A major need the Tampa Bay Buccaneers couldn't afford to not address this offseason was supplementing depth at cornerback. In back-to-back seasons the Bucs have been plagued with injuries that has eaten away at the team's depth, and cornerback was already a shaky position grpup to begin with.
That's why Jason Licht doubled up on rookie corners, with Notre Dame's Benjamin Morrison and Kansas State's Jacob Parrish getting taken on the second day of the draft. One of them is already getting mentioned in the same breath as a franchise icon and Hall of Famer, and the other one is Jacob Parrish.
FOX Sports NFL Draft analyst Rob Rang is among the first to draw a comparison for Barber that Bucs fans will certainly sign off on. He's not directly comparing the two, per se, but is setting the stage for what everyone hopes will happen in regards to how Morrison's career pans out.
“The Bucs are certainly hoping that Morrison will one day be linked with Barber, a ball hawk whose durability might have been even more impressive than his awareness of the ball in flight,” Rang said. “Morrison is an instinctive and technically sound cornerback who just needs a return to health to remind everyone that stars, like Barber... can be found outside the first round.”
This is flattering, but it doesn't have to be this grandiose for things to be considered a success.
Benjamin Morrison doesn't need to be Rondé Barber to help the Bucs improve
Ideally, the ceiling for any rookie a team drafts is for them to become a Hall of Famer, otherwise what's the point? Morrison turning into the next Rondé Barber makes things a lot easier, but so does Calijah Kancey turning into the next Reggie White or Graham Barton turning into the next Jonathan Ogden -- that's not how things typically work out, though.
All Morrison needs to really do is turn into what Carlton Davis III was during Tampa Bay's run to the Super Bowl. He's filling a need, one that the team badly needs addressed given how dire things have been at cornerback recently.
Zyon McCollum has emerged as a potential CB1, while there's hope that Jamel Dean will bounce back and turn back into the corner we all know he's capable of being. Adding Morrison to the equation helps supply some depth, and if he can give Davis III energy, then the Gravediggers 2.0 could be born.
That should be more of the team's concern than hoping he turns into the next Rondé Barber. It's a fantastic endgame for everyone involved, but the bare minimum he needs to do is help improve what has been a worse-than-it-should-be secondary for Todd Bowles.
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