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Players visit Bucs, Bucs visit players - what does it all mean?

Not much, that's for sure. Over the past weeks some news has been leaking out about players visiting the Bucs, and the Bucs visiting pro days. For instance, the Bucs never visited the Illinois Pro Day - so some took this to mean they weren't interested in Illinois LB Martez Wilson. At the same time, players like G/C Mike Pouncey, OLB/DE Justin Houston, DE Cameron Jordan, DE Allen Bailey and RB Kendall Hunter have visits scheduled with the Bucs. Fact remains though, that the Bucs can at most select 2 or 3 of all those players - and it's not unlikely they won't select any of these players.

When the Bucs choose to bring a player in for a visit, it seems to signal they're interested in that player. And to some extent that's likely to be true, but the fact that the Bucs are interested in a player means very little. They bring in Mike Pouncey because he's a potential target somewhere in the draft - but we have no idea where they'd have him ranked. They could see him as a second-round prospect who they want to talk to just in case he slips. Or they could see him as a potential top-15 selection. The fact that they bring in Allen Bailey doesn't mean they're targeting him in the first or even second-round. All this really means is that these players are somewhere on their draft board, and they want some more information on them. And not even that is a certainty - for all we know they're engaging in some smoke and mirrors, to fool other teams into thinking they're likely to select someone while they have no interest in him.

Then there's also the fact that the Bucs have had multiple opportunities to speak with almost every prospect in the draft. At the East-West Shrine Game or the Senior Bowl, at the Combine, at Pro Days and if players visit a team - these are all opportunities for the team to get to know a player better. And if the Bucs spent 10 minutes with someone at the Combine and feel they got to know him well enough in those 10 minutes, they won't need to spend any more time bringing him in for visits or going to his pro day. So don't read too much into the presence or absence of scheduled visits with players or pro days, because there really isn't much you can learn from them.