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The crew then looks at where the Bucs fall in post-free agency power rankings before diving into the biggest debate of the episode: with Mike Evans truly gone, who does that say the most about, the head coach, the general manager, or the quarterback? The episode wraps up with Mock Draft Monday as the guys continue building out the Bucs’ path forward through the draft.
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What's up, Bucksquad?
I'm your host, Jared.
I'm going to tell you why, who is to blame for Mike Evans leaving Tampa Bay?
I'm Ryan LeVoy and I'm going to tell you why the signing of Christian Rose Boom isn't
exactly what you think.
What's up, Bucksquad?
Real quick.
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Like I said, I'm your host, Jared and Sport.
That's Ryan.
We're going to talk about, are the Bucks done in pregnancy?
They just had a big signing today.
This is my big signing today.
Then we'll dive into where the Bucks rank post-frage in power rankings.
This is according to CBS Sports.
Mike Evans to Parcher, who's to blame?
Is it the General Manager of Jason Light?
Is it Todd Bowles?
Who a lot of people think is it Baker Mayfield, the quarterback?
Who is to blame?
We'll break all that down.
Then we'll end it with mock draft.
Monday on this one, we're going to look at Chad Rooter.
Yeah, he put out a four round mock off of NFL.com.
We're going to look at all four picks against Tampa Bay taking.
There's some that Ryan and I agree would be pretty good picks.
Then there's a couple that kind of questionable.
So we'll dive into that a little later.
First, let's dive into, are the Bucks done and frayed?
And it's kind of funny.
We were talking earlier today, kind of coming up with topics.
And I saw a list.
The thing was Sports Illustrated to put it out.
And it was like, hey, there's all these players still out there.
There's O'Carickay, the linebacker.
There's Joey Bosa, the edge.
And so that's how the topic came up.
And then of course, right after we come with the topic,
the Christian Rose Boom signing happens.
He wasn't one of the names listed on that list.
But last year he played for Carolina.
It started 15 games, played in 15, start all 15,
had 122 tackles, seven tackles for loss, two quarterback hits,
and two sacks.
The year before that, he played for the four years, really,
before that three and a half years.
He played for the Rams.
But the year before that, he was with the Rams.
He started 11 games out of 17, 135 tackles, one sack.
To me, and Ryan and I were kind of talking about this
before the show.
This, and Ryan, I don't want to take your opening
because I know you're going to dive into it more.
But this isn't necessarily a Levante David is gone in my opinion.
This is more of a, if he does go, we need to have an option
and we need to be ready for it.
Yeah, and no, I think I probably didn't even
fulfill what I was going to articulate in the opening
very well because really what I wanted to say about this
is that I think that in terms of the signing of Christian Rose
Boom, I think that it really doesn't mean a whole lot
for the Levante David part of it.
And I also think it doesn't change the draft strategy.
So the Bucks had to rework a lot of things about the defense
and particularly the front seven.
We've all kind of coalesced around.
There's a DB or two that definitely need to enter the fold
because you do lose Jamel Dean.
And even though Kindleville door was not very good,
he's still a body that was active for the Bucks
and played meaningful snaps and sometimes not very well.
So there's a couple players that they've got to put
in the defensive backfield.
But really what is going to make or break the improvements
defensively or in the front seven.
And so Christian Rose Boom is somebody that was a late bloomer.
First couple of years wasn't getting to play a lot.
You mentioned then came in with the Rams.
The Rams kind of did a Nate Landman for Christian Rose Boom
Swap when they said goodbye to Rose Boom brought in Landman
from Atlanta.
But he was still very productive with Carolina last year
as you mentioned.
And I will say this again, it's kind of hard to qualify
unless you watch a lot of the games.
And certainly I'm guilty of this too.
Because again, that tackle numbers great.
It means he was active.
He did get his hands on the ball a couple of times.
But if you listen to people in Carolina talk too,
they felt they needed to upgrade their linebacking room.
They were fine with Rose Boom, but acknowledged
that there would be a need for even better linebacking play
for them.
And that also came in the past Russian all sorts of things.
But you know, I think with Rose Boom,
what it signifies truly is that service aid
Dennis is not going to have a place
of playing time on this team.
And we all thought that again, we appreciate the effort
from a later round pick, but not a starting caliber performance
really from him last year.
And again, especially in the past covers department.
I think when what you're talking about with Anzalone
and with Rose Boom, you're talking about two veterans
that have now had multiple years of starting in the league.
It does protect you, as you mentioned,
from the Lavante David part of it if he retires.
And then also it's not a bad thing
to have if the Lavante returns.
I mean, you're talking about three linebackers you like.
Because also at this stage of Lavante David's career,
you have to wonder if he would make it through the full season.
And knowing that he had to have the knee procedure
to clean things up afterwards,
knowing that he wasn't the best version of Lavante David
obviously at the end.
There's just a lot of questions to wear.
It's not bad to have competition in that room.
That room needs competition.
It has very much been married to certain players
beside Lavante David.
First it was Devon White and Devon was really good to start.
And then he trailed off.
Then it was KJ Bread.
And then KJ Bread was fine and run fit.
But again, had really big problems covering running backs,
covering in open spaces.
And then same thing was Servostia Dennis
where it had to be Servostia Dennis
due to injuries and lack of depth and same issues.
Run fit, okay, fine, you're a linebacker.
It should at least be okay.
But at the same time could not cover anybody
lost in translation there and coverage.
So, you know, I think the measure of these guys
is how much can they actually improve
guarding, running backs, guarding tight ends
and guarding the space that we know Todd Bulls
asks you to guard when you go on blitzes
and you're the one linebacker he keeps in coverage.
So again, I like the signing
because they need more depth.
They need options for Lavante David.
But again, I don't think it's necessarily
the signaling that David's not going back.
And again, as we'll look to maybe more
in the draft portion of today's show,
I don't think it disqualifies them at all
or changes their thinking on linebackers
in like the rounds two and three area.
Yeah, I would agree with that.
I don't think it changes much of their draft strategy
because even Rose Boombu had a pretty good year last year.
He was great at now.
