2024 NFL Mock Draft: Buccaneers benefit from a Top 10 shakeup

Keon Coleman is the first guy the Bucs could have drafted but passed on, and it’s unlikely to be a popular decisions with fans if it happens.

Remember when the Bucs passed on drafting Dalvin Cook? It’s more than just the Florida State connection that ties these two picks together, it’s the fact that a skill position player was passed on in order to draft a position that the team used its first round pick on last year.

Coleman could also be viewed as a natural successor to Mike Evans’ throne. There’s a decent chance the Bucs begin next season without Evans on the team, and drafting Coleman to follow in his footsteps would go a long way in soothing that pain. It’s not even that crazy of an idea, and it could be that the way the draft board ends up in April that he’s the pick for the Bucs. If that’s the case, the team can feel good about drafting a potential franchise wide receiver who can be paired with a guy like Jayden Daniels later in this draft or someone else next year.

That’s why Denver taking Coleman feels like a pretty good way to start turning the offense around. Both Jerry Jeudy and Cartland Sutton could be traded this offseason to recoup draft capital, and Sean Payton might try to find his Michael Thomas in Keon Coleman. If Denver is going to be tethered to Russell Wilson for at least a few more seasons, it might as well get him a top young receiver to try and get the most out of things.

Tennessee could go a number of directions here, but the safest might be investing in protection for Will Levis.

It’s still very early in his career — he’s made two starts with very different results — but the building blocks appear to be in place for the Titans to develop him as the next franchise quarterback. His insane debut against the Falcons was a glimpse into what sort of talent he possesses and it might not be long before critics who doubted him coming out of Kentucky are forced to double back and eat their words.

We’re still a long way off from that, but Levis has showed enough for the Titans to feel good about building around him on offense. He has a pair of good weapons in DeAndre Hopkins and Treylon Burks, and taking another receiver might make sense if the right one is available. Keon Coleman would be hard to pass on if he’s still on the board, as pairing him with Burks for the foreseeable future is a dangerous.

Instead, the Titans would be wise to start building a solid offensive line in front of Levis and making sure he’s protected against some fantastic AFC defenses. Jacksonville and Houston look to have young defenses that will only get better with time and the Colts are slowly starting to make a name for themselves as well.

Add to that other top defenses in the conference like Buffalo, Kansas City, and Baltimore.

We saw what a good defense can do to Levis when he went up against Pittsburgh last Thursday, and he still almost led the team to a win. That’s all the evidence Tennessee needs to start investing in his protection and building for the future the right way.

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