Bucs Set Up for Success by Lance Zierlein Mock Draft

Mock draft season is upon us, and the NFL analysts of the world are speculating about what each of the 32 franchises might do three months from now.

Names like Jonah Williams, Ed Oliver, Devin White, and Alabama running back Josh Jacobs have all been tied to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in recent versions.

On Tuesday, Lance Zierlein of NFL.com published a new mock draft, and selected Alabama’s Quinnen Williams with pick five of the 2019 NFL Draft.

Now, this likely isn’t the first time you’ve seen this Rolling Tide Williams mentioned with the Bucs. He’s a fairly popular name around these parts.

Here’s what Zierlein wrote about the pick,

“With all the help Todd Bowles needs on defense, the Bucs will be able to go “best available” on that side of the ball here. Tampa adds an interior rusher to go along with Vita Vea and Gerald McCoy rather than reaching for an edge rusher.”

Interesting insight, and if you ask me, drafting Williams means McCoy is likely playing elsewhere in 2019.

However, my favorite part of this particular mock draft isn’t necessarily who the Bucs drafted, but who wasn’t taken at all in the first round.

While Greedy Williams, Deandre Baker and Byron Murphy all came off the board in the first 32 picks there are several interesting names that didn’t.

Specifically, Notre Dame cornerback Julian Love, Penn State corner Amani Oruwariye, and safeties Nasir Adderely (Delaware) and Deionte Thompson (Alabama).

Now, it’s not likely all of these guys will be left sitting when day two of the actual draft comes around, but chances are there will be two or three of them available. If Quinnen Williams were to be there at number five for the Bucs to steal, combining him with a secondary defender listed here would be a very nice start to Jason Licht’s 2019 class.

With a very deep offensive line class, a trade up back into the second round or a third round offensive lineman like Dennis Daley who could be groomed to eventually replace Demar Dotson at the right tackle spot.

If the Bucs wanted to throw in a one-two punch of offense and defense in the first two rounds, Wisconsin’s David Edwards was left off Zierlein’s first round and could challenge for a starting role as early as training camp assuming his shoulder is 100%.

Either way, as we look at these mock drafts and start to look at how the dominoes might fall following the first day, it’s easy to get excited about the potential talents who may call Tampa home for 2019 and beyond.

Oh, and Kyler Murray went fourth-overall to the Oakland Raiders. Easily the highest I’ve seen him up to this point and the highest we will see him barring trades.