools to jump into the fire and develop into the guy Tampa Bay needs.