Now that the NFL Draft is over, teams are starting to tidy up their roster and prepare for offseason camps. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a few decisions to make earlier in the offseason, one specficially tied to the future of cornerback Jamel Dean.
He's hardly been the guy the Bucs have needed, which combined with the need to improve the cornerback room led to rumors he'd be a cap casualty. That didn't happen, but despite being weeks away from OTAs, we're still hearing Dean's name as a potential cut candidate.
Pro Football Network writer Sterling Xie listed Dean as a potential cut candidate when looking at which player teams might still move on from. It's not exactly a solid report that something is going to happen, but it is a reminder that at this point, the Bucs making any big decisions with Dean would be a mistake.
Buccaneers releasing Jamel Dean now wouldn't make any sense
The time for moving on has passed; if the Bucs were going to dump Dean it would have happened by now. They can still designate him as a post-June 1st cut and save about $12 million in cap space while incurring only $2.2 million in dead money b,ut that doesn't make any sense at this point.
Who would the Bucs bring in to replace him? That's the big question and there isn't a good enough answer to justify making a move now. Tampa Bay had a chance to potentially flip Dean for a draft pick a over the last few months but didn't do it, instead seemingly vouching for him to be a part of the immediate future.
Dean has two more years left on his contract and the most likely case is the team moving on from him next offseason. That's when Tampa Bay would be able to free up an extra $1 million, which might go furhter in a year than it would now.
The best case scenario is that Dean gets back to being the top cornerback the Bucs need him to be - and know he's cable of being. If that happens, Tampa Bay would have a wicked tandem in Zyon McCollum and Dean, with a stable of young talent like Benjamin Morrison, Jacob Parrish, and Josh Hayes behind them.
A lot needs to happen before that sort of trust is built up but there's no point in cutting bait now when there would be such little in return. The Bucs best bet is to roll with Dean and hope for the best, which is a higher upside gamble than they'd get by bringing in someone like Stephon Gilmore at this point.
Dean hasn't lived up to his $52 million contract so far, but there's still time to do so. Tampa Bay can -- and should -- afford him that time and not make any decisions it might end up regretting.
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