NFL Mock Draft 2017: The Buccaneers won’t pick a tackle

It’s Monday Mock Draft time, and this week, Dan Kadar of SB Nation has a particularly strange pick for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at number nineteen. With most of the skill players on offense gone, he has the Bucs taking Wisconsin offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk.

Whether he plays right tackle or pushes Donovan Smith for the left tackle spot, the Buccaneers could use a player like Ramczyk. He only played a season at Wisconsin, but he quickly emerged as the draft’s top tackle prospect.

That is...not going to happen. You may have some misgivings about the Bucs’ offensive line and trust me, you wouldn’t be alone, but the team simply does not share them. They like their group of linemen, they think Donovan Smith took a few big steps forward last year, they think Demar Dotson has a few years left to play, they think J.R. Sweezy will start this year, they love Ali Marpet, they think Joe Hawley is a solid center.

Plus, the team still has Kevin Pamphile, who did well as a starter last year, as well as Evan Smith, who’s a very good backup, and Caleb Benenoch, last year’s fifth-round pick. They have a lot of linemen, they like basically all of them, and there’s no room for a new one.

Does that mean the Bucs definitely won’t draft a linemen? Of course not. In the later rounds, they could easily look at a talented linemen to groom, something they’re making a habit of under Jason Licht. And if a sufficiently talented player drops to them in the early rounds, they may have to take them because of the value they represent.

But with David Njoku, Christian McCaffrey and a slew of talented defenders on the board, I can’t see the Bucs taking an offensive tackle with the nineteenth overall pick. It just doesn’t fit.