SR’s FAB 5: Bucs Wisely Building 2025 Roster From The Bottom Up

INTRO: So what’s going on in Tampa Bay during free agency this offseason? I’m here to explain – yet not necessarily endorse – what Jason Licht, Todd Bowles and the Bucs have been doing when it comes to signing certain free agents this offseason. Enjoy!

FAB 1. Bucs Wisely Building 2025 Roster From The Bottom Up

Where are the splash signings in Tampa Bay this offseason? Aren’t the Bucs going “all in” to win the Super Bowl? Who the hell are Kindle Vildor and Anthony Walker?

Okay, calm down.

Trust Jason Licht and the Bucs brass.

Recognize that the Bucs have signed four starters in free agency this offseason.

But you may not have realized that because only one of them – outside linebacker Haason Reddick – is new to the team. Yet linebacker Lavonte David, wide receiver Chris Godwin and left guard Ben Bredeson return as starters to a 10-win team that won its fourth straight NFC South title last year.

This is a Bucs playoff team that just doesn’t have a lot of holes outside of nickelback now that Tykee Smith is poised to move to strong safety to replace Jordan Whitehead and be a full-time starter.

Here’s the projected starting lineup in Tampa Bay in 2025 with new or re-signed starters this offseason in CAPS.

QB: Baker Mayfield
RB: Bucky Irving
WR1: Mike Evans
WR2: CHRIS GODWIN
WR3: Jalen McMillan
TE: Cade Otton
LT: Tristan Wirfs
LG: BEN BREDESON
C: Graham Barton
RG: Cody Mauch
RT: Luke Goedeke
 
OLB: HAASON REDDICK
DT: Vita Vea
DT: Calijah Kancey
OLB: Yaya Diaby
ILB: LAVONTE DAVID
ILB: SirVocea Dennis (promoted to starter)
NCB: ???
SS: Tykee Smith (moved to safety from nickel cornerback)
FS: Antoine Winfield Jr.
CB: Zyon McCollum
CB: Jamel Dean

And chances are that Licht and Co. signed a fifth starter this offseason in Riley Dixon, the new punter who will challenge newcomer Jake Julien for those duties this year after Tampa Bay went through three different punters in 2024.

Tampa Bay’s goal this offseason was to improve the team’s depth, and that’s not unlike the task that former head coach Jon Gruden took on in 2002 when he arrived in Tampa Bay after being acquired in a monumental trade with Oakland.

The Bucs lost to the Eagles in Philadelphia in the 2001 Wild Card game despite having the likes of running backs Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn, wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, quarterback Brad Johnson, defensive tackle Warren Sapp, linebacker Derrick Brooks, defensive end Simeon Rice, cornerbacks Ronde Barber and Brian Kelly and safety John Lynch.

Tampa Bay had plenty of star power – plenty of grade-A talent. But it also had plenty of C-level players, too. A few subpar players the Eagles could target and take advantage of – and they did, and it cost Tony Dungy his job as head coach.

When Gruden arrived, he shored up the roster and upgraded the talent from the bottom of the roster up. He replaced a lot of the C-level players with B-level players. Kenyatta Walker became a B-level player at right tackle after being a C-level left tackle, and he was an upgrade over Jerry Wunsch, who was a C-level right tackle.

Newcomer Roman Oben was a B-level left tackle, and new addition Kerry Jenkins was a B-level left guard, who replaced an aging Randall McDaniel, who had become a C-level player past his prime. Greg Spires was a B-level free agent import at defensive end, replacing a C-level defensive end in Steve White, and so on.

That’s exactly what Licht and the Bucs are doing this offseason – building their roster from the bottom up. Replacing the likes of inexperienced cornerbacks Tyrek Funderburk and Josh Hayes with a veteran like Vildor, who has 26 starts under his belt. And upgrading the depth at linebacker over K.J. Britt and J.J. Russell with a player like Walker and 30-year old veteran Deion Jones, who played well at the end of the season coming up from the practice squad.

Free agency isn’t even a week old, and the Bucs aren’t done yet in terms of adding players. So don’t fret.

Remember that Licht and the Bucs are far better at drafting players than they are signing free agents, and Tampa Bay will add six more players in the draft next month for improved depth purposes – and perhaps find an eventual starter or two in that bunch as well.

But at the end of the day, the Bucs just don’t have a lot of holes on this roster because they have drafted well over the past few years and re-signed their star players.

