Todd McShay’s final mock draft has Buccaneers with a surprise pick

All the relevant draftniks are putting out their final mock drafts ahead of tonight’s start of the 2017 NFL draft. The latest is ESPN’s Todd McShay, who has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking Alabama cornerback Marlon Humphrey with Dalvin Cook off the board.

The Buccaneers really like Cook, but with him off the board, Humphrey would be enticing. He has the physical skill set to be a really good player; the only concern is his lack of ball skills

Basically, Humphrey is a great athlete who sometimes struggles on tape and has few ball skills. That...is not the kind of cornerback the Bucs generally like. They’re more into the guys who can produce lots of turnovers (Brent Grimes, Vernon Hargreaves) than the eye-poppingly athletic cornerbacks who haven’t produced much on the field.

Then there’s the question to what extent cornerback is a need. The Bucs have two quality starters in Vernon Hargreaves and Brent Grimes, and they have depth with a few young, talented players as well as veteran Josh Robinson. They could use some depth at cornerback, but it’s not necessarily a big need.

So I’d be surprised at this pick. In this scenario I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Bucs pull the trigger on that rumored trade down, if at all possible—or, of course, take Miami tight end David Njoku, which is who Dan Kadar has them taking in his final mock draft.

Incidentally, McShay’s notion that the Bucs love Dalvin Cook is interesting. It wouldn’t surprise me, but we’ve seen national reporters buy into late pre-draft misinformation before, too. We’ll see whether that’s true later tonight, though there’s a good chance it won’t matter and Cook will be off the board before the Bucs pick.