On the surface, the 2018 vs. 2019 drafts appear similar with multiple secondary picks; however, I believe this draft was vastly superior to last year over the first few rounds. (Disclaimer: I strongly wanted more trench players and thought we should trade down in R1 if we were dedicated to ILB and strongly believe we should have traded down in R2 since we picked Bunting too early).
It took a new coaching staff to dedicate itself to increasing our speed and athleticism. Basically, it's an indictment on the 2018 secondary picks. I won't get into the blame game of Licht vs. Koetter, but I'm much happier with this year's results. I'm spitballing, but it appears that the Bucs embraced analytics this year and largely ignored it last year (which I think was a mistake).
Using SPARQ multi-dimensional measurables compared to NFL positional averages, we drafted superior athletes in the secondary this year compared to below average athletes last year. Yes, I realize that athleticism isn't everything; nevertheless you can't defend the pass if you're collectively slow or comparatively unathletic. Following are combine-related scores where a 50.0 percentile would represent a player who rates as a league-average NFL athlete at the position. Obviously, we'd prefer players with higher scores (who are also good football players). Scores are not available (n/a) when players didn't perform adequate combine tests to get a multi-dimensional rating.
2018
1 Vea n/a, but appears very high
2 Jones n/a
2 Stewart 33.7
2 Davis 32.6
3 Cappa n/a
4 Whitehead 22.3
2019
1 White 93.3 (fyi, Kwon=78.4)
2 Bunting 94.7
3 Dean 97.6
3 Edwards 49.3
4 Nelson 78.6
(FWIW, Godwin and Watson were both around 90 and I really liked both of their picks.)
Once again, athleticism isn't everything, but it greatly helps... especially outside the interior trenches. Last year all our secondary picks were in the bottom third of NFL athleticism while this year, Dean and Bunting are elite. Since I believe White will be used to shadow Kamara/McCaffery/fast interior receivers, he's an additional elite athlete to assist pass coverage.
Overall, I feel we could have done a much better job in this draft by targeting more trench guys and/or trading down in the first and second rounds (and 5th/6th), but, I'm highly optimistic on the first 3 picks due to their speed/athleticism and think Nelson and Miller have some special traits.
I'm soooo interested in seeing the new scheme with increased speed and aggressiveness. Best of luck to all the former and new players.
