We have seen this offseason that head coach Todd Bowles has been more direct in his overall viewpoint of the Bucs. Some of his responses, whether it was last month at the NFL Scouting Combine or last week at the NFL Annual Meeting, have been reminiscent of how his mentor, Bruce Arians, would be blunt about whatever topic came up – most usually about his players.
While Bowles may not always be as visceral as the coach succeeded, the way Bowles has been straightforward in his interviews with the press has led to a clear path of how the Bucs feel heading into next season at certain positions.
Todd Bowles Doesn’t Love Bucs’ CB Depth
After re-signing the likes of wide receiver Chris Godwin, inside linebacker Lavonte David and left guard Ben Bredeson, the Bucs spent this offseason trying improve their depth in several areas, including cornerback. They did this by signing veteran Kindle Vildor from the Lions and re-signing Bryce Hall after a season-ending leg injury.
Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: Bailey Adams/PR
Despite having these two players to back up starting corners Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum, it appears that Todd Bowles feels they are not even close to being done filling out the cornerback room. Expect the Bucs to select a cornerback or two in this years draft, and by the tone of Bowles’ comments, it could be relatively early.
“We don’t have a lot of depth,” Bowles said at the NFL Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida. “That’s crystal clear. We don’t have a lot of depth. We hopefully will address that at some point in the draft as well, obviously. We didn’t many in free agency. We signed Vildor, we signed back Bryce, he’s coming off of injury. We’ve got to see what Vildor can do, obviously, but we’ve got to address that in the draft.”
Bucs’ Roles In The Secondary Are Up For Grabs
The Bucs were marred badly by injury last year, especially at cornerback. Bryce Hall was done for the year before the first game was over. Jamel Dean was in and out of the lineup and missed five starts and parts of two other games, which made for Josh Hayes and undrafted free agent Tyrek Funderburk eventually playing more on defense than anybody wanted.
Part of the problem is that Dean has been injury prone and it doesn’t seem like it’ll stop anytime soon at age 29. Jason Licht had already spoken about whether Dean will continue to be on this team coming up this season. Whether he is or not, the Bucs have to be prepared to play someone else. The Bucs are expected to draft a startint-caliber cornerback and that player better be ready to have an important role right away.
Bucs cornerback Jamel Dean – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Bowles doesn’t even necessarily consider Dean to be the top corner on this team anymore due to availability.
“Everybody’s position is up for grabs,” Bowles said. “I think Zyon [McCollum] is probably 1A, 1B (starting corner) because Zyon stayed healthy during the year. Dean’s got to get healthy. He comes in and he plays, but he can’t play half a year every couple years. He understands he’s got to get healthy and do everything he can to be healthy. We got to have some depth there just in case, if somebody comes in to compete with him, he’s going to have to compete.”
As much as they need help on defense, Bowles clarified that it doesn’t necessarily mean taking a cornerback in the first round. He won’t neglect the offense just to add to his defense this season. A cornerback is coming, but when still depends on how the draft goes.
“I can figure things out enough on defense to keep us competitive,” Bowles said. “I would like to have some defensive players if that presented itself, but by no means will I bypass a very good offensive player just to satisfy my needs on defense. We can figure out a way to keep the score down, but you can’t figure out a way to keep scoring points especially if you’re horses go down, so you can never have enough horses on offense. Yes, I would like to add some pieces but whether they come first or whether they come in the middle remains to be seen.”
