NFL Draft 2013: Margus Hunt an option for Buccaneers?

Let us do a quick recap. DE, and sometimes DT, Michael Bennett was not re-signed this off-season due to a lack of height, as one of the reasons in some articles on the web. Bennett is 6 foot 4 inches and weighs in at 270 pounds. Michael led the Bucs in sacks with nine, which accounts for one third of the Buccaneers’ total sack output. Also, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have not retained the services of DT Roy Miller, and just to preserve continuity, he stands at 6 foot 2 inches and weighing in at 310 pounds.

The chart presented above is not meant for comparison, but more of an attention to the value the Buccaneers need to replace. As of early morning of March 20, 2013, the Tampa has not made any movements to replace Bennett nor Miller on the roster through the Free Agency (FA) period. With Miller, the Bucs believe his value can be easily replaced as Gary Gibson was able to post similar results. Yet Tampa Bay does have young linemen with talent awaiting to develop in Da’Quan Bowers and Adrian Clayborn. Clayborn only played the first three games of the season and was out for the rest of the season due to injury. Both Bowers and Clayborn are defensive ends, the same spot that Bennett held.

Injuries are part of the game and the organization was fortunate to have Bennett step up after Clayborn went down to injury. Clayborn had a fantastic rookie season two years ago with seven and a half sacks, three forced fumbles, 29 solo tackles, 42 total tackles. So there is great promise and hope in Clayborn to return to form or become better if he is healthy all season long. Still both Clayborn and Bowers have missed a total of 19 games in this past season. Again, to keep continuity, Clayborn is 6’3" and 280 lbs; Bowers is 6’4" and 277 lbs, just throwing that out there.

Since there is no rush in FA to replace the value that Bennett and to an extent Miller represent the way to go for the Bucs would be to look at the draft. There is quality in the first round of this year and probably the main sticking point in holding up the trade with the NY Jets for the Bucs’ first round pick, 13^th overall. That 13^th overall pick is a very valuable commodity. So I propose something foreign in drafting a defensive lineman. Tampa could possibly be finding their roots from over the pond. If you say Bjoern Werner, then the magic 8-ball may say, "Ask again." I doubt Werner drops to 13^th overall, but unfortunately, he stands at 6 foot 4 inches and a light-weight at 255 pounds; which works against him.

The Bucs have some holes to fill and at the 13^th spot, they are unable to fill a lot of holes with one pick. There are some teams that want just one pick in the first round and would like to jump at a chance to get that player at 13. With little movement this off-season, there is reason the Bucs want to hold onto the 13^th overall pick to parlay it into more picks later in the first round and/or high second round. Then the team would acquire two high draft picks for the price of one. Considering the inexpensive FA class the Bucs’ have acquired so far, inexpensive is the meme if we’re dishing out cash money to certain premiere players.

Ladies and gents, I present to you, although many others have already presented this, Estonia’s own defensive end, and sometimes defensive tackle, Margus Hunt.

Hunt is older than your usual senior as he will be turning 26 years old this year, but also did not start playing football until he went to SMU, as he originally came to SMU as a track and field specialist. There are also other reasons why Hunt is not a top 10 pick and could probably be had late in the first round. I will post other article sites that do a great job at defining Hunt at the end of this article, plus I am not into plagiarism all that much. There are Margus Hunt specific videos in those links as a break from simple charts seen in this article.

Because Hunt is relatively new to the sport and since the Bucs have their DE men in place with Bowers and Clayborn, then Tampa would provide a great environment for Margus to acclimate into the NFL program. At 6’8", Hunt’s height may very well play into how the Buccaneers run their defense as he can defend against short passes. (I wrote an article that revealed an increase in short passes against the defense late into the season and there is another article by thepewterplank.com stating how bad our linebacker core was at defending the short passes, excluding LB David, of course.) There is much to like about Hunt as a DE, especially with his speed as he can become a pass rush specialist. But to me, that’s not what sold me on Margus.

Two words sold me on Margus Hunt: blocks kicks. On special teams, this guy is unreal! He has a college career of 17 blocked kicks. The breakdown of those blocked kicks was 10 field goals and seven extra point attempts. Margus prevented 37 points alone. The Bucs lost three games by three points or less this past season.

For a player who just picked up the game of football just four years ago or so, Margus possesses an innate ability to go after kicks. All Hunt needs to do in the very first game of the NFL season is to block one kick and force the issue among opponents to be cognizant of Hunt as well as fear the havoc he can wreck for field goals and extra points. I want the opposition to be confused as this conversation from the movie Top Gun:

Hollywood: Hell no, man. We got our butts kicked.

Wolfman: Thirty seconds. We went like this, he went like that. I said to Hollywood, "Where'd he go?" Hollywood says, "Where'd who go?"

Please visit these sites below as they are very informative on prospect Margus Hunt and show them love because of the leg work they put into writing about Hunt to make him more appealing to us as a defensive end, pass rush specialist.

http://www.ninersnation.com/2013/3/2/4055922/2013-nfl-draft-margus-hunt-scouting-report-49ers

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/shutdown-50-smu-margus-hunt-180644830--nfl.html

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2013/profiles/margus-hunt?id=2539310

http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/dsprofile.php?pyid=103696&draftyear=2013&genpos=DE