I don't love profile buff folks as grades,
but that's the only one that really ever grades anyone.
But 47.1 was his grade,
which was 75 out of 88 linebackers last year.
So it's not like you're getting like a prime Bobby Wagner
or someone like that on your team,
which is just a no doubt, terrifying star.
Like this is a guy that's a really good player, solid player.
He's better than what you have last year.
If anything, if it's not a look at Dennis and say,
hey, you don't have a spot on this team,
it is at least a, you better get your stuff in the year,
you don't have a spot on this team.
It's one of the two.
Like I think he's gonna,
and I will say this before I keep going on that,
we've seen this from a lot of players in the past
where they kind of get tested,
they get some competition, and that finally brings out
the best in them, finally brings out all that talent
that you saw when you drafted them.
And so that's I think the hope from Tampa,
hey, you signed these couple guys in Zaloni, Rose Boom,
hopefully you bring back Levante David.
As you mentioned around,
I still think they're gonna go draft a linebacker.
Now, it makes it where you don't necessarily have
to draft one first two rounds, but I think they still would.
And I will say this, and we've talked about it many times.
This is a pretty deep linebacker class
where they could get a really good linebacker
in that third round.
I mean, there was a mock draft.
I think it was last Monday's mock draft
that James and I went through it.
And I believe it was Jacob Rodriguez.
I could be wrong, but fell to the third round.
And it was Anthony Hill.
I can't remember, it was one of the two,
but regardless, they fell to the third round in that mock.
If something like that were to happen,
that's a really good player in the third round
that you would still be happy with.
And so, I don't think it signals Lavante David
has made his decision and has let the team know
and he is out of here.
I think it signals that if he is out of here,
we aren't gonna be left with our pants down basically.
We're gonna be left prepared, ready to move on.
And that, I will say if Lavante doesn't come back,
maybe that does make it where,
hey, we do need to still take a linebacker
in the first two rounds.
Whereas if he comes back, maybe you wait for a third round.
And I know Lavante would only be here one more year,
most likely, but at least it doesn't make the need write them.
The one thing I will say that's very interesting
about this deal and several of the free agent deals,
it's one of your deals, which is telling me
and I think it should tell a lot of people,
it's make or break this year.
They either make the steps necessary
to get to a near, not to a Super Bowl, not win a Super Bowl,
but at least show that there are competitive team
in that regard or it's over.
And it's not just over for Todd Bowles,
it's over for most of the core of that team.
So Baker is probably not going to get,
and we haven't seen him sign a new contract,
but Baker would probably be one that's out.
Obviously, if Lavante comes back,
we think he would be gone.
We've already seen Mike go,
Chris Godwin is probably then gone.
Like they're probably moving off a lot of pieces
and probably doing something similar
to what Miami did this off season,
which was get rid of a lot of players and start the rebuild.
I was just thinking that, Karen,
that just let's look at one of the Buccaneers
brethren in the state of Florida,
that when Miami entered this year,
I mean, it's not unfathomable,
and obviously it went downhill quick,
but do you enter a year expecting that your head coach,
your quarterback and your top two receivers
are all going to be gone in the next six months?
I mean, you don't ever really prepare totally for that,
but it becomes the reality where the Bucks
have always been on the older side of things
here recently,
at least with a lot of their key contributions.
And if they're going to have to rebuild something,
they're not going to do it with a lot of their current roster
and they're not going to do it with Todd Bulls,
they're going to have to change a lot of different things.
That's even why we mentioned this is really big year for Baker,
may feel for a lot of reasons.
It's not necessarily a proof it for him per se,
although I'm sure if he played poorly
a long-term extension would be harder to get,
but it's about, do the Bucks even have,
doesn't make a lot of sense for Baker in two years,
or next year, if the Bucks struggle?
Does it make a lot of sense for the Bucks to be paying
a quarterback $40 million per year
if they are going to go full rebuild?
I mean, there's questions on both sides
if this goes poorly next season.
So it's kind of like the NBA team
that does a lot of expiring contracts
because they want some cap space
or they want some maneuverability
to take on other team's expiring contracts
as they start appiling assets.
Like I think that the Bucks are in a place
where they can compete for this division
until somebody finds something.
I mean, there's not a whole lot required to do that.
But if you're going to start losing this division,
then you have to actually have the wherewithal to be
of the mindset that you need to discuss the future
and that a fight for eight and nine
at some point is not always worth it.
And that's something that, you know,
I think New Orleans has done very poorly quite frankly.
Now, maybe they stumbled into it with Tyler Schuck,
but they've been kidding themselves for the last few years
where they've been going through the Derek Cars
and the post Sean Payton coaching carousel
and they have just been stuck in cap hell
and they've refused to lean all the way into it
and rebuild and now you just get a bunch of five
to eight win seasons that don't produce anything.
So on Tampa side of it, again, these one year contracts
and they're not knowing with Levante David
and saying goodbye to Mike Evans and man Todd Bowles
probably should have been fired,
but here's another year anyway,
like it's all setting up for a lot of cleaning of house
in one year if it doesn't go well,
which again, it doesn't really touch
some of these younger players
because some of these guys that they have gotten
in the last five to seven years,
the Tristan Werbs of the world, the Antoine Winfields,
obviously, you know, they up the middle a little bit older,
but what you just drafted with the Bucke,
Meka Bucke Irving, like they have plenty of pieces
that they feel they could probably rebuild pretty quickly
if they do it correctly, it shouldn't be a five
or six year slog, but at the same time,
like if you saw what happened at the end of last year
and you know the team is kind of old in some places
and you know the coach is definitely not going
to be the coach you rebuild with,
then why would you commit to a long term future?
There's nothing stable about what happened
at the end of last year
and that's going to play into our Mike Evans segment later,
like there's just not a lot of long term stability,
it is hoping and praying that you put pieces together enough
to get one or two more solid runs at this
because even, okay, even if they do pretty well,
I mean, they're going to have to be tweaking
pretty big parts of their team,
regardless going forward because they've got to find
younger defense players, okay, fine,
they found some linebackers for now,
what about in three or four years,
they're all around 30, they still have pass rush issues,
that may not be answered unless they draft somebody.
