Buccaneers land successor to Baker Mayfield in latest 7-round NFL Mock Draft

Free agency is officially in its third or fourth wave, which means the cream of the crop has been taken care of and attention begins to turn toward the NFL Draft.

That’s where teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can cook up a class that both addresses outstanding needs while also laying the foundation for a strong future. The Bucs spent most of free agency bringing back their own guys, which meant big deals for Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, and collectively a handful of others.

It also meant sitting out the gold rush of free agency’s first wave, which prevents the Bucs from addressing some key areas of need. Thankfully Jason Licht has proved to be something of a draft wizard and has a chance to find some top young talent to plug holes on the roster while also and serving as pillars for the future.

Latest Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7-round NFL Mock Draft

Round 1, Pick 26: Laiatu Latu, Edge/UCLA

One area the Buccaneers haven’t yet addressed in free agency, and probably won’t, is edge rush. It was a pricey position this offseason and one that didn’t have many home run options that would have justified the Bucs breaking the bank to get.

Luckily, the draft is ripe with talent Jason Licht can mine.

The Bucs don’t have to overdraft an edge rusher as guys like Marshawn Kneeland and Mohamed Kamara are perfect Day 2 targets. However, if Tampa Bay goes on the clock at No. 26 and UCLA’s Laiatu Latu is still on the board then the pick might be a no-brainer.

Last year we saw the Bucs zig and take Calijah Kancey when everyone thought they’d zag and grab a top offensive player. That move paid off immensely and Latu is a guy worth double dipping on that strategy with. He’s a pass rush monster who lives in the backfield and will quickly become a nightmare for offenses to deal with when getting rotated in with Kancey.

What makes him even more valuable, and dangerous, is that he might be able to be on the same line as Kancey. Latu played a near-even split of left- and right-side snaps, which means the Bucs could have a defensive line of Kancey and Latu bookending Vita Vea in the middle.

Good luck to offenses trying to protect against that front.

Round 2, Pick 57: Edgerrin Cooper, LB/Texas A&M

A lot of attention is going to be spent on how the Buccaneers can use the draft to upgrade the offensive line, and rightfully so. It’s an absolutely critical area of the roster where the team lacks talent and depth, and we’ve seen what happens when those two things catch up with Tampa Bay during the season.

The same goes for another important position: Linebacker.

Tampa Bay is already pretty deep, but it has a chance to improve its top line talent by taking Edgerrin Cooper out of Texas A&M. He’s a bruising linebacker who has top-tier change of direction, burst and pursuit speed that helps him be a menace at the line of scrimmage and is why PFF graded him out as a 90.8 player last season.

Losing Devin White was something almost everyone expected, but regardless of how fans feel about him the absence created by him leaving weakens the linebacking corps. Lavonte David is still the leader of the group with guys like Yaya Diaby and SirVocea Dennis representing the future, but Cooper can step in and replace the guy we were all hoping White would become.

Diaby and Dennis are going to be great pieces of the defense, but Cooper has a chance to learn the ropes from David before eventually taking the torch from him. He has the tools to be that guy, and putting him with David in Todd Bowles’ defense might be exactly the right pairing.

Round 3, Pick 89: Mason McCormick, G/South Dakota State

Tampa Bay was already in a bit of a luxurious spot when it came to having its cake and eating it too. We all know the Bucs need to upgrade the offensive line, but there’s not need to jump right in at the expense of passing up top prospects at other important positions.

It’s a very deep class at guard this year, which means the Bucs can add guys like Latu and Cooper first and still land someone like Mason McCormick to plug in as their guard of the future.

Interior offensive line play was horrid for the Bucs last season, and is the most obvious place the team needs to look for improvements. Tampa Bay got priced out of guard market in free agency pretty quickly, opting instead to add depth over starters.

That means McCormick would be coming into a situation where he had some runway to figure things out. Everything he’s done at South Dakota State suggests he’d fit like a glove, and would give Tampa Bay a stout run blocking guard who also graded high in pass protection.

If all goes well with Cody Mauch, the Bucs would have another pillar in the interior of the line to continue developing for the future.

Round 3, Pick 92: Sedrick Van Pran, C/Georgia

When Ryan Jensen suffered what ended up being a career-ending knee injury two years ago, it exposed just how badly the Bucs needed to find a center of the future. It was more than just losing Jensen that set the unit back, but you can draw a pretty clear line to the moment he was lost in training camp two years ago and the beginning of Tampa Bay’s offensive line woes.

