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Mel Kiper's 2011 Mock Draft & Rick Gosselin's 2011 Mock Draft- Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Mel Kiper has the Buccaneers taking CB Prince Amukamara at #20 overall in his latest mock draft(ESPN Insiders only). The pick is interesting, because it's long been believed that the Bucs will take a pass-rusher no matter what. But with GM Mark Dominik saying the Bucs can "never have enough cornerbacks" and with Talib's problems, Amukamara would be a pretty good pick. Especially because he's either the 2nd- or 3rd-best cornerback in the draft, behind Patrick Peterson and maybe Jimmy Smith. Amukamara is much cleaner off the field than Smith, though, and he may be better suited to the Bucs' style of play.

I still don't see this happening, though. Not because the Buccaneers won't select Amukamara, but because I don't see him falling that far. A lot of teams need cornerbacks, and he'll likely be gone quickly. It's doubtful whether he'll get past the Cowboys, but there's really no way he gets beyond the Texans at #11. And if he does get past Houston, Texans fans should start rebelling immediately. The Bucs and Jets also aren't the only team to say you can never have enough cornerbacks, and other teams will jump at the chance to have a top-rated cornerback who is clean off the field on their team.

Rick Gosselin came out with his final mock draft(also behind a pay wall). Gosselin is one of the most accurate mock drafters in the league because he has a tremendous amount of inside information and bases his mock on that. That makes his selection for the Buccaneers tremendously interesting: DE Robert Quinn out of North Carolina. He has 5 quarterbacks going in the top 12, which pushes down the defensive ends. Interestingly, he has Aldon Smith, Ryan Kerrigan and Cameron Jordan going ahead of Quinn to the Texans, Jaguars and Patriots respectively.

I can't see Robert Quinn dropping this far, because he has tremendous talent as a pass rusher. But if he does fall that far, the Bucs should jump at the chance to draft him. In fact I think it's likely the Bucs trade up as soon as they see him slipping to around #15 to snap him up. There may be no better player in the entire draft than Robert Quinn for the Buccaneers, except for maybe Von Miller.


The first round of the 2011 NFL Draft starts at 8 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, April 28th and SB Nation has everything you need to prepare for it - NFL mock drafts, draft projections, scouting reports, the full NFL draft order and more. Check it all out at SB Nation's NFL Draft Hub and our NFL Draft blog Mocking the Draft .