So there's a, again, I go on and on,
but there's a lot of reasons why it's,
they've got to take this one year to time right now.
You brought up a really good point
and I think people are looking at it the wrong way
in terms of the division is so bad,
I see a lot of people say, why would you rebuild?
Like the division is so bad,
we can just keep making the playoffs,
add a piece, add a piece there, add a piece here,
and then maybe we make a run in the playoffs.
The division being bad is why you can rebuild
and then be competitive quicker
than a normal team could be competitive
because the division is so bad.
That's the way you should look at it.
It shouldn't be, like if you were in a,
you know, like AFC North and it's prime,
rebuild was hard to rebuild in that
because Ravens were always good, the Steelers were always good,
you know, Bengals and Browns, like good luck rebuilding,
like it was hard because even if you rebuild it
and started building it the right way,
you had to go through those two teams.
That's not the case in the NFC South,
you might have one down here because you're rebuilding,
but you could quickly be back on top of that division
after a rebuild.
The interesting thing I would want to know
and kind of see if they do a rebuild,
I think it would probably be a full rebuild
where they get rid of the quarterback
to get rid of this, get rid of that.
I will say because of Bakers,
I'm one of those people that don't think
just because you're the next guy up,
you should get the highest contract.
So I've long said that Bakers shouldn't just become
the highest-bait quarterback
because he's the next quarterback up.
I think he's the guy that probably 40 million
is about right for a player like him.
If he decided to take that,
which I will say this, he is a very loyal person
and we've seen him really recruit hard for Tampa,
not just this year, but in the past,
I think he overall wants to stay in Tampa Bay.
Maybe if you could convince him to say,
hey, if you'll take that 40 million
or 30 even 35 million,
I don't know if he would do it, money's money,
but we'll keep you
and then we'll just start rebuilding around you
because I will say that is probably the better route
than trying to go get one of these rookies.
Now, I know this next class is supposed to be
this amazing rookie class.
I've heard Todd McShay talk about it over and over.
I'm not as big on it as he is.
Like the source be kid, that is not tech.
People love him.
I'm not sold on him at all,
but there's people talking about him in the first time big.
I think Dante Moore is gonna be a star.
Archmaning played great at the end of the year.
We'll see this year,
but that might be it off the top of my head.
Like I'm not sold on Sam Levin.
I covered Mississippi State for locked on as well.
I've seen Sam Levin throw for 84 yards last two years
and it's a very bad list of stadiums.
Okay, so with Jordan Tyson, by the way, at Y receiver.
So I'm not sold now.
Granted, one year they ran for about 400 on him.
So maybe that's why you'll need to pay for yards.
But all right, come to the next.
We're gonna talk about the Bucks post-free agency power ranking.
Where do they fall?
We'll talk about that next.
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All right, Bucks squad, we're back for another segment
of the Bucks squad.
Show just a reminder of this extra content.
We do twice a week, Mondays and Wednesday nights
at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
So it doesn't take anything away from what James does.
He does great work throughout the week.
So make sure you keep falling along with him.
Especially because April is almost here,
which is draft season, which is crazy.
It's already here, but it's coming up.
So make sure you fall along with him.
But I wanted to look at the post-free agency power rankings.
And that's CBS ports that put this out.
Seattle comes in.
Number one, don't have an issue with it.
You won the Super Bowl.
You deserve to be number one.
Number two, Rams, again, don't have an issue with it.
Bills, Broncos, really don't have an issue with any of that.
Buccaneers come in at number 13.
It said they didn't do a lot in frame street,
but they did add nice places or pieces in linebacker,
Alex and Zaloni, and Edge, Al Quadim, Muhammad.
The big key will be staying healthy
in what looks like a win or else here for Coach Todd Bulls.
And I will say CBS ports have, has them five spots higher
than they had them before, for agency.
And this was a ranking that came out before the Rose Boom,
although I don't think it would change too much
because it wasn't like a big splash.
I almost think it's a little generous.
Where they're at at 13.
Now, with that being said, you went,
I know how the season ended.
And you looked like one of the worst teams in the NFL,
if not the worst team in the NFL.
But you have to look at the season as a whole.
And looking as a whole, you were eight and nine
with an injury-riddled season.
Tons of injuries on the offensive line on every position.
You had one of the worst defenses in the NFL.
You didn't have this incredible offense either.
It was an okay good offense, but not a great offense.
You went eight and nine.
And if one game went differently, you're in the playoffs still.
So I understand that.
And then they have added some nice pieces to the team
that they really needed to get.
We mentioned the two linebackers, Al Quadim, Muhammad.
You weren't on the show when Josh and I talked about it last week.
But yeah, I really liked that move.
I think it's, again, he's not this incredible.
I said, Josh, I meant James.
I was thinking of this draft coming up,
because there's a Josh I was going to mention in that one.
But anyways, James and I talked about it last week.
But I think that's a really solid move to go.
I kind of compared him to Yaliyah Diyabi,
because they're about the same type of player.
And so I think it's another good body out there for them.
Yeah, I do too.
Now, question for you, Jiren.
So, Bucks at 13.
Where's Carolina and Atlanta?
Good question.
Carolina is, let's see if they're, no.
So Carolina is behind, they're at 22.
They fell six spots.
Okay.
It says the, the spent big,
they spent big on the defense side of the bond for agency,
getting past Russia, Jalen Phillips,
and linebacker Devon Lloyd,
signing Packers left tackle received Walker
to take over for the injured Ikki Kwanlu was a nice move.
And actually, Panthers are 22,
Saints are 23, 24 is Falcons.
So all three of them, boom, boom, boom.
I mean, I did, I did hate the Falcons all season so far.
Yeah, which is, which is good.
But I, I think I like Carolina's,
at least as much as Tampa.
Now, I know power ranking is still kind of a assessment
of the whole, just what recently has happened.
But yeah, you know, we always have different,
little different definitions for power ranking
and straight up best team and that sort of thing.
But, you know, I, I thought you on that too.
I, I really like Carolina's, a lot of season so far.
Yeah, they address their needs more directly than Tampa did I feel.