Robert Hainsey will get some consideration at center, but the Bucs would be wise to look at the draft and find a guy like Sedrick Van Pran to develop as Jensen’s replacement.

He was the anchor on a pair of National Championship winning offenses, and makes up for some of the things that hold him back physically with his high IQ. He has experience playing a premium position in one of the most intense conferences in the country for one of the best teams in college football.

Putting Van Pran with Tristan Wirfs and developing the traits that make him special could help the Bucs find the final piece they need to rebuild the offensive line and put the team in a position to have a unit it can trust to protect Baker Mayfield — and assist the run game — for years to come.

Round 4, Pick 125: Jordan Travis, QB/Florida State

A popular pick at this spot could be Kansas State guard Cooper Beebe, but we’ve talked about that before. It also might create a redundancy at guard with Cody Mauch and Mason McCormick — in addition to the other guards on the team — and taking Beebe might prevent the Bucs from making a luxury pick that could pay off in the future.

Baker Mayfield signed a $100 million deal to be Tampa Bay’s quarterback for the next three seasons, but what happens after that? Taking Jordan Travis here might give the Bucs its succession plan for Mayfield and right the wrong of drafting Kyle Trask to be that guy for Tom Brady.

This is a risky pick, mostly because it’s not certain that Mayfield won’t be the guy after three more years. It very well could be that he remains in Tampa Bay for much longer than that, but there’s a universe where the Bucs take this swing with the future beyond Mayfield in mind.

It’s almost a perfect situation. Travis is coming back from a devastating leg injury and wouldn’t have the pressure of needing to start right away. He’d learn behind Baker, become deeply embedded within the Bucs offense, and be in a prime position to take over if Mayfield either takes a turn for the worse or leaves in a few years.

Tampa Bay swung and missed with Kyle Trask but this could be a situation where they learn from their mistake. It also helps erase another potential mistake of the past — not drafting Jalen Hurts to succeed Tom Brady. Even before he became a top quarterback in the league, Hurts in Tampa Bay made sense in 2020 for a lot of the reasons Travis does.

It’s a risk, but one that could help position the Bucs to be quarterback rich in the future in ways we haven’t ever seen the team be before.

Round 6, Pick 220: Jarius Monroe, CB/Tulane

Tampa Bay doesn’t have a fifth round pick this year, so unless Jason Licht trades for one the Bucs won’t be on the clock again until the sixth round. That just gives them time to think about Jarius Monroe and how he might be able to add the right sort of cornerback depth the team needs.

Carlton Davis getting trade to Detroit created a need to find some more depth at cornerback, but it doesn’t appear to have vacated a CB1 role the way we all thought it did. Todd Bowles sounds like he wants Zyon McCollum to step up and prove himself, which means there might not be a rush to draft a cornerback too high.

Waiting for Monroe might pay off. He’s a 6’2” corner who PFF graded out as a 82.4 zone coverage guy, which is perfect for Todd Bowles. McCollum and Jamel Dean will be the top guys, with Bryce Hall signed as a CB3, but there’s a chance Monroe challenges him for that role.

Jason Licht loves his smaller school players, and Monroe coming out of Tulane as a guy with a lot to prove feels like he checks the right amount of boxes.

Round 7, Pick 246: Jaden Shirden, RB/Monmouth

The Bucs re-signed Chase Edmonds in free agency, which suggests he’s going to try and lean into the RB2 role in ways he couldn’t last year due to injury. Something that needs to be addressed, though, is running back depth because Tampa Bay lacks it.

Ke’Shawn Vaughn lost his job midway through last season and the honeymoon was over quickly for Sean Tucker. Tampa Bay has Rachaad White so there’s not need to overdraft a guy for depth, but Todd Bowles did mention that he wants the team to add at least one more guy and Jaden Shirden seems like a decent candidate.

He’s a small school guy, so that box is checked, but he also adds some dynamic to the backfield. Shirden averaged over three yards after contact and finished last season with nearly 1,500 yards and 10 touchdowns as well as a 83.6 rushing grade from PFF.

Shirden isn’t going to be a RB1 but the Bucs don’t need that from him. What he could bring as a depth guy makes a lot of sense and could result in Tampa Bay taking a flier on him before the draft is over.

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