Round 6: Tulane WR Darnell Mooney
5-10, 176 – Senior – 4.38

PREVIOUS PICK: Memphis RB Patrick Taylor, Jr.
The one player in this final PewterReport.com Bucs’ 7-Round Mock Draft that hasn’t been featured in a previous mock draft is Mooney, who is Tampa Bay’s final pick. The Bucs got some speedy help from Antonio Gibson, an offensive weapon that can play receiver and running back, in the fourth round, but the selection of Mooney adds even more speed and competition to the wide receiver room, which needs more able bodies after losing Breshad Perriman to free agency.

At 5-foot-10, 176 pounds, Mooney has a slight build that will remind older Bucs fans of former wide receivers like Karl “The Truth” Williams and Edell Shepherd, who had lanky frames and weighed less than 180 pounds. But while Williams and Shepherd had pedestrian speed and were more quick than fast, Mooney is a blazer, and averaged nearly 17 yards per catch for the Green Wave in his college career.

Mooney’s Tulane Career Receiving Stats
2016: 24 rec. for 267 yards (11.1 avg.), 2 TDs
2017: 34 rec. for 599 yards (17.6 avg.), 4 TDs
2018: 48 rec. for 993 yards (20.7 avg.), 8 TDs
2019: 48 rec. for 713 yards (14.9 avg.), 5 TDs

Mooney’s best season came as a junior when he averaged 20.7 yards per catch and was just seven yards shy of a 1,000-yard season. That year, Mooney had six catches of 39 yards or more, including an 86-yard touchdown in a win against East Carolina. Mooney had six catches for 217 yards and two TDs that day, and had seven 100-yard games at Tulane.

In some ways, Mooney is a carbon copy of Scotty Miller in terms of size, speed and production at the collegiate level, so he definitely fits the Bucs’ profile of a speed receiver. The Bucs had a pre-draft meeting with Mooney before the coronavirus shut the country down, and the team has to like his competitiveness and ability to jump up and win contested catches that he shows on tape.

Mooney doesn’t offer much in terms of special teams play, so if he’s going to make the team, he’ll have to learn how to cover punts and kicks at the NFL level. But Miller was the same way and that didn’t stop Tampa Bay from drafting him in the sixth round last year.