Tampa Bay Buccaneers Mock Offseason: Predicting the NFL Draft and Free Agent Moves for the BucsBy Leo Howell - Feb 9th, 2014 at 1:59 pm
Jan 4, 2014; Indianapolis, IN. Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Dexter McCluster (22) runs with the ball against the Indianapolis Colts during the 2013 AFC wild card playoff football game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports The Tampa Bay Buccaneers face an important offseason in 2014, as a new coach and general manager set out to turn the team around after a string of losing seasons under the previous two coaches. So who will Lovie Smith and Jason Licht bring in to bolster their team and get the Buccaneers back into the playoffs? Even though it’s only February, we’re less than a month from the start of the pre-free agency period when teams can begin to talk to players and agents. So before that kicks off, here are my early thoughts on what the Buccaneers offseason could look like. Extend Gerald McCoy, Five years, $12 million average, 30 million guaranteed. Restructure Davin Joseph, Reduce salary to $1.75 million per year average, no guarantees. Release Michael Koenen Re-sign Andrew Economos Dekoda Watson Jonathan Casillas Ted Larsen Erik Lorig (All players re-signed to reasonable, 1-2 year deals for the minimum, or slightly above.) Free Agents QB Kellen Clemens, 2 years, $3.5 million total WR/KR/PR Dexter McCluster, 3 years, $10 million total (Similar to the deal for Jacoby Jones in Baltimore a few years ago.) WR Seyi Ajirotutu, 1 year, $900,000 total. TE Ben Hartsock, 2 years, $2 million total G Jon Asamoah, 4 years, $12 million total T J’Marcus Webb, 1 year, $800,000 total DE Corey Wootton, 4 years, $9 million total DT Peria Jerry, 2 years, $2 million total DT Fred Evans, 1 year, $850,00 total LB Akeem Jordan, 2 years, $2 million CB Drayton Florence, 1 year, $1.5 million total S Darian Stewart, 1 year, $800,000 total NFL Draft 1st Round: Khalil Mack, LB/DE, Buffalo 2nd Round: Brandin Cooks, WR, Oregon State 4th Round: Chris Davis, CB, Auburn 5th Round: Brett Smith, QB, Wyoming 7th Round: Jeremiah George, ILB, Iowa State 7th Round Compensatory Pick or Priority Undrafted Free Agent: Steven Clark, Punter, Auburn Rationale Extending Gerald McCoy is the story of the offseason, as the Buccaneers must do what they can to keep McCoy around for the long haul. He’s arguably the best at his position in the NFL, and deserves a hefty contract and the role as the centerpiece of the franchise. While they don’t need to free up any money, the Buccaneers make a couple of money-minded moves in this mock offseason, re-working Davin Joseph’s deal to fall more in line with his present value, while also letting go of overpaid punter Michael Koenen. The Bucs also bring back a few key role players on cheap contracts to maintain depth and special teams coverage ability. Dekoda Watson and Jonathan Casillas return mainly for their special teams prowess, but also for depth at linebacker. The team doesn’t make any big splashes in free agency, opting to make some depth-building moves instead. The biggest addition is wide receiver and return man Dexter McCluster, who provides an instant impact as a third receiver and a special teams ace. The only other “big” signings are defensive end/defensive tackle hybrid Corey Wootton and guard Jon Asamoah, who will take over for Davin Joseph or Carl Nicks, depending on Nicks’ health. The rest of the free agent moves shore up weak positions on the depth chart, with Drayton Florence proving to be the biggest name among them. Florence steps in to play nickel corner and help take pressure off of Johnthan Banks. And of course, the Buccaneers add an experienced, veteran quarterback in Kellen Clemens who wasn’t awful last season for the Rams and provides an upgrade over Dan Orlovsky as the emergency plan at QB. In the draft, the Buccaneers add Khalil Mack with the thought of either turning him into a defensive end, or using him in a hybrid role. They follow up the pick by adding Brandin Cooks, who provides a ton of speed and playmaking ability at wide receiver. Chris Davis helps solidify the depth chart at corner as an undersized but capable cover corner. Brett Smith provides a project quarterback for Jeff Tedford to work with and develop while Glennon and Clemens compete for the starting job. Jeremiah George is a productive middle linebacker who can backup Mason Foster and provide a slightly different skillset from Mason, while Steven Clark replaces Koenen as the punter. http://thepewterplank.com/2014/02/09/tampa-bay-buccaneers-mock-offseason-predicting-nfl-draft-free-agent-moves-bucs/
Not a bad plan. I don't like the Mack pick though. And I doubt Licht brings in that many free agents. I like McCluster also.
farfetched, but oh well.alex mack and jairus byrd in FA. bryd takes a large but friendly deal in order to play with his dad. run a 4-2-5 while we are paying goldson. sign some midtier vets...louis murphy, another CB, an OG.1 - robinson OT2 - brandin cooks WR4 - michael sam rush end5 - tyler larsen OL7 - project athletecut/trade penn and joseph for some cash, cut koenen. cross our fingers on nicks health.
puke.
