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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are moving along in their free agency plans. After adding DeSean Jackson and Chris Baker and re-signing Chris Conte and Jacquizz Rodgers, the Bucs want more help at safety. According to Jenna Laine of ESPN, the team will host J.J. Wilcox for a visit.
The former Dallas Cowboys safety has been linked to the Bucs for a few days, and would make a decent amount of safety. While Wilcox is mostly a hard-hitting box safety, he has a decent amount of playing experience and has played some okay football for the Cowboys.
Wilcox would make the most sense as a part-time safety, platooning with someone like Chris Conte for specific situations. That’s more or less the role he had last year with the Cowboys, when he played just over 50% of all defensive snaps. Keith Tandy is likely to start at free safety this year. That would also make sense with the money the Bucs are paying Conte, which points to a special teams and part-time defensive role.
Chris Conte is re-signing with Tampa, a two-year deal worth $5 million with incentives that can bring it to $7M, and $2.5M gtd, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 9, 2017
The Bucs have no depth whatsoever at safety, so signing Wilcox won’t push anyone off the roster. In fact, even after re-signing Conte and possibly signing Wilcox (or bringing back Bradley McDougald, though it seems like he’ll move on), I would not be surprised at all if the Bucs ended up drafting a safety in the top three rounds of the 2017 NFL draft.