7-round Buccaneers mock draft after first wave of free agency
By Josh Hill
Now that the NFL offseason is in full swing, attention is getting fractured between looking at the remaining free agent pool and what lies ahead with the draft.
For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it seems like the NFL Draft will be where the team makes its biggest offseason impact in terms of bringing in new players. Jason Licht spent most of the first wave of free agency re-signing key players, with Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans returning on new deals as well as guys like Lavonte David and Chase McLaughlin.
Tampa Bay also has more draft assets than it did at the beginning of the offseason.
Carlton Davis III was traded to the Detroit Lions, which cost the Bucs a sixth round pick but added an additional third rounder. This now gives the Bucs four Top 100 picks, all of which will be extremely useful in filling out the roster and building a foundation for the future.
7-round Buccaneers mock draft after first wave of free agency
Round 1, Pick 26: Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB/Alabama
Cornerback was already arguably a need for the Bucs even before they traded away Carlton Davis III, and using the team's first round pick to find a replacement seems like a good move.
Kool-Aid McKinstry was once projected to be a Top 10 pick, but thanks to the way the draft board has shuffled over the last few months he's dropped down a bit. That's fantastic news for Tampa Bay, as it presents an opportunity to replenish the cornerback room with a top player.
Todd Bowles has already circled Zyon McCollum as a guy he'd like to see step up and replace Davis, but the Bucs need some depth no matter what. An ideal situation would be Jamel Dean getting back to being the guy he was before last season, while McCollum steps up as the new CB2. That still leaves room for McKinstry, who was one of the standout players of Nick Saban's final team at Alabama, to grow into a third corner role and provide rotational depth as a rookie
It also gives the Bucs a potential piece for the future, thinking beyond just replacing Davis and toward what the group will look like in a few years.