Why the hell would we want Peria Jerry? Guy is a giant bust.
ExtendMcCoy. Get his 2014 cap hit down a few million and lock him up long term.Restructure Revis. Try to get him to restructure to a deal with guaranteed money and less yearly cap hit. Nicks. Either get him to restructure to something MUCH smaller or just cut him. I'm not interested in playing that game again in 2014. ReleaseOG Davin JosephP Michael KoenenDE Da'quan BowersTE Luke StockerResignOL Jamon MeredithLB Dekoda WatsonRB Bobby RaineyFree AgentsWR Andre Roberts or WR Emmanuel Sanders. Affordable solid #3 WR. Good enough to be the #2 if Mike WIlliams is hurt or stupid.TE Andrew Quarless. Underrated TE that does everything well. Wright, Quarless, and Crabtree/Steve Maneri give us a nice group of TEs. OT Ryan Harris. Affordable #3 OT. Replaces Carimi. OG Jon Asamoah. Replaces Joseph. C/OG Evan Dietrich-Smith. Plays OG and center, so the coaches can figure out between he and Zuttah who plays where. CB Nolan Carroll. Affordable upgrade at nickel.S Major Wright. Affordable depth at safety. History with Lovie. P Pat McAfee. Replaces Koenen. NFL Draft1st - DT Aaron Donald. Trade back to regain our 3rd and 6th and take the best DT in this draft. Immediate and drastic upgrade to our pass rush. 2nd - CB Kyle Fuller. Personally I feel he is the best CB in this draft. Absolute steal in the 2nd round. He can battle Nolan Carroll for the nickel, but I think he would eventually beat out Banks as the #2. This kid is a stud. He and Revis would lock things down. 3rd - DE Jeremiah Attaochu. Outstanding pass rusher. Plug him in at RE as that speed rusher we have so desperately needed.4th - WR Josh Huff. Underrated receiver with great hands. Can battle our FA receiver to decide who is #3 and who is #4. 5th - QB Keith Wenning. A bit of a long shot, but this guy impresses me. He's not real mobile, but outside of that he has everything you want in a QB. He battles Kafka to be our #2 and likely wins. 6th - DT Zack Kerr. Huge nasty NT with surprising speed and agility. Not a huge need with McCoy, Donald, and Spence on the roster....but he could be a real gem. 7th - WR Quincy Enunwa. Big physical receiver. Plays nasty. Flashes greatness. At 6'3" 230lbs he could be a TE prospect as well. RationaleNo huge contracts in free agency. Just solid players to fill holes and provide depth, mostly offense and especially on the O-line. Didn't add a free agent DE because we go mostly defense in the draft and upgrade the pass rush that way...but we still add a solid QB prospect and two receivers. Overall we concentrate on improving up front by upgrading the OL in free agency and the DL in the draft. Glennon gets his year to show what he really is. With these moves he should have every chance to succeed. Defense should be top 5 with this pass rush and secondary. One alternate move we could make would be to sign Branden Albert and trade Penn. Brenden is two years younger and doesn't seem to fade late in the season like Penn. Replacing Penn with Albert would likely only cost us $1M to $2M more per year, plus we could likely get a draft pick for Penn.....so it's something to think about.
This is horrible and so poorly thought out. How can someone put this in print. There is little or no accuracy to this at all and is tantamount to throwing spaghetti at the 2014 offseason wall in hopes of some of it sticking. Complete drivel that is it came true would guarantee another weak putrid season of mediocre football.
farfetched, but oh well.alex mack and jairus byrd in FA. bryd takes a large but friendly deal in order to play with his dad. run a 4-2-5 while we are paying goldson. sign some midtier vets...louis murphy, another CB, an OG.1 - robinson OT2 - brandin cooks WR4 - michael sam rush end5 - tyler larsen OL7 - project athletecut/trade penn and joseph for some cash, cut koenen. cross our fingers on nicks health.
