The Buccaneers are apparently serious about improving their secondary.
After adding two cornerbacks on Friday night, the Bucs came back on Saturday and added a safety in Pittsburgh’s Jordan Whitehead with the 117th pick in the NFL Draft.
Whitehead’s junior season started with a three-game suspension for violating team rules but he still earned honorable mention All-ACC honors, starting nine games and collected 60 tackles, one interceptions and four pass breakups.
Whitehead is a cousin of former Bucs cornerback Darrelle Revis and he talked about that relationship.
“Growing up, I was at his draft party so I got to experience that,” Whitehead said. “His mom was here today and she was excited. He gave me a lot of advice going through this process, throughout this thing. Stay humble, anything could happen throughout this weekend. So, coming up, he had a lot of camps I used to go to with him. He definitely taught me a lot of different things. At cornerback, actually just watching him play, I learned a lot. I really learned from him, how to play, from my cousin. You can learn from the best right there, he’s right there in front of me. I take everything from him.”
In his conference call with the local Tampa media, Whitehead talked about facing the quarterbacks in the NFC South.
“It definitely makes me really competitive right now. Thank you to the Bucs for picking me. Thirty-one teams passed up so it’s just a chip on my shoulder coming in already. I’m really ready to play, ready to do anything, special teams, to contribute to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Coming in and playing those great quarterbacks, it’s going to be a lot of different things. A lot of film studying I’m going to have to do, a lot of working with the older guys, following their lead.”