Yeah, Tampa was kind of, as they often do,
I mean, they're true themselves, right?
And like Jason Light has been the same guy the whole time he's been in Tampa.
Like, okay, I'm going to try to find value.
I'm not swinging and going to lead the world
and guaranteed money.
Nor am I going to lead the world in trading draft assets.
So I mean, like he's always been the same guy,
either for better or worse.
But I mean, I just think that the edge rusher part of it.
And again, Muhammad might end up being wonderful.
If he, if he has a 10 sack, 11 sack season on the deal they gave,
like that might be tremendous.
And in a way, I mean, it's probably unfair.
But it's probably worth tracking Crosby and Trey Henderson's success.
And if Hendrickson has 12 sacks and Muhammad has 10,
you're probably good with Muhammad because you did get the value you were seeking.
But if we come on this show next year and Muhammad has like a stack and a half
or two and a half set, whatever reddit had, then we're like,
you know, that's one of the dumbest things they could have possibly done.
Right.
So, so I mean, the reality is that they're taking another swing of value
and they swung and miss last year.
And likes not a position to swing and miss on this pick.
If he missed one of the two linebackers we've just been talking about,
there's ways to survive that.
Maybe Levantet came back.
Maybe he drafted a quality run linebacker.
He could get around that.
I don't think he can get around Al-Qadim Muhammad not being useful to them next season.
Right.
You know, like they just, they need, need the password so bad and they need it from the
edge so bad because I think they're great in the interior.
If cancee could be healthy, like I know that's a huge if because he's been incredibly
banged up.
He's a really dang good player that would, would really benefit from Vita Vega eating
people up in the middle.
So like it just, they have the pieces inside.
They, we've just been begging about the, the, the edge, you know, I, I think that the
13th place, I mean, you do the quick math in your head.
I mean, I, I know it's probably not evenly split the 12 above them, but 13th place does
imply, especially with your division where they're ranked that you're in position to
be the playoff team pretty easily in, in the division.
So I, and I think again, there's, there's some reason to believe Tampa should be able
to do it, but also at the same time, if you think Carolina got a little better and you
blew it to them last year, then, and you're not happy with what you've done, then that
doesn't necessarily add up into the box, strolling through the division unimpeded.
So we haven't even, and I know the schedule officially come out and be like, may content
for us.
But, you know, the schedule's not going to be fun this year either and it'll be NFC
South wide, but the schedule will be really rough too.
So the, the point I'm trying to make here is the bucks.
If you put them in front of Carolina, fine, I probably don't agree with it, but it needs
to be like back of the teens because that's implying that the bucks are sniffing around
a serious, you know, 10, 12 win team.
And I'm think that, but all the NFC South is really doing is still talking about how
we can be one game above 500.
And I don't think the bucks have done anything to change that equation so far this all season.
Well, and to your point, Carolina, if they haven't done it had a better off season, which
I think they haven't, I think you think they have just here and you talk, then Tampa,
they're close.
And so for there to be a nine spot difference between the two, I disagree with.
Now with that being said, I do think Tampa was the better team this last year, even
Carolina was the playoff representative.
I think Tampa was better, but it needs to be more like Tampa 18, Carolina 20 or 21 or
even 22 is fine, but that's how close I think the two are.
I don't think there's this big gap.
I do think there's a pretty good gap between those two and Atlanta and in the Saints.
I will say this, even with the Muhammad move, I still think they got to go edge with one
of their first two picks.
And so that's the one thing I will say about Muhammad.
If you got, now Reddit got hurt, but if you had a Reddit all last season, let's say
you had a red again, let's say he plays like Reddit plays, how he played this last season,
which wouldn't be great, but let's say he did that, but he's your third edge and not
yours, one of your starters like Reddit was, I think you're okay with that.
I mean, you're not, it's not great.
But if they draft a guy with the 15th pick or they draft a guy in the second round and
he ends up being the starter and he ends up having a really good year and Yalya has a
good year and Muhammad is just solid off the bench.
I mean, I think you live with that, but I don't think it's going to be like Reddit.
I think Muhammad, if it happens where he's the third edge, I think he's probably a five
or six sacked type edge as your third guy, maybe four sacks, someone like that.
And I will say, well, I love Jalen Phillips and I really am high on Jalen Phillips.
He's been injured throughout his career.
He's never had a season like Muhammad just did last year.
So there's some arguments back towards, hey, well, actually Tampa got the better edge
between the two.
I would disagree.
I still go with Phillips because I am, like I said, I'm very high on him.
I was hoping, when I heard that he was going to be out there, I was hoping Tampa would
actually make a really good run at him if they couldn't get some of the bigger guys because
I do like Phillips a lot.
But with that being said, I'm with you.
I think 13, again, it's a weird spot because I don't hate it.
I don't love it.
But like the teams that are ahead, like they're one spot ahead of Dallas.
I think that's, they're probably right there with Dallas.
I don't feel either way.
Detroit's the one that's kind of a weird one.
They're then the next one after Dallas where Detroit, I think, is still one of the better
teams.
I think they just didn't have very good coordinator really either side this past year.
I think they had a big drop off from Aaron Glyn and Ben Johnson and I think that hurt
them.
They've made some changes.
I actually like the Vikings because I think Kyle Murray will do pretty well there.
But again, if he's not healthy, then I don't like the Vikings.
And the Vikings are the next one.
The Texans, it's all CJ Straub.
Does he become the CJ Straub of his rookie year?
Because if he does, the defense is elite and they should be way higher.
Even then, I still would have the Texans over Tampa Bay.
And so that's one that I think is a little ridiculous.
And then the chiefs at 18, there are another one that it's like was last year of fluke,
you know, or is this team going to take the next, go back to what they, you know, were?
I don't know if they'll go back to that dominance.
I mean, will they be at least a playoff team again?
That's another one you could argue should be over Tampa, at least given the benefit
of the doubt.
But it's hard to argue the teams right behind them, really.
You could argue, make an argument for one or two of them.
Yeah, it's a weird world to imply that the boxer in a better place than Kansas City
right now.
I mean, like, I get my homes may not be ready for the year.
