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As far as mock drafts are concerned, a lot of it is educated guess work with some being more educated than others. Truth be told, the further you get from the franchise, the less informed the mock.
Still, they are good for sparking interesting conversations, and when done well can present options which may not have otherwise been considered.
Well, outside of Jason Licht dropping a mock draft, you won’t get much closer than Scott Smith and Carmen Vitali of Buccaneers.com and Locked on Bucs fame. Ok, maybe they’re a little more well known from one source than the other, but moving on.
The team’s senior editor and their reigning ‘Social Butterfly’ got together again this off-season to pontificate about what the franchise they are employed by may do when April’s selection meeting comes around.
Based off the back-and-forth, they had a lot of fun constructing it, and it was a lot of fun reading with the end result being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selecting....
LINEBACKER, DEVIN WHITE (LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY)
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If you didn’t know, LSU has been churning out some solid NFL linebacker talent. Kendall Beckwith, Deion Jones, and of course Kwon Alexander are three of the most recent and notable Tigers linebackers to step onto the pro football stage.
With Lavonte David being the only consistently good linebacker on the roster, adding White in the first-round of this year’s draft would make all the sense in the world.
Considering Alexander is coming off an ACL injury and is an unrestricted free-agent, this may become an emerging position of need for the Bucs in 2019. Especially when you add in that Beckwith is coming off a season-costing injury as well.
Some other notable picks in this mock include Joey Bosa going first overall to the Arizona Cardinals which has become surprisingly uncommon up to this point in the mockosphere.
Michigan’s Rashan Gary fourth to the Oakland Raiders is - I believe - the highest I’ve seen the defensive lineman drafted thus far.
One favorite for the Bucs in mock drafts lately has been Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver out of Houston. In this version of events, Oliver lands in Cleveland with the 17th pick, which just goes to illustrate just how many differences there could be in this thing.
It’s a solid mock to add to the reading list if you haven’t already. Check it out, here. And let us hear your thoughts on White and all of the other draft possibilities for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers!