We've wondered for months what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would do once they got on the clock on Thursday night for the first round of the NFL Draft. Everything seemed to be on the table, from a trade down out of the No. 19 pick to potentially moving up if Jason Licht saw a prospect he liked within reach.
There was even a ton of speculation about the Bucs taking a wide receiver, even if that seemed like a luxury pick the team couldn't afford.
Turns out they could. In a classic Jason Licht zag, the Bucs took Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka with the No. 19 pick. It's a move that will naturally raise questions about Mike Evans' future in Tampa Bay, although it's unlikely to actually have an y real impact on what ends up happening.
Any attention paid to Evans' future is overlooking the present: Tampa Bay now has an absolutely loaded offense with Evans, Chris Godwin, Bucky Irving, Rachaad White, and Baker Mayfield and just added perhaps the best wide receiver in the draft.
It's no doubt a stunning move, but not one to be upset about at all.
Buccaneers pass on a top defensive prospect to add more firepower to Baker Mayfield's offense
What makes the pick so surprising is that, pretty much from the start of the draft process, it seemed like the Buccaneers would lean on the defensive side of the ball in Round 1. After all, last season was one of the worst we've seen from a Todd Bowles-led defense, and despite that, the team still managed to rebound and win a fourth-straight NFC South title.
It's a crown that teams are already making pointed moves to try and snatch, which puts even more emphasis on fixing up the defense. Specifically, the secondary has more stress on it than ever with the addition of Tetairoa McMillan to the Panthers' offense but the depth simply hasn't been there to begin with for the last two seasons.
That's what made a late surge in speculation about Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron make so much sense. It was a slight pivot away from where the consensus seemed to be, which was either Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell or Boston College edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku.
Both filled positions of need, with Campbell being of particular interest to fans given how he'd be mentored by Lavonte David and Yaya Diaby as a rookie.
For as bad as the secondary was last year, the Bucs struggling as much as they did with pass rush ended up being the biggest flaw. Not being able to get hands on the quarterback magnified the issues at cornerback, and watching guys like Mike Greene fall in the draft seemed to suggest Tampa Bay would go that way in the end.
Really, the Bucs lucked out across the board when it came to teams ahead of them that could have taken logical options but didn't. Guys like Jalon Walker and Shemar Stewart were on the radar, at least according to mock drafts, but the board fell exactly the way Tampa Bay wanted it to.
This isn't dissimilar to what happened last year when Graham Barton, who was supposed to be gone by No. 26, fell right into the Bucs' lap.
It's a total surprise to see the Bucs bypass adding to the defense in order to make a luxury purchase, but this feels like the right move. Tampa Bay already had a powerful offense and just invested even more on the side of the ball that it will rely on to win games with next season.
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