Just over a year ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made the difficult -- but correct -- decision to trade starting cornerback Carlton Davis III, but now that deal is officially complete.
Tampa Bay sent Davis to the Detroit Lions in a trade that netted the Bucs a third-round pick that turned into Jalen McMillan. Even though a first-round pick this year was used on Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, it's clear that McMillan is a big piece of the future and someone who will help the transition whenever Mike Evans hangs up his cleats.
That won't be for at least a few years, which means the Bucs are absolutely loaded with offensive weapons in the meantime.
Getting McMillan was the end of Tampa Bay's involvement in the deal, at least in terms of things they would be receiving for shipping Davis off. Detroit, on the other hand, got two sixth-round picks in consecutive years in addition to landing Davis for Aaron Glenn's defense.
One of those picks was in last year's draft but the other was used on Saturday to officially close the book on the trade.
Details of Carlton Davis III trade finalized after 2025 NFL Draft
Detroit acquired the No. 201 pick in last year's draft as part of the original deal but didn’t end up using it. Instead, the Lions traded it along with two other picks to land a fourth-round pick from Philly last year, a pick they used on running back Sione Vaki.
The only other loose end was the No. 196 pick in this year's draft, which the Lions used on Boise State edge rusher Ahmed Hassanein. With that pick, we know know the finalized details of a trade that happened over a year ago.
There's a fair amount of bias here, but objectively it seems like the Buccaneers won the trade. Perhaps Vaki and Hassanein turn into Pro Bowl players, but we're a year into seeing what the former has and it doesn't seem like he'll make much of an impact as long as Davi Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs are leading the charge.
As for Davis, the trade ended up being a one-year rental for the Lions. After a decent, but injury-riddled season, Davis left Detroit in free agency to sign a $54 million contract with the New England Patriots.
Tampa Bay came away with not only a player who made an impact last year, albeit a minor one, but someone who is going to help for years to come. Again, the Lions might get that out of the guys they drafted but it's not hard to see that the needle is tipping toward the Bucs on this one and it's a nice little bow to tie around the whole trade.
More Tampa Bay Buccaneers news and rumors