The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have brought in even more competition at both the cornerback and safety rooms. Per the Bucs, they have brought in undrafted free agent safety Avery Young to the team. Young signed with the San Fransisco 49ers coming out of the 2023 NFL Draft and was with them throughout the majority of the offseason programs, and slightly into training camp as well. Young was waived last week by the 49ers and the Bucs seized the opportunity to add to their corner and safety rooms

A Versatile Player In College

Bucs S Chris Izien – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Young played football at Rutgers for five seasons. He would finish with a stat line of 326 total tackles (169 solo), 10 tackles for loss, three sacks, three interceptions, 26 passes defended, five forced fumbles, and one fumble recovered. Coming out of college at 6’1 and 205 pounds, Young had experience playing both cornerback and safety in college as he would begin his first three years of college football playing outside corner, before settling on playing safety his final two years at Rutgers.

It just so happens that Young was teammates with Bucs undrafted rookie free agent Chris Izien at Rutgers they reunite this time around with the Bucs. Izien signed with Tampa Bay right after the draft and has impressed early on.

Going Coast To Coast In the NFL

As stated earlier, Young would join the San Fransisco 49ers after going undrafted in the 2023 NFL Draft. Young would remain in SanFran throughout most of the early offseason workouts including OTA’s, Voluntary and Mandatory mini-camps, and rookie mini-camp as well.

He would also begin 49ers training camp still a part of the roster but was then waived shortly after camp began. There is a slight connection here as the general manager of the 49ers John Lynch, who also won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, was at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony of former Bucs Cornerback Ronde Barber. Also at that event was Bucs brass including general manager Jason Licht.

Bucs DB Dee Delaney – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

He now finds himself in  Tampa Bay a bit later in the process than pretty much everybody on the roster so there will be plenty of catching up to do. Young will be competing both as a corner and as a safety as he has experience in both. He should provide some interesting depth with the mix of vets and rookies the Bucs have at each position (Anthony Chesley, Don Gardner, Keenan Isaac, Duron Lowe, Derrek Pitts, and Dee Delaney at corner, and Josh Hayes, Kaevon Merriweather, Nolan Turner, and Kedrick Whitehead at Safety).

It should be very interesting to see what Young’s role is going to be with the Bucs as he offers a very good amount of versatility. It is also very intriguing to see the Bucs add a player when they are already over a week into training camp.

Bucs Move On From Young OT

In a corresponding move, the team has also decided to move on from tackle Grant Hermanns. Hermanns, an undrafted free agent in 2021 coming out of Purdue, had also played for the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins before joining the Bucs. He had been with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since December of last year when he signed with the teams practice squad.

Hermanns would eventually sign a futures contract after the season ended. He was battling for a depth spot along the offensive line against other players including Luke Haggard, Michael Niese, Raiqwon O’Neal, Justin Skule, and Brandon Walton.