Training camp will be more about teams getting ready for the regular season, it will be an audition for tons of players around the league. One of those players is Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Jamel Dean, who at least remains on the bubble in the minds of fans wondering what he’s still doing around.
Dean has struggled mightily over the last few seasons, failing to live up to the big contract Tampa Bay gave him back in 2023 to avoid losing him in free agency. Since then he’s played in just 25 games and has allowed a passer rating of 100.3.
That’s not what the Bucs paid for, and it’s one of the reasons he’s on the hot seat heading into training camp. It’s more than just fans in Tampa Bay who are noticing the heat getting turned up, Dean remains on national lists of players who could be looking for work before Week 1 rolls around.
Jamel Dean remains a popular cut candidate heading into training camp
B/R’s Moe Morton went over eight bold predictions for training camp across the league, and circled the Bucs cutting Jamel Dean as something to keep an eye on.
It’s not the first time this idea has been broached, and it probably won’t be the last. One way we can avoid this sort of conversation is for Dean to do what he needs to, which is step up and be the player the Bucs paid him $52 million to be.
He hasn’t done that, which his name is showing up in this context and has been all offseason long. It was a bit of a surprise that he wasn’t a cap casualty back at the beginning of the year, but that might have more to do with the Bucs needing cornerback depth more than moving on from Dean was worth.
That’s an important wrinkle here, though as there’s a financial aspect to this which could sweeten the deal. If the Bucs end up releasing Dean during training camp, the team would save $12.9 million in cap space. It’s not an insignificant amount of money for a team that has spent wisely but still has some bills left to pay.
A bulk of the conversation around Dean this offseason has centered on how he doesn’t have a future in Tampa Bay ideally the opposite is ultimately the outcome. He had a PFF grade of 77.5 just two years ago and a coverage grade of 79.9 while helping the Buccaneers defense smother the rest of the league on their way to a Super Bowl title.
He’s in a similar situation to Carlton Davis III, who also fell off from due to injuries and poor performance but was traded for a third round pick and bounced back a bit with Detroit. Now he’s in New England on a $60 million free agent deal, so there’s precedent for Dean to rediscover what made him important to Tampa Bay.
Ideally he does that while still with the team, and rather than getting replaced by rookie Benjamin Morrison helps form a dominant trio alongside Zyon McCollum. Those two players could be who outperform Dean and ultimately lead to him being a casualty of training camp, which makes what happens with him over the next month very intriguing.
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