Safety Help In The Draft?

The Bucs have added veteran pieces all along the defense besides the safety position, possibly they see something they like in the draft? The secondary was poor at best last year and the only bright spot was young Bradley McDougald who managed 87 tackles but only 2 interception. The Saftey position itself only came away with a  grand total of 4 all season. That just isn't enough production.

The Bucs are in need of a ball hawk, a safety that can jump out and make plays. The best possible safety, former Jameis Winston teammate Jalen Ramsey will be long gone before the bucs are up at pick 9 but what other options could there be out there? A few names are Karl Joseph, Vonn Bell and Darian Thompson. All of which have had a 5 interception seasons, know how to be around the ball and put themselves in position to take the ball away.

The Bucs will look to upgrade every position on the roster in the draft and possibly the weakest position on the Bucs current roster is Safety.

Bucs Comfortable With Safety Position?

As I have stated in previous posts, I feel the Bucs should make upgrades at the safety position this off-season. Last years group was decent as both starters played well at times, but were too inconsistent. Chris Conte, Bradley Mcdougald, and Keith Tandy are all free agents while Major Wright still has 1 more year on his contract. I would re-sign Mcdougal and Tandy as they are decent players with some upside since they are still young.

I don't care for Conte as I feel he is just average and misses on too many plays and should be allowed to look elsewhere. I think there are solid safetys that will be available through free agency or the draft, and could easily become impact players on the Bucs. However, Jason Licht has different ideas as he talked about the safety position this past Thursday with local media, per Rick Stroud of tampabaytimes.com:

“Chris Conte did some good things for us and he has a familiarity with (fellow secondary coach) Jon Hoke, who was his coach in Chicago,’’ Licht said, according to Stroud. “We will be discussing the possibility of bringing him back, but we still like Bradley McDougald, who we think has upside and we still have Major Wright under contract and we liked what Keith Tandy did in his role for us last year. But it can’t hurt to bring in competition.’’

I see this as a sign that Licht will bring back these guys for the right price but will also look to add new blood to bolster the group. Who knows how new defensive coordinator, Mike Smith sees these guys as he might think they can thrive in his system, and feel no upgrade is needed. Hopefully, the Bucs are smart and add a impact safety or two.