Buccaneers must avoid these 2 players in 2026 NFL Draft

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be faced with some difficult choices during the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. 

Will they trade down to acquire extra draft capital? Will they stick and pick the best player available at No. 15? Or will they use the pick to fill an immediate need?

It would be hard for the Buccaneers to go wrong with their first-round draft pick, but there are two players they absolutely must avoid selecting. 

Buccaneers’ draft would be a major failure if they draft these 2 players 

Keldric Faulk, Edge, Auburn

Keldric Faulk could very well end up being a great NFL player. But he’s not a fit for what the Buccaneers need entering 2026.

Sure, he’s got all of the physical traits and upside you could ask for. But the Bucs have been burnt too many times betting on potential over proven production.

Faulk had just two sacks in 2025, and only 10 in his college career. He has a high floor as a run stopper but again, that’s simply not what the Buccaneers need right now. 

They need a player who can be an immediate game-changer by getting after opposing quarterbacks and causing disruption. That’s not Faulk. 

He’d fit best on a team that already has their No. 1 pass rusher, so he can line up on the opposite side as a complementary piece, rather than being asked to be the team’s best pass rusher on day one, like the Bucs would be expecting. 

Jermod McCoy, CB, Tennessee

Jermod McCoy has actually been frequently connected to the Buccaneers, but it would be a disaster.

He was elite in 2024 before suffering a torn ACL that kept him out for the 2025 season. And while he might very well be a top-10 talent in this draft class when healthy, the Bucs should let somebody else take that risk. 

They just made a major investment in the cornerback position last offseason, re-signing Zyon McCollum to a three-year deal while drafting Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish on Day 2. 

Morrison, like McCoy, entered the draft with injury concerns that caused him to fall further than expected. 

To draft McCoy would be to wave the white flag on one of McCollum or Morrison. Frankly, it feels too early to make that move. 

The Buccaneers need to give McCollum, Morrison, and Parrish a chance to play out the 2026 season as the starting cornerback trio after the investments they made in them last year. 

Adding cornerback depth definitely makes sense, but it should come later in the draft or via free agency, but certainly not in the form of a first-round pick coming off an injury.

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