We’re officially to the start of the new league year, as the free agency tampering period has ended and deals can be signed. The work isn’t finished off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, though, even after getting deals done with key players like Chris Godwin, Haason Reddick, and Riley Dixon over the last few days.
Beyond bringing back Godwin, the biggest areas of the roster the Bucs needed to address were pass rush and secondary but only one of those has been attended to. It’s possible that Tampa Bay could double dip in the edge rusher market, which is still robust on the mid-tier, but figuring out how to improve the secondary looks to have turned into the new top priority.
Tampa Bay isn’t flush with cap space or cash to spend, but there’s still room to potentially make a move. It’s been a bit slower of a market when it comes to cornerbacks, with guys like Charvarius Ward and Byron Murphy coming off the board early but expectedly so.
Even with those guys gone, there are still a ton of options the Bucs can look at if they want to find a way to address the secondary.
Best remaining free agent cornerbacks the Buccaneers can still target
Her’s a look at the top remaining cornerbacks who could end up making decent targets for the Buccaneers:
- Asante Samuel Jr.
- Rasul Douglas
- Mike Hilton
- Stephon Gilmore
- Kendall Fuller
- Dane Jackson
- Ronald Darby
- Arthur Maulet
- James Bradberry
- Jeff Okudah
- Tre'Davious White
- Dee Alford
- Shaquill Griffin
- Emmanuel Moseley
- Noah Igbinoghene
- Benjamin St-Juste
- Jonathan Jones
- Isaac Yiadom
- Ahkello Witherspoon
- Ugochukwu Amadi
- Daryl Worley
- Adoree' Jackson
- Brandin Echols
- Avonte Maddox
- Amani Oruwariye
- Darnay Holmes
- Tre Brown
- Kindle Vildor
- Troy Hill
- Eli Apple
- Bryce Hall
- Rock Ya-Sin
So yeah, there’s a lot of guys still available for the Bucs if they choose to dip into the cornerback pool. It’s not a guarantee that will happen, though, as we haven’t seen as much secondary movement as we expected at this point.
Jamel Dean can still get traded, but so far he still appears to be in the mix for at least another season. That likely takes the Bucs out of the running for a top remaining cornerback like Rasul Douglas or Asante Samuel Jr., although the latter has other disqualifiers to consider.
If the Bucs are going to move off Dean because he’s an injury risk, then replacing him with a guy who missed 13 games for Chargers doesn’t make a ton of sense.
Rather than adding from the top of the list, it’s likely that Tampa Bay stays on the lower end of the financial scale. That doesn’t mean a lower quality signing, in fact it could be a case where the Bucs bring back a guy like Bryce Hall who missed all of last season with an injury.
It’s impossible for the market to skew Tampa Bay’s way and make someone like Douglas or Mike Hilton more affordable but whatever the Bucs do it’s going to be a smart splash rather than one to simply make some waves.
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