The Bucs did not go chasing for players that only fit because they were a position of need in this year’s draft. Through rounds one through seven, they took whoever they felt was the best player, and in many times got incredible value out of it.

Examples of this include drafting wide receiver Emeka Egbuka in round one with several edge rushers still available, taking outside linebacker David Walker in round four and defensive lineman Elijah Roberts in the fifth round several inside linebacker still being around. Even seventh-round pick Tez Johnson seemed like a great choice considering he had a much better ranking on several draft analysts’ boards, and yet still came to the Bucs with their last pick, but certainly not least.

Central Arkansas OLB David Walker – Photo by: USA Today

What Tampa Bay did chase, as the team typically does though, is the person as much as the player. Bucs general manager Jason Licht has talked about the Lavonte David-inspired “I Am That Man” model in terms of the character of a person they want to find for this team. They want high character players that have discipline, can fit in the locker room, learn, grow, work hard, and love the game of football as a true professional would. Typically the kind of football players that have the traits were also captains on the college team they just came from.

Bucs Go With Team Leaders Again

That makes it no surprise that of the six players the Bucs drafted this season, four of them were team captains from their respective schools. Those were wide receiver Emeka Egbuka (round one), cornerback Benjamin Morrison (round two), outside linebacker David Walker (round 4) and defensive lineman Elijah Roberts (round five). The Bucs understand the kind of player they want, and they have that with all six of the people they drafted.

“We have a lot of experience upstairs in our personnel staff,” Bucs vice president of player personnel Mike Biehl said. “With experience, you take a lot of lumps and you learn from your mistakes and things like that. I just think that we’ve gotten to the point now where we all understand what we’re looking for in a player. I think there’s a lot of people out there that can evaluate talent, but it takes a little bit more to evaluate the person and the character.

Bucs CB Benjamin Morrison – Photo by: USA Today

“I think we’ve gotten to a good point as a staff where we can kind of determine what kind of guys we want in this building. Our scouts have done an unbelievable job and we’ve coached them up and they’ve [gone] out and ran with it. I think you can see the fruits of those labors on the field and in our locker room.”

Bucs Have Well-Experienced Rookie Corners

A separate advantage that the Bucs will have from their corner position is that Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish have been playing since day one when they were freshmen at Notre Dame and Kansas State, respectively. They’ve been playing for a long time and understand what it’s like to be thrown into a situation right away. We’ll see if they do play immediately in Tampa Bay, and if they do, they’ll be more ready for it than most.

“The big thing it says to you is that he can handle things, mentally,” Mike Biehl said. “If you come in as a freshman in college, you’re thrown into the fire and it’s going to be the same thing when they come in here. A lot of times, rookies, their heads are spinning. They’ve both shown the capability by starting as freshmen to be able to handle whatever was thrown at them. That does make you feel a little bit comfortable with them playing early, but all of that will be determined by Todd [Bowles] and the defensive staff when they get here.”

Bucs CB Jacob Parrish – Photo by: USA Today

In the meantime, Tampa Bay does plan to have them on contributing on special teams right away.

“Of course, when we go through this process, we give these guys to our special teams coaches and get their evaluations on them and they came back very positive,” Biehl said. “Naturally, when you look at corners, you’re looking at gunners and vices on the outside. They’ve both covered kicks in their career at different times…I think Jacob did more so than Benjamin.

“If they’re in that room, we’re going to expect them probably to do something. It just depends how big of a role they have on defense, but certainly both of them are capable with the speed and the toughness they both have, and the tackling ability. They should be contributors on [special] teams, for sure.”