And that's why they traded for fields.
And I know we talked about that.
I believe on the Wednesday show last week, but at the same time, I mean, you think Kansas
City with another year of Andy Reed and my homes has any intention of being anywhere
where they were last year.
I mean, it seems very fluke for everything we know about Kansas City.
And, you know, the Minnesota case is interesting because I do, and I'm going to say this while
Marcus has not on this program, I don't like JJ McCarty at all.
I don't think that I just don't, but that being said, all of Kevin O'Connell's good work
is with quarterbacks that are not exactly like Kyle Murray.
So Marcus Murray's got a little bit of a, he's a little bit of rehab project, and it's
not just the health part of it.
Like he was not playing his best ball at the in there in Arizona.
I know everything went off the rails there.
So, you know, there's, there's rosters that I look at in that grouping is being better
than Tampa's.
But at the, again, at the same time, I will send the Jalen Phillips Park, because I did
agree with you on that, you know, I would not compare necessarily you know, it'd be tempting
to because he's in the division.
I wouldn't necessarily compare Muhammad's production with Phillips, because I will say
that Phillips, as you said, for 30 million a year, that's not been a lot of production.
That's all in his career.
I would be, I think the viable options were Tampa were always Henderson and Crosby.
And so it would be, I think a little bit more apt to say, okay, does the draft, what,
would giving up this kind of draft capital made sense for what Crosby gave you or would
paying that for Hendrickson versus what you did from Muhammad, would that make any sense?
But if you want to say the Phillips contract is too bloated, totally wouldn't understand
that part of it.
It's just, again, I just don't think Tampa has been as direct with what they need.
At least Carolina identified the two or three things, and they certainly needed another
tackle, often as a tackle, which they did.
They identified those needs, and they went straight after it, Tampa has kind of danced
around the value part of those equations.
Yeah.
I agree.
But who's to blame for Mike Evans no longer being in Tampa Bay?
We'll talk about that next.
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All right, Buckswiver back for another segment of the Bucks Squad Show.
So Mike Evans obviously is no longer in Tampa Bay.
I promise, we're not just going to have a Mike Evans segment every single time, but
we do have got to talk about this because I've seen a lot of people tweet, a lot of fans
tweet, oh, this, you know, him even says a lot about the quarterback Baker or says a lot
about talk polls or says a lot about Jason Lyon, you know, I wasn't on the podcast last
Wednesday where, you know, like talked about, hey, we offered more money than San Francisco
did and he still decided to go and that brought out even more of these, well, it has to
be the general manager.
It has to be the court.
I personally, I don't think it's the quarterback and I know people are going to say, well,
you're no qualm a fan.
That's why you're a baker with, I don't think it's the quarterback because I don't think
Brock party and we've talked about this.
I don't think he's that much better than Baker.
If he is at all, I probably would put Baker higher than him, but we did a podcast about
this before.
I think both are kind of in that 12 to 1715 range.
Like, I think both of them are there, like they're the same quarterback.
If he left Baker and went to go play for Josh Allen, yeah, it was probably in the quarter.
You want to go play for the quarterback or Patrick and the homes, but our party is basically
the same quarterback.
I think what happened was, was two things.
I think he won.
He was tired of switching offensive coordinators every year.
He believes in Shanahan system so that that played a big factor and the head coach played
a big factor and so I'm putting the blame more on top bowls.
It's not necessarily top bowls as fault.
The reason why I say that is with Shanahan being the head coach, Evans knows, hey, if I want
to play multiple years, I don't, I won't be going through a evolving door of offense
coordinators because the head coach is offense coordinator.
So I know if I go there, as long Shanahan's there as the head coach, I'm going to have
the same system.
I'm going to have all that.
And he just kind of wanted that continuity at the end of his career.
He didn't want to be switching all the time.
He knew if they went and had a successful year in Tampa Bay this year, top bowls will
be back another year.
And if it was really successful, Zach Robinson might be gone again and now you're going through
another offense system.
And then he knew if it, if things went poorly, then it was a total rebuild.
Top bowls wouldn't be there.
But neither would Zach Robinson probably and so on and so forth.
So I just don't think he wanted to continue to go through multiple offensive systems.
And he was ready for some, some continuity and some, some, you know, just some regularity
in his life.
I'm going to try to spin a little bit of a complex web here.
I think that it is Jason liked fault because of Todd bowls.
So what I mean by that is now granted, this could also be the Glazer family via Todd
bowls.
Sure.
Because what I think it really is, I do think there's frustration with Todd bowls, at
least amongst Mike and some of the offensive guys.
Now again, it's different when you've been coached directly by the guy defensively.
Because again, I would tell you that I think Levante loves the guy and I think other defensive
players do.
I think others don't what have you.
But I think that the decision to keep Todd bowls.
And maybe again, I'm not trying to imply either this with the Mike Evans just straight
up hates Todd bowls.
I don't know that at all.
And I'm not implying that.
But what I think it is is that if you as a general manager ownership group, what have
you are okay, not changing much from the unbelievable blow up the box had, then that's a huge
problem.
And I think Mike Evans saw Todd bowls as that like, hey, you're the head coach.
You're our guy we've had for several years now.
And we went from a team that was easily coasting the playoffs to they actually have super
bowl aspirations to they just went below 500 and lost the worst division football.
You know, that not changing that structure to me was a sign from him or assigned to him
that they're not really serious about changing what they need to change.
And so for that, whether it's Jason likes final decision or most of the time the NFL,
it's really the ownership's final decision for what that reason he was out.
Now I do think there's a lesser a secondary reason that I do think he's excited about
the shana hand part of the offense.
I think he's excited that the 49ers don't have anyone that can do what he does.
Like I think that he didn't take it personally that a mecha book was there.
I think he's really happy for Tampa's fan base and for the organization that they've got
a really good wider scene core.
But I think at the same time, he really did want to be the guy.
And there's a question because we saw him out there and the Atlanta game was awesome.
But he was healthy for the last couple games too.
And it was just one of the guys out there and, you know, he's Mike Evans.
So he's going to get his.
But I do think that there was some question next year on, okay, you still got Chris Godwin.
