Bucs Midseason Rookie Report Card: Day Three Edition

Recently we covered the Bucs “Day Two” rookies and how they have performed about half-way through the season. Now we will take a look at the later round editions the team made earlier this year.

Most teams are looking for situational players and special teams ace’s when they start selecting on the third day of the draft. Every so often a team will take a swing on a toolsy prospect who has the athleticism to be an eventual starter but lacks the resume to be confident they can step into that role right away. The Bucs looked for a little bit of each with their day three picks this year. Let’s check in and see how those players have looked through almost the first half of their rookie years.

TE Cade Otton

Otton was the first pick overall of the third day of the 2022 draft. The 6’5 Otton profiled as someone who could step into the “Y” position that Rob Gronkowski was potentially vacating. Otton had the size to play on the line as a contributor in the blocking game, while showing the requisite hands and route running to be an option as a pass catcher.

Unfortunately for Otton, he missed most of OTA’s recovering from off-season surgery. This put him behind the normal timetable for applying the offense to his muscle memory by the time training camp hit and most likely contributed to the thought process of signing Kyle Rudolph.

But as the season has started and progressed, Otton has gradually increased his workload. Over the first two weeks of the season Otton averaged 31.5 snaps per game. After missing week three due to a personal matter, he has averaged 54.6 snaps per game. And his production has risen with that increase in playing time as well. Otton has averaged 5 targets per game over the past four weeks. And those targets have translated into 14 catches and 145 yards. Otton has shown an ability to find soft spots in zone coverage, run the seam, and make some tough contested catches.

Otton has also been an inconsistent run blocker, mixing some quality reps with others where he gets blown off the line. Overall, Otton has shown enough that he is the best tight end on the roster at this time and should be considered the starter even when Cam Brate returns from injury in the next couple of weeks.

In addition, Otton has provided good play on special teams where he has four combined tackles over 59 special teams snaps.

Looking at Otton against his contemporaries and things look even better. Otton leads all rookie tight ends with 336 offensive snaps played. That’s more than the four tight ends taken before him in Trey McBride (2nd round), Jelani Woods (3rd round), Greg Dulcich (3rd round), and Jelani Woods (3rd round). Otton leads all rookie tight ends in targets (26), and catches (18), while ranking 2nd in receiving yards (178) to only Isaiah Likely (only Otton and Likely had played week eight as of this writing). Tight end is a notoriously difficult position for rookies to acclimate to, and for Otton to show on a weekly basis that a) he can operate competently at such a quick rate and b) that he is showing week-to-week improvements bodes well for his future. Otton doesn’t look like a future star, but he does look like he is a starter in the NFL. To get someone who looks like that this early in his career at the tight end position on day three bodes well for the Bucs front office.

Overall Grade: B+

P Jake Camarda

2022 weirdly became the draft of the punter, with four taken by the end of the draft. Camarda was the second when the Bucs took him with the 28th pick of the fourth round. For Camarda, and punters in general, forgive me for co-opting a rather famous superhero trope. “With great draft position comes great expectations.” At a position where competent play is available via free agency and through undrafted free agency so easily, for a punter to be able to justify the assets the Bucs invested in Camarda he has to immediately operate as a top 5-10 punter in the league. And Camarda has not delivered on those expectations.

Don’t get me wrong. The Bucs rookie booter has shown the tools to be that guy, with punts that can flip the field travelling well over 55 yards, as well as precision punts from shorter distances that can pin opponents behind their own ten-yard line. He combines both of these abilities with the fourth highest average hangtime in the league (4.57 seconds)

The problem thus far for Camarda and the Bucs has been a lack of consistency and a tendency to commit mental errors at a rate that is unacceptable for the position at the NFL level. Whether it is shanking a punt or kick out of bounds short, punting to the opposite side of the field from his coverage, or just shorting a field-flipping situation, Camarda has given too many opportunities away.

