Round 2, Pick 45 – Minnesota S Antoine Winfield Jr.

Reason for Optimism: The Bucs were missing two things in their secondary: a clear communicative leader and a playmaker with ball skills. In Winfield Jr., they may have found both. The son of the great Vikings cornerback of the same name, Winfield tied a Golden Gophers record last season with seven interceptions, including several highlight-reel grabs.

I said I wasn’t really going to do film breakdowns this week, but I just couldn’t help myself. Here are a few Winfield gems.

As you can tell from these plays, Winfield’s ball skills and awareness as a deep cover man are top-notch. Not many college defensive backs are able to stay in phase, locate and make plays on the ball like this – let alone have the mental processing to work through route combinations in a timely fashion like this.

Winfield is a special player from the neck up, which is a big reason why his 2019 college season was so dynamic. But he is also a much better athlete than given credit for, running a 4.45 time in the 40-yard dash and jumping 36 inches with a 10’4″ broad at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Not many safeties have the range to play single-high, the coverage skills to match up man-to-man in the slot and the physicality and toughness to step into the box, but Winfield does. His versatility has caused some to compare him to Tyrann Mathieu or Budda Baker, and while Winfield isn’t quite as fluid or explosive as those two, he’s capable of being a mismatch eliminator for Todd Bowles defense right away.

Scouts have raved about Winfield’s character, football intelligence and instincts, traits that make him a high floor prospect with very little bust potential. Winfield may never be a star in the NFL, but he should be a crucial part of a successful NFL secondary as early as his rookie season.

Reason for Concern: Winfield’s injury history is easily the biggest reason for concern, after hamstring and foot injuries caused him to miss most of the 2017 and 2018 seasons for the Golden Gophers. He was healthy throughout the 2019 season, and the Bucs will have to hope he stays that way moving forward.

Bucs S Antoine Winfield Jr. – Photo courtesy of Buccaneers

Winfield is 5-foot-9, 203 pounds with arm length in the seventh percentile for his position, per Mock Draftable. He’s stacked with muscle for his height, but the reality is that tackles outside his frame will be few and far between, and at his size you are going to have to live with a few misses in the open field. Still, Winfield is one of the better tackling safeties in the class despite his size, and physicality isn’t an issue at all.

My biggest concern with Winfield is that his transitions laterally and coming forward out of his pedal have a little bit of a hitch, delaying his arrival at the catch point to challenge routes breaking in front of him. He’s a good athlete, just not an elite one.

Year 1 Expectations: I’ll be surprised if Winfield isn’t the Bucs’ most impressive rookie this season, as he has all the physical and mental preparedness to be a Week 1 starter in the NFL. Not only do I expect Winfield to start and to play well, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes the quarterback of Tampa Bay’s young secondary.

Sound crazy for a rookie? Maybe, but the Bucs other starters in the defensive backfield figure to be Carlton Davis (third season), Jamel Dean (second season), Sean Murphy-Bunting (second season) and Mike Edwards (second season). In fact, nobody in the Bucs secondary has more than three seasons of NFL experience, except for reserves Andrew Adams and Ryan Smith, who will be entering their fifth campaigns and will likely be reserves.

A vocal leader hasn’t really emerged in Tampa Bay’s secondary, so if Winfield can master the mental side of the position as expected, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him making the calls and communicating coverages on the back end of the Bucs’ defense as a rookie.

Click Below For My Round 3 Evaluation