Sam is a bit of a tweener. I don't think he would be at his best as a 4-3 DE. I see him more as a 3-4 outside LB. But it will be interesting to see who takes him, and when.
definitely a tweener, but certainly think he could handle passing situations.
I like Asamoah. Would have drafted him in 2010. Good player, but he was injured to end the year. Dominik would have loved him. I know everyone hates those unsexy OL picks in the draft but I would not try to fix our OL problem in the same way that created our OL problem. DRAFT OL! !!!!Screw paying big bucks for a beat up Asamoah. Hell to the no.
I can't see us drafting Mack either. If Clowney is off the board and we're going defense at #7 then we should be picking Mosley. His coverage skills are exactly what we need at MLB...
ExtendMcCoy. Get his 2014 cap hit down a few million and lock him up long term.Restructure Revis. Try to get him to restructure to a deal with guaranteed money and less yearly cap hit. Nicks. Either get him to restructure to something MUCH smaller or just cut him. I'm not interested in playing that game again in 2014. ReleaseOG Davin JosephP Michael KoenenDE Da'quan BowersTE Luke StockerResignOL Jamon MeredithLB Dekoda WatsonRB Bobby RaineyFree AgentsWR Andre Roberts or WR Emmanuel Sanders. Affordable solid #3 WR. Good enough to be the #2 if Mike WIlliams is hurt or stupid.TE Andrew Quarless. Underrated TE that does everything well. Wright, Quarless, and Crabtree/Steve Maneri give us a nice group of TEs. OT Ryan Harris. Affordable #3 OT. Replaces Carimi. OG Jon Asamoah. Replaces Joseph. C/OG Evan Dietrich-Smith. Plays OG and center, so the coaches can figure out between he and Zuttah who plays where. CB Nolan Carroll. Affordable upgrade at nickel.S Major Wright. Affordable depth at safety. History with Lovie. P Pat McAfee. Replaces Koenen. NFL Draft1st - DT Aaron Donald. Trade back to regain our 3rd and 6th and take the best DT in this draft. Immediate and drastic upgrade to our pass rush. 2nd - CB Kyle Fuller. Personally I feel he is the best CB in this draft. Absolute steal in the 2nd round. He can battle Nolan Carroll for the nickel, but I think he would eventually beat out Banks as the #2. This kid is a stud. He and Revis would lock things down. 3rd - DE Jeremiah Attaochu. Outstanding pass rusher. Plug him in at RE as that speed rusher we have so desperately needed.4th - WR Josh Huff. Underrated receiver with great hands. Can battle our FA receiver to decide who is #3 and who is #4. 5th - QB Keith Wenning. A bit of a long shot, but this guy impresses me. He's not real mobile, but outside of that he has everything you want in a QB. He battles Kafka to be our #2 and likely wins. 6th - DT Zack Kerr. Huge nasty NT with surprising speed and agility. Not a huge need with McCoy, Donald, and Spence on the roster....but he could be a real gem. 7th - WR Quincy Enunwa. Big physical receiver. Plays nasty. Flashes greatness. At 6'3" 230lbs he could be a TE prospect as well. RationaleNo huge contracts in free agency. Just solid players to fill holes and provide depth, mostly offense and especially on the O-line. Didn't add a free agent DE because we go mostly defense in the draft and upgrade the pass rush that way...but we still add a solid QB prospect and two receivers. Overall we concentrate on improving up front by upgrading the OL in free agency and the DL in the draft. Glennon gets his year to show what he really is. With these moves he should have every chance to succeed. Defense should be top 5 with this pass rush and secondary. One alternate move we could make would be to sign Branden Albert and trade Penn. Brenden is two years younger and doesn't seem to fade late in the season like Penn. Replacing Penn with Albert would likely only cost us $1M to $2M more per year, plus we could likely get a draft pick for Penn.....so it's something to think about.
starting to really like this. id think we all have favorites, but just minor stuff. without trading down we could draft a chris smith in the 4th instead of attaochu. and just looking up old steven means stuff...physically he is a clone of khalil mack...certainly not the football player...but possibly the pass rusher.i like lylera late, possibly jeremy gallon. i would consider brandin cooks in the 2nd but a CB is probably more important. ed dixson TE is a possibility in FA. has all the measurables and was a blocker while pitta was the main receiving TE in baltimore. de la puente could be a guy that has familiarity with tedford, nicks?, and hurts a rival. wouldnt really want another young QB...would rather a vet.