You got a mecha who you drafted.
Hey, James at Millen gave you some real flashes in his small sample size.
I mean, you just kind of one of the group and one day it'll be you and one day at
one.
Right.
And in San Francisco, I don't see why it's not every day.
It's him.
You know, I mean, you know, they they have gone through the ringer the last few years
of saying goodbye to wide receivers that they thought would be great.
And Pierce all is good.
Right.
But I don't think he's better than Mike Evans, even in Mike Evans' older state.
So, you know, they'll have Kettle if Kettle can stay on the field and they'll get McCaffer
involved in everything as they always have.
But Mike Evans is their number one wide receiver period.
And in Tampa, I think next year, even though we're so used to him being number one by
a long margin, next year he would have been he's number one this Sunday.
But we'll see about next Sunday and then the Sunday after that.
So I think that's the secondary reason, but I do think that Todd Bowles slash Jason
like hit blame, Bowles just kind of representing that the bucks were not willing to make a
radical change after a radical disappointment to the season.
That last part at the end, I thought was exactly what I was about to bring up because we
got to kind of go back to which we talked about this.
Remember his four non negotiables when he when he said he was a free agent.
So he said he wants a quarterback, he believes in a chance at a Super Bowl, a top shelf
offense coordinator and the promise of high volume touches.
So it's compared Tampa and the 49ers quarterback that he believes in.
Again, we talked about Baker and Brockford are essentially the same quarterback.
I think he has the same amount of faith in both quarterback.
So I think that's a watch a chance at a Super Bowl.
Well, 49ers have been knocking on the door of a Super Bowl and Tampa really hasn't since
Tom left in 2020.
So yeah, 49ers would be that and he even said, I watched the 49ers in the playoff and
I thought they they were one piece weight and now they got drilled by the Seattle sea oxen
so you can argue maybe they weren't one piece.
But with that being said, they had a lot of defensive injuries, Fred Warner was out, Nick
Bosa was out.
So they had like, they had some things and they still were a very good team.
So again, that would favor the 49ers over Tampa Bay.
He then wants a top shelf offense of coordinator.
Again, we think Zach Robinson is going to be solid.
He's not Kyle Shanahan.
Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, that's the two best coordinators in football arguably.
If you want to throw a clubey act after one year, that's good too.
But regardless, McVeigh, Shanahan, they've kind of widely been regarded as the top two.
And then last, he wants a high volume of catches and that's the good thing that you just
brought up.
In Tampa, he's going to catches with Ed Buka with Godwin with Ted Johnson.
He's going to have some Sundays where he is the guy.
Like we saw was it Atlanta at the end of the year when he came back from injury or was
it a Carolina?
I think it was the Atlanta game when he had this monster game, but he's going to have other
games where he's not the lead guy and it's at Buka or it's Chris Godwin or it's Ted Johnson
or it's whoever.
That's not the case in San Francisco.
Pierce saw is a different type of receiver than Mike Evans is.
He's going to be used.
They use him very similar to how they use Debo.
Now, not exactly where they line them up at running back, but they use them more of that
gadget kind of thing.
And whereas Mike Evans is your true, just number one outside receiver, go get the ball.
And so he's going to, because he's the only one like that on the 49ers, he's automatically
going to get a high volume of touches.
He's not the only one like that with Tampa Bay.
So again, if you look at the criteria, he told you what he was looking for.
And he picked a team that was better than your team in three of those four areas.
And the one that he that's not better and it's a push, it's not like it's a big gap.
So yeah, I mean, now with that being said, if you want to put blame on Jason Light, because
it's really light fault that they haven't drafted well out of defense specifically to give
Todd Bulls the necessary players to make them a Super Bowl contender, which then would
have kept Mike Evans in town.
That's fair too.
But I think if you had to rank the three, it's probably Bulls, then it's probably Light,
then it's probably the quarterback pretty far down the list, because I just, maybe I'm
seeing something that he's, maybe I'm not seeing something that he's seeing.
I don't see this big gap between Purdy and Bacon.
If you want to say Purdy's better than Baker, fine, it ain't a big gap either way.
Yeah.
Again, that's why the fourth part there, the touches part is more relevant than the
quarterback part, because look, it's, he had a thousand yard season with Baker times
two.
Right.
So it's not all of a sudden, Baker's fault that he didn't have is another thousand
yard season.
It was the entries, obviously.
So I don't think it's the party versus Mayfield thing, as you said.
I think that it's the touches part.
And also the other thing too is now to be fair to San Francisco.
Every one of that team seems injured all the time last couple of years.
I don't know.
Are you a substation guy?
Do you believe it's the substation?
I do think that is an interesting story.
Yes.
I don't believe it.
No, but I do think it's interesting.
It's a tough coincidence at the moment, but worth worth looking at it too, I guess.
That, that be damned, even with Ricky Peersaw.
Okay, young receiver promising.
He's only played 20 games in two seasons.
Now to be fair to him, he was shot the first season, which is not something that something
happens to many.
So, you know, that, that's the problem of the near one, but okay, you played nine games
this past year.
I should play more games that season than he did this past year.
So they are consistently banged up all over the place.
Yeah.
I can't believe McCaffrey's played as many games as he has.
He's seemed pretty healthy lately, which is weird because he was probably the most
injury prone of all of them.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I guess it's a lot of averages thing, but you know, I just think that the bottom
line is he wanted a new challenge and he had an opportunity with a great offensive mind.
The box gave him a great reason to lead with how they ended last season.
If you're a competitor, you're going to be fired up about that for all the wrong reasons
or all the right reasons, but because of the wrong reasons of you obviously losing the
first place.
Again, look, I mean, it's, it's a tough situation.
I don't think it's unfair, like I said, I don't think it's an unfair decision to make
whatsoever.
And again, I don't think that that we'll look at next year and say the box didn't
win because they didn't have my cabins.
If the box don't win, it's because they didn't draft well enough.
They didn't take free agency on the edge position seriously enough.
They went for value hires.
They didn't get a X factor, you know, offensively if they're offense struggles, it's probably
more Zach Robinson.
