Last season, the Bucs pass rush was decent as they were 9th in the league with 38 sacks on the season. The Bucs had a decent edge rush with Noah Spence, Robert Ayers, and Will Gholston whom all had their moments during the season. The Bucs were without one of their better edge guys in Jack Smith who missed the entire season with an knee injury and has had trouble staying healthy recently. Point is the Bucs could use another edge rusher that can impact the game and help the Bucs get after the QB more consistently especially in the tough NFC South. This years draft is loaded with edge rushers and wanted to talk about one of the more productive edge guys in this class which is Tennessee defensive end Derek Barnett.
Derek Barnett- DE 6'3 259lbs 56 tackles, 19 TFL, 13 sacks
Strengths: Barnett was outstanding during his 3 years with the Tennessee Volunteers in which he produced 198 tackles, 52 for loss, and 33 sacks. Barnett provides a physical presence on the edge and is very good against the run. Opponents would usually run away from his side making him chase the play. Barnett uses his hands well to disengage blocks and make plays behind the line of scrimmage. As a pass rusher he can really bend the edge as he does a great job of using his strength and getting low in his lean around the corner. Barnett has excellent balance and displays good pad level consistently.
Weaknesses: Barnett needs to focus on adding a second pass rush move as he heavily relied on winning from the outside. He can get away with that in college but it is much harder to do against legit NFL offensive tackles. He uses a decent inside step rip move which allowed him to have some success when rushing inside but it wasn't very consistent. He would be wise to add a inside spin move which could help him set up his outside rush, making him a more efficient pass rusher. If Barnett had great speed and was more athletic he could be just fine with the outside rush but he doesn't process that quick twitch off the edge. Tendency to jumping off-sides due to trying to time the snap count. Struggles to redirect movements, and can at times get pushed out too wide.
Overall: Barnett is one of the solid players in this draft and could go as high as 8th overall to the Panthers. Barnett has tremendous production, has high character, great work ethic, and already has good fundamentals to work with. His game reminds me of Robert Ayers who doesn't win with speed but has good balance and technique to win the edge and is excellent in the run game. If Barnett can hone in on adding more to his pass rush arsenal, he could be something special in this league. I think he would be excellent fit for the Bucs defense, and can line up at right or left end depending on matchups. Teams can never have enough edge rushers, and the Bucs could certainly use one like Barnett. Personally, I like other edge rushers that can bring more speed like Carl Lawson and Charles Harris that would be better fits with the Bucs personnel in place already. With that being said, if Barnett is available at 19, Im sure the Bucs will consider him with the pick.
