Buccaneers 4-Round 2024 NFL Mock Draft after Super Bowl 58
By Josh Hill
Round 2 (58): Jeremiah Trotter Jr., LB/Clemson
Tampa Bay spent the bulk of last year's draft reloading the defense, which resulted in guys like Calijah Kancey and Yaya Diaby getting added to the mix. This year should see the Bucs flip the script to focus more on offense but that doesn't mean totally overlooking some defensive additions.
One area to keep an eye on is at linebacker, where outside of Diaby and SirVocea Dennis, the Bucs have a ton of question marks that are far from being sure things.
Lavonte David is near the end of his Hall of Fame career, Devin White is a free agent who will likely sign somewhere else, and the rest of the group is made up of guys like K.J. Britt, J.J. Russell, and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka who are all mostly unproven. There's upside with each one of them, but nothing that suggests the Bucs shouldn't jump all over Jeremiah Trotter Jr if he's on the board in the second round.
In a down year for Clemson, Trotter finished the season with 87 total tackles, 5.5 sacks, 2 interceptions, 2 forced fumbles and 5 pass deflections. It wasn't good enough to earn him All-American status, but that might be more of a commentary on the state of things in Death Valley than Trotter's performance.
It would also be the son of another former player on the Bucs defense, with Trotter joining Antoine Winfield Jr as part of a next generation of defensive talent. That's not really an X's and O's thing, but would be cool to see happen.