It's probably injuries, you know, it's not going to be the wide receiver room.
It's just not.
And I still think there's a high confidence level that this offense is going to be a okay
next year.
I don't think it's going to be a big issue.
Now I do hope that they can return to the top five status that Liam Cohen had him at
two years ago.
Maybe that happens.
Maybe it doesn't.
But I still think it's a top 10 or 11 offense kind of any way you slice it.
Yeah.
I agree.
For all you Bucks fans, we can put a bow on the Mike Evans saga, you know, wishing
the best when he placed except when he placed Tampa, I thought we were going to do this
Wednesday, but with like a violin and making some water bottle tears, one or two more
of those.
Yeah, we're going to we're going to read cards and all that about Mike.
All right.
Coming next.
We got mock draft money.
There's already several comments asking, are there certain receivers, Tampa should draft
to replace Mike Evans?
We'll talk about all that.
Coming up next.
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All right, Bunch squad, we're back for one final segment of the Bunch Squad show.
Just reminded of the section content we do every Monday Wednesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern
time.
Doesn't take anything away from the great work that James does throughout the week.
So make sure you follow along right there.
I see a lot of comments.
Hey, should we draft a Jordan Titian?
So we draft from a kind of limit in the first round.
Well, that's not quite who NFL dot com chatrooter has.
We put out a four round mark with his first round pick.
He has Tampa taking Caleb Banks, the defense attacker from Florida.
Then in the second round, he has them taking CJ Allen from from Georgia, who we've seen
mocked to Tampa in the first round.
Then Ramello Heights, height the defense been from Texas Tech, the other one from David
Bailey in the third round.
And then in the fourth round, they have Tampa Bay taking.
And I just saw the second go, Colin Wright, the cornerback from Stanford.
So first off, addressing nothing but defense, which is exactly what they should do.
I do not of all those picks actually really like the Ramello Heights pick.
I think it's a really solid third round pick.
I really like the CJ Allen pick in the second round.
I didn't like it at 15, which we talked about many times.
I said it pees in the first round, and you know he's not going to make it out of the
first round trade back to get him in that 25 range, which I will say this, because this
is an interesting thing that came out today, because we've talked about this many times.
To trade back, you have to have someone to trade up.
And the only way you're getting someone usually to trade up is if there's a quarterback
they want, and this isn't a quarterback heavy draft, well then Dan Orlopsy came out
and said that he thinks Ty Simpson's the best quarterback in this draft over Mendoza.
And then I can't remember who it was that responded to it, but said that there's a lot of teams
that feel the same way as Dan Orlopsy.
So if that's the case, maybe there is a team, the Jets, Cardinals that are like, hey, we
will trade up to come get a guy like that.
I think Carolina, Arizona is picking at like 29.
So maybe that's one that they trade up for, and you can go back to 29 to get a CJ Alex.
I don't know if he'll be there in the second round, but I don't mind that pick.
I don't even mind the call on right pick in the fourth round.
I just don't get the Kayla Binks pick.
They don't need a defense attack, especially, I mean, get one death wise later on.
That's fine.
If they want to get one of the fourth round, cool.
But he also has the injury history, I would not be happy with that if I was a Bucks fan.
No, and I feel like we're just kind of rinsing repeating different versions of the first round
that we don't want.
I mean, you just, you know, and look, rounds two through four, we talked about him again
in just a second.
I mean, I'm good with all that too, but the first round is, okay, let me put it this way.
The first round, Jason Light is probably been on compared to his cohorts.
That's where he performs probably the worst.
Like his round two is questionable at times, but his round three through five are really
good.
That's why he's gotten the reputation that he has.
His round one has been beats me, you know, I mean, so it probably makes sense that everyone's
all over the board with this, I guess, because they're like, I don't know if you'll actually
do the thing you should do, which is still draft an edge.
Now, I think what I've seen a lot of in these mock drafts, just trying to put two and
two together from these, these different, different analysts is that there's not a lot of traction
for edge guys in the 11 to 20 range.
Right.
And what that shows is that if the bucks do that at 15, then they are probably reaching
a little bit for whoever they're getting.
And I, but look, I still think that you have to go with an edge.
So if you are trying to convictingly say, no, man, all these edge rushers should go like
25 to 55.
You should not be taking someone in the teens, fine, trade it down.
As you alluded to, trade it down 10 spots and go get maybe another first in the future,
at least a couple of seconds.
Don't marry yourself to the idea that you need something that doesn't fit positionally.
And look, some people are just straight best player over, over position of need.
But I think the bucks have done a lot of work and frequency to cover those other needs.
And I mean, if some guys are blocked, they're not going to be as useful to you if they're
not playing the amount of reps that they should.
And other guys are not playing because of it, like defensive tackle, you've addressed
that.
You've got a Sean Robinson, you've obviously got Vita and it knows you've got collage
of cancees awesome.
I'm just not sure what you're doing by getting another interior alignment of any kind.
But I know that whether you get something out of Muhammad that you like or not, I know
it's a one year deal.
And I know that Yaya Diabi is not a number one pass rusher, he's a number two.
And I know that you missed on Chris Braswell, like I hate to say it, but you drafted in
what second round, I think, and Braswell has been awful.
He is closer to not being active most Sundays than he is to actually being helpful to you.
Again, I know he's played, but it's not been affected.
So the point is, is that you still need an edge and very high in this draft.
I just don't think that they should be looking at least, you know, at least it's defense
and not the sedic stuff that we keep seeing, but you know, it's also to, you know, the
question you presented with with wider sievers now, like, like they, they did that last
year.
Abouka was already with Mike Evans leaving slash retiring.
Chris Godwin aging out in mind and Godwin still should have another two years of competency
at least.
And he's got to stay healthy.
I don't think they should give up on Macmillan at all.
They're not doing that this year.
That doesn't mean mid to late round, you play around with everything, but that's not
their first couple of rounds that they've got to go edge and they've got to go linebacker
still.
And, you know, maybe a corner pretty high that that, that to me seems pretty set in stone.
They really the first three rounds should not be towing with much other many, anything
other positionally than that.
