6 free agents the Buccaneers can target after re-signing their core players
Now that guys like Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, and Lavonte David are back, the Bucs can turn their attention to free agency.
By Josh Hill
The NFL offseason is in full swing, as the legal tampering period is coming to an end and the deals that were agreed upon are official. That doesn’t mean things are expected to slow down, though, as there’s plenty of work to be done especially when it comes to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Most of the offseason so far as been spent trying to bring guys back, rather than add new players. The Bucs needed to find ways to re-sign Antoine Winfield Jr., Baker Mayfield, and Mike Evans — which they did. Deals were also made to bring back other key free agents like Lavonte David, Chase McLaughlin, and Chase Edmonds.
After taking care of their own guys, the Buccaneers ahve around $10.3 million in cap space to use on outside help. That’s where the attention should turn and there are more than a few intriguing options worth taking a chance on.
Jamal Adams, S
Tampa Bay’s safety room is a strange dichotomy, as on one hand the team has perhaps the best safety in the entire league but the other hand is empty. It’s the same problem the Buccaneers had to deal with last year, as the team was painfully thin at safety and never really found a way to fully fox the problem.
We all know the elite level of play that Antoine Winfield Jr. brings, but outside of him it’s Christian Izien and that’s about it. Zyon McCollum is more of a nickelback than a true safety option and beyond that there’s absolutely no depth.
Jamal Adams was once viewed in the same light as Winfield, but he fell off a bit after being traded to the Seahawks and battling through injuries. He’s a top safety in the league when playing up to the level he was once at but it’s been a while since we’ve seen that.
Could a reunion with Todd Bowles in Tampa Bay be exactly what everyone needs?
Bowles drafted Adams back in 2017 when he was head coach of the New York Jets, so there’s some history there. He wasn’t in charge when the Jets traded Adams to Seattle so there’s no chance for bad blood there, only upside in terms of what a veteran like him can do in Bowles’ system.
In a perfect world, Winfield continues to ascend as the league’s best safety while Adams recaptures the magic he had earlier in his career. The Bucs tried and failed to form a dynamic safety duo using a former Seahawks player last year, but Adams is entirely different — and potentially elite.
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