Welcome in two Road to the Draft Casey Phillips. Here was senior writer and editor Scott Smith, And as always, we come to you every week this time of year with what all is going on in the Buccaneers world that could affect who and when and what they'll draft, so free agency may have a thing or two to do with it. This is kind of an interesting time
of year for this. Of course, there's always around now there's still some moves that could be made, but at the time of us filming, we have kind of two main things that have happened that we felt like would be really good to talk about. And the first one is the signing of Jamal Deane and what that means and doesn't mean the Bucks are less likely to draft
a corner or dB of any kind. Yeah, we talked about last week about not only our own mock drafts on Buccaneers dot Com, but a lot of the mock drafts out there have paired the Bucks with a corner at pick number nineteen, like a Deontay Banks of Maryland, partly because there's a lot of value at that position in this year's draft, and partly because, to be honest, most people didn't think the Buccaneers were going to be able to sing Jamal Dean, but they did, which is fantastic.
And now they have two still mid twenties signed for several years outside corners in Carl Tayton Davis and Jamaldine and it's clearly not a need outside corner right now. However, if you look at the depth chart, you don't really have an obvious candidate to play in the slot. And I say that because head coach Tot Bowles has said that Antoine Winfield Junior is going to focus on one
spot this year. Last year, he's playing kind of safe hybrid safety and slot corner, and I would suspect that means probably safety because they wanted to be a playmaker all over the field, so you need a slot corner. Sean Murphy Bunting has not been resigned. He could eventually be an option if he comes back, but you don't
really have an obvious candidate there. And that's why I say if Alabama's safety Brian Branch makes it to nineteen, and he's kind of all over the board on the draft, so some people would say he never make it there at nineteen, sometimes he does. If he makes it there at nineteen. He might be a really intriguing pick for the Buccaneers because not only do they have three safeties on the free agent market right now, but they don't really have a slot corner, and Brian Branch can play
both of those positions. He could end up being your nickel if you get him. So I think that's a guy that Buccaneers would be very interested in, a playmaker, a very heady and intelligent guy, and a guy that a lot of people said was really important to that great Alabama defense. All right, And then I know last week on Rod of the Draft, we talked briefly about Donovan Smith's departure what that could mean in terms of
drafting an offensive lineman or a tackle. But now there's been a few more developments on the offensive line front. So instead of just tackle kind of the line overall, what do you see is what's happened recently in free agency and how it's going to affect what the Bucks
might do in terms of drafting that entire line. Yeah, I still think the Buccaneers could be looking at a tackle at pick number nineteen, And we've talked about that before because it's been a little while since Donovan get released, and we talked in our show earlier today about how it's possible you could move Tristan Worse to left tackle.
If you look at all the mock drafts now, it looks as if Paris Johnson junior Ohio State, Peter Scarancy of the Great Northwestern University, and Roderick Jones of Georgia will probably be gone by nineteen. But there's still a number of guys that in the next year that the Bucks could have a shot at, like Dewan Jones, like Anton Harrison of Oklahoma, and the one that I wanted to highlight here is Darnell Wright of Tennessee. He's a
big guy. He's six five, three hundred thirty three hundred and thirty three pounds, He's got a great wingspan, he's relatively fast for his size, and he has started a lot, and he has started at both right tackle and left tackle. And the reason that's interesting is because last year he
started and played very well at right tackle. So if you wanted to move Tristan to left he could step right in, or if you thought you could play left tackle like he did in his junior season, maybe you look at him there at least gives you some versatility with those two guys. The Buccaneers have some options there in the interior line like Luke Getticky if he doesn't play tackle, and Robert Hansey and Nick Leverett a couple others.
But that's still a position the Buccaneers could look at at nineteen because probably if they took an interior lineman there, they'd probably get the first one off the board at
that position in the draft. So they could maybe take a Cyrus Torrance of Florida, another really big guy six five, three hundred and thirty, another guy with not only a long wingspan but really big hands, and you know, the Buccaneers could draft a guy that they could plug right in and build up that interior depth and have more versatility with guys like Robert Haines and look at a key all right, I mean, man, the offensive line is yet again a position that's going to be so interesting
this year. We said it last year and it was interesting, and then now it's a movement, a lot of movement, a lot of potential new faces or even just same face as different positions. It's going to be interesting to see in the draft. And this whole offseason that is going to do it for us on this edition of Road to the Draft. We'll see you next week.