And the metrics back this up. Camarda ranks low in almost any objective measure. This includes more old-school stats like yards-per-punt (21st – 46.7), net average (19th – 41.3), or percent of punts inside the 20 (21st – 31.6%). It also includes more advanced statistics like expected points added per punt (26th – -0.04). But things may be looking up for the Bucs punter and his special teams unit. Over the past few games Camarda has been steadily improving. I’ll let the fine people at puntalytics to sum it up for you.

2022 was supposed to be the year of the rookie punter, and so far the results are…inconclusive?

Has Stonehouse cooled since his sensationally start🚀
Stock up on Camarda and Stout?📈
Gill is searching for consistency🤷‍♂️
And Wright has been a delightful surprise 👀 pic.twitter.com/RtJttNDGYX

— Puntalytics (@ThePuntRunts) October 28, 2022

Still, Camarda’s overall body of work to date has been lackluster at best and other rookies have been outperforming him, including Ryan Stonehouse who went undrafted and is currently second in the league in EPA/punt. That kills his midseason grade.

Overall Grade: D+

Cornerback Zyon McCollum

McCollum may have represented the single most exciting day three pick the Bucs made, and possibly most exciting one overall. His physical testing is well documented. But McCollum was coming out of a DII school in Sam Houston. He had not faced top competition or advanced route concepts. So, it was critical for McCollum to get as many reps as possible. But the Bucs cornerback got hurt during joint practices with the Titans prior to the second pre-season game and missed significant time.

McCollum did not appear in a game until week five in Atlanta, where he played some special teams

before getting in on the action on defense late in the game due to injuries in the Bucs secondary. Since then, McCollum has been forced into starting action due to more injuries in the Bucs secondary. And his performance has been exactly what you might expect of a fifth-round player having missed significant time coming off of injury, after having played at a DII school. He has made mental errors that have left him out of position in both the run and pass game that have led to big plays and scores at critical times. McCollum’s play has been a big part of why the Bucs defense has failed to make important stops late in the past two games.

Looking at McCollum against other rookie corners and he has left a lot to be desired. Among 19 corners with at least 107 snaps, he ranks 17th in PFF grade (49.7). His coverage grade is slightly better at 54.3 (14th overall). There have been a couple of corners that were taken after McCollum who have shown better play in a small sample size, but none that have consistently shown that they will be better players for their careers. Cornerback is such a highly volatile position there can be no real conclusions drawn from players taken at this point in the draft this early in their careers.

Overall Grade: C-

TE Ko Kieft

Sixth round sensation. Cult hero. Ginger icon. What other platitudes can we put on the no-nonsense blocking badass out of Minnesota? I would argue we can add one more. How about play maker? Kieft was immediately heralded for his ability to put defenders on their backsides as soon as the Bucs selected him in the sixth round. And he has delivered on that hype. Kieft has been a plus pass blocker, registering a 78.8 PFF grade in that area on the season. He has been more inconsistent as a run blocker, although the Bucs offense requires so much of him in both assignment and usage where he is often required to take on large defensive ends in formations where the run is being advertised like a Geico commercial.

That is why it has been a breath of fresh air to see Kieft’s usage become less predictable over the last three weeks. Over that time period Kieft has been in on 49 snaps. 25 of them have been runs to 24 passes. This is a stark contrast to the previous five weeks where only 21 of his 74 offensive snaps were pass plays. And Kieft has come up with some big catches in these situations. After catching only 12 passes over four years in college, Kieft already has three catches for 46 yards early in his rookie season.

Kieft has added to that offensive play with good special teams reps as well. Kieft has six special teams tackles over 123 snaps on coverage unit that has been solid overall.

Kieft isn’t the second coming of Rob Gronkowski, but he is proving to be a capable number two or three tight end who can effectively block and has surprisingly good hands. That could mean a ten-year career of being a solid contributor in the NFL. Not bad for a sixth round pick.

Overall Grade: B

EDGE Andre Anthony

Despite a solid end to his preseason Anthony was released as the Bucs had to trim down to their final 53-man roster. Anthony was not offered a spot on the Bucs practice squad and wound-up signing onto the Chicago Bears practice squad. Anthony may get some playing time in the second half of the season following the Bears trade of pass rusher Robert Quinn.

Overall Grade: Incomplete