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Greg Auman
NFC South Reporter
Sustained success means different things to different franchises, but as the Bucs prepare to pick 26th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, they continue a Day 1 waiting game the team has never before known in its history.
Barring a major trade, the Bucs will go four years without a top-15 pick, a first in the franchise’s 49 years of drafting. To even go three years without one is something Tampa Bay hasn’t done since 1984.
Picking later in the draft means it’s harder to anticipate picks, and also harder to hit on them and land an elite player. But as Bucs general manager Jason Licht says, it’s a good problem to have.
Before we get to the picks, a little bar-bet trivia for you: Which are the only four NFL teams to go longer than the Bucs without a top-15 draft pick? We’ll include this sentence here just as pure filler, separating the answer from the question as you ponder some options.
The four? The Bills haven’t picked in the top 15 since 2019, the Chiefs haven’t since 2017 and the Rams haven’t since 2016. But the winner is the Vikings, who last picked that high with corner Trae Waynes in 2015. All but seven NFL teams have picked in the top 15 in the past three drafts, and two of those seven (Washington and Minnesota) should do so this month.
Another streak to make you aware of: The Bucs have used their top draft pick on defense three years in a row, matching the Packers and Chiefs as the only teams to do so. (The longest offensive streaks are the Rams, Steelers and Chargers at four years each).
Will that Bucs streak end this month? If the right pass-rusher or cornerback is there, it’s possible they’ll go defense again. The top two edges — Alabama’s Dallas Turner, Florida State’s Jared Verse — will be gone, and it’s likely that UCLA’s Laiatu Latu will be as well. Corner is possible, though Tampa likes Zyon McCollum, the third-year pro poised to take over for Carlton Davis, who was…
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Publish date : 2024-04-10 14:35:31
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