It’s no secret the Bucs will be looking to make personnel changes on defense this season. Cornerback is a prime opportunity for the team to improve. Last year the season-ending injury sustained by free agent addition Bryce Hall in the first game, paired with Jamel Dean’s continued struggles to stay healthy left the team turning to Josh Hayes and Tyrek Funderburk to start at outside corner last year. The results were less than stellar.

It remains to be seen whether the Bucs will look to release or trade Dean. They don’t necessarily need the cap room they would save by letting him go and the cash owed for 2025 is a reasonable $13 million. When he’s on the field he is a good corner and moving on only means one more hole to fill.

Whether they make the move or not, rest assured the team will make moves in free agency to shore up the room. This free agency class at corner is set to be solid at the top but gets shallow very quickly. Especially when you start to weed out the players who don’t meet the physical thresholds head coach Todd Bowles looks for in his perimeter corners.

Enter Nate Hobbs.

Nate Hobbs May Be A Bucs Fit

Raiders CB Nate Hobbs – Photo by: USA Today

Let’s start with the basics. Bowles looks for corners who are six feet or taller with 30.5-inch arms or longer. Of the 14 corners who have played a decent number of snaps for Bowles since 2019, only three have been shorter than 6 feet, Dee Delaney, Hayes, and Funderburk. And only three had sub-30.5″ arms, Derrek Pitts, Funderburk and Ross Cockrell. All of those players were brought in to play either nickel or safety roles initially and were pushed to outside roles due to injuries, or in Hayes’ case, struggles in the slot necessitated a move to see if they could maximize his value elsewhere.

Hobbs checks both boxes. Well, kind of. His official height is 71.375 inches so he’s just a tad under the height threshold, but he makes up for it with 31.5-inch arms. What he also brings positional versatility to the table. Hobbs has primarily played in the slot over the past two seasons but has over 700 career snaps on the outside. That was his primary position in 2022 before Las Vegas pushed him inside in the following year. Since then, the Raiders have used him similarly to how Bowles once used Sean Murphy-Bunting, having him play on the perimeter in base personnel while pushing him inside when they went to nickel.

Past the high-profile names this CB FA class is lacking a lot of great fits for the Bucs. 1 that intrigues me is Nate Hobbs. Not perfect, but there is talent and he would help improve the floor of the room + give positional versatility. Could move Tykee to S w/Hobbs in the slot. pic.twitter.com/OMhARq8XKP

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) February 20, 2025

Hobbs doesn’t shy away from doing the little things that help keep a player on the field for all three downs. He’s a willing participant in the run game, will fire off to blow up screens behind the line of scrimmage and has a career 25.3% pressure rate with three sacks.

In coverage, Hobbs provides solid coverage skills. He can carry the seam, works well in deep thirds where he can pinch routes at the stem. He’s particularly adept closer to the line of scrimmage where he explodes to the ball and plays flats extremely well. He also sorts through bunch and stack releases skillfully, rarely getting caught out of position by wash.

Bucs DB Tykee Smith – Photo by: USA Today

He isn’t perfect, his trails skills, especially on crossers leave a lot to be desired as he is consistently a couple of steps behind. He can also allow bigger receivers and tight ends to bully him at the top of routes as Hobbs is working backwards. And on the perimeter, he has shown a penchant for early hip flips that can be exploited on double moves like post-corners and corner-posts.

Ultimately, Hobbs represents an improvement over several players the Bucs currently have on the roster. He isn’t an ideal fit, as he is still best in the slot where the Bucs have a solid depth chart that includes Tykee Smith and Christian Izien. But the best roster construction front offices look past the obvious to see what can be. An addition like Hobbs could help the Bucs improve at safety by kicking Smith up top. It would also give Tampa Bay someone they feel more comfortable on the outside should Dean or Zyon McCollum have to miss time. Overall, it’s adding a good football player to a roster that needs exactly that.

For his career, Hobbs has played in 51 games, starting 38 of them. He has 281 tackles, 14 for a loss, 3.0 sacks, three interceptions, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.