The one thing that I think is very interesting, pastures how and TJ Parker and a lot of the
mocks I've looked at lately are now sliding to late, late first, like 29, 30 round, a
pick or second round picks.
That's why I think if you wanted to make a trade for it with Arizona at 29, you could
possibly get one of those guys instead.
I'm sorry not to cut you off, but like if you get, if you get that pick, you might get
their second round pick to and then you've got to spot jump.
Yeah, and then you've got two second rounds and you take one as a linebacker and one as
another edge rusher.
Yes, exactly.
Because in that mock, for example, and I've seen a lot of mocks this way too, they have
the jets picking 16, so trading up to 16 and taking Thai Simpson.
And so the carnels might say, hey, we're worried about the jets making that move, but we're
worried about another team making a move, we'll go up there at 15 and take Thai Simpson.
Because that now in quarterback, they have Jacobi Versette and they have Garnaminshu.
That's their quarterback.
There's a third one, but he's not going to play over those two, but that's your quarterback
situation in Arizona right now.
And maybe they say, hey, we're going to go through a season like this.
We're going to be bad again, and next year, that's where we got our eyes on all the quarterback.
But what if they're one of the teams that think Thai Simpson is the best quarterback in
this draft?
That's absolutely a spot.
Because as you mentioned, moving up 15 spots or 14 spots, whatever it is, they might have
to give up a first and a second or maybe it's a first and a third, but regardless, that's
a really good haul to move back at 29 and if TJ Parker's there, if Cassius Howe's there,
great.
You could go get an arm Mason Thomas at that spot and be happy with that pick.
Maybe a CJ Allen, if you don't think he's going to make it to you in the second round,
you go get him at that pick.
There's a lot of things you can play with at that point.
The issue I have is Kayla Banks, I understand he's an athletic freak, I get that.
When he was injured this whole last season, he got injured again.
This off season, and it's a foot deal.
For $663.27, foot issues are not a good thing to have and with it not being a big position
of need, I know Vita's getting older and I know if you pair him with Vita, you could have
a run defensive wall and you could have some interior pass rush.
I get that, but there's just so much bigger needs and you don't need to take that risk
when you have these needs.
If it was a, hey, we don't really have anyone to defund the tackle with the big need for
us, we got to take this risk.
I understand it.
You are not in a spot where you have to take that risk.
Yeah, and look, maybe this is just a completely dumb thought.
I don't know, but if Jason likes, loves draft picks so much, trading down gets you more
draft picks.
So if that's got to be the play here, you need what you need.
I mean, again, as you can tell, again, I get the debate of D versus best player available
clearly.
Clearly I've showed myself as more of a need guy, but I just think that needs so obvious,
you know, and like, if your other team's out there and maybe you need a tied in or maybe
you need a running back, like, okay, running backs are not first round guys most of the
time.
And tied ends, there's usually only one or two that you really feel fired up about and
usually that's top half of the first round, and then you're kind of in a different category
at that point.
So, you know, there's certain positions that, okay, the best player would make sense because
the need can still be gotten in the second round very easily.
And I get that this edge rusher class, maybe you're not in the right range for the value
to meet up with best player for that position, okay, we'll go, go find it then.
If it's the late first round, go move back there.
And if people are obsessed with Thai Simpson for reasons that are not entirely clear to me,
then let them be obsessed with him and go mortgage that pick because you couldn't care less
about a quarterback.
That's just a pick that you're not worried about.
That's a team you're trading to that they're going to take something that you would never
take.
And because that's your only real concern when you trade down is do we trade down too
far and then too many teams take the position we want?
That's the real risk adverse question there.
So Tampa's got to look at their board.
How many guys do we really have grade in the first round?
How many are early seconds?
And what are the needs of the other teams and how worried are we that if we trade down
12 spots and we only like one or two guys that those guys are gone?
So I mean, like that's that's the equation you've got to have and again, history shows
this Tampa is going to stay at 15.
We'll see what they take.
But I really think that the more we see these mocks, if we keep seeing these guys that
you mentioned being the 20s late 20s even, I think you I think you get a group of three
to five guys that you really like between 20 and 40 and you settle to trade down and you
get one maybe two of those guys with the picks you have.
Yeah, if it was one of those scenarios where there's four edge guys that you really like
and all four are marked in the first 20 and then after that, there's a big drop off.
The next guys aren't marked to late second.
Yeah, you need to stay in pat and try to get one of those guys like you need to do whatever
you can to get one of those.
This one, I feel like there's two guys, maybe three, but two or three guys, but they're
all projected top 10 picks.
Then after that, there's the next group of guys are really good solid guys, but they're
all late, late first like 28.29 pick to second round guys.
In that scenario, when you're sitting at 15, you don't need to hold that pick and you
don't need to worry about, well, if I trade back to 25, all these guys that I like are
going to be gone.
No, because there's about 10 of them in that range from the 28th to the second round that
are really solid players and so I'm more of a neat guy as well.
I have a friend that is dead set on you just take the best player available and you are
happy with it.
It has worked out for some teams, Dallas is a team that they really need defense and they
went with CDLAM and it's obviously been a great pick for them having CDLAM and that was
the time when they had one of the best offices in football and they still do, they didn't
need them.
They had a Mario Cooper or Michael Galbos coming off a thousand yards.
They had 2000 other receivers and they went and drafted CDLAM so sometimes it works
out, but I will say you could argue it has worked out because it's not like it's got
many closer to the two with their ultimate goal and they still have a terrible defense.
I'm more of a neat person, my thing is like, man, if you're not as high on, if you're very
high on someone, but other people are saying, hey, no, he's a second-round pick.
Who cared if you believe in him, take him, go with it.
But as you mentioned, if someone's high on Thai Simpson, which we don't see in Tampa,
you don't need Thai Simpson, let them be high on him and make the mistake of trading
up again.
Let them do it and move on.
All right, that's going to do it for the Bucks Squad show.
We'll be back on Wednesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
Until then, find the Kings.

Locked On Bucs – Daily Podcast On The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Locked On Bucs – Daily Podcast On The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Locked On Bucs – Daily Podcast On The Tampa Bay Buccaneers