That’s the sign of a very good team – and that’s what the Bucs are.

FAB 2. Why Is Jamel Dean Still On The Bucs?

One of the expected – and perhaps projected – moves this offseason was the Bucs moving on from cornerback Jamel Dean, who has struggled to stay healthy and struggled to make plays on the ball in coverage.

Throw in the fact that the Bucs could save $8,284,941 in cap room by trading him or releasing him, and that Dean has a hefty cap value of $15,136,941 in 2025, and it seemed like parting ways with the seventh-year cornerback was inevitable.

After all, a high price tag and a lack of turnovers from oft-injured Carlton Davis III prompted the Bucs to trade him to Detroit last offseason. But Tampa Bay already had a replacement on-hand for Davis in top reserve Zyon McCollum, who actually played better than both Davis and Dean did during the 2023 season. Moving on from Davis was just as much about making McCollum the starter in 2024.

Because the Bucs don’t have another starting-caliber cornerback on the roster right now, it doesn’t make sense for the team to move on from Dean until they find one. When healthy, Dean is a quality cornerback. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the 25th-best cornerback last year, and after what some lesser cornerbacks made in the free agent market this offseason, he’s actually turned into a bit of a bargain.

Dean is currently the 19th-highest paid cornerback in the league at $13 million per year. That’s $12 million less per year than Carolina’s Jaycee Horn, the league’s highest-paid cornerback makes. Dean had a 75.7 PFF defensive grade last year, while Horn had a 64.5 PFF grade. Dean earned a 75.4 coverage grade while Horn had a woeful 57.9 coverage grade.

The Bucs passed on signing free agents like Davis, Charvarius Ward and Paulson Adebo, who all had lower PFF grades and signed deals for $18 million per year. Former Jets cornerback D.J. Reed is too small to play in Todd Bowles defense as an outside cornerback, but even he had a lesser PFF grade than Dean last year before signing for $16 million per year with the Lions.

I would have preferred Tampa Bay adding another veteran cornerback like Ward to the mix to compete with Dean and then draft another starting-caliber cornerback to overload the position in case there is a rash of injuries. But having two cornerbacks making $13 million or more would be challenging to the salary cap, especially since the Bucs are entertaining an extension for McCollum this offseason. McCollum figures to make at least $13 million, too.

Perhaps the Bucs will keep Dean around for 2025 with the understanding that he will get hurt and will miss some games. But when he is healthy enough to play, he should give Tampa Bay 12-13 quality performances.

The Bucs have already signed a veteran backup in the scrappy Kindle Vildor and will almost certainly select one or two cornerbacks within the first four rounds of the draft. One of those rookie cornerbacks will hopefully project as the team’s starter opposite McCollum sooner rather than later and supplant Dean.

And if Dean winds up being CB3 at some point in time this year, so be it. There are worse things than having a lengthy, fast, veteran cornerback who knows Todd Bowles’ system and has a Super Bowl ring as a reserve.

FAB 3. The Bucs View SirVocea Dennis As A Starter

Inside linebacker position has been a position with a glaring need this offseason, right? Well, not necessarily to the Bucs. The team has signed three inside linebackers in the legendary Lavonte David, who re-signed for a 14th season, Deion Jones, who re-signed after a good showing in the Wild Card game, and reserve Anthony Walker, who last played in Miami.

David turned 35 in January, and this very well could be his final season in the NFL. His play slipped a bit last year, especially in coverage as Father Time is closing in, but he’s still the best inside linebacker on the roster. David cost $9 million to re-sign with the salary cap increasing this offseason, so he got a bit of a raise.

Instead of pairing David with a player like Dre Greenlaw, who is coming off a torn Achilles that cost him most of the 2024 season, the Bucs plan to start third-year linebacker SirVocea Dennis at Mike linebacker to replace K.J. Britt and J.J. Russell, who started there last season.

Dennis was on his way to supplanting Britt as the starter last year through the first three games of the season before a shoulder injury – that began in college and flared up in training camp – reared up again in Week 4 and required season-ending surgery. The fifth-round pick in 2023 had seven tackles and a sack in the 37-20 season-opening win over Washington while platooning with Britt. Then he posted a career-high 11 stops in a 20-16 victory at Detroit the next week.

In the first three weeks of the season, despite playing fewer snaps, Dennis had 22 tackles compared to Britt’s 15. The former Pittsburgh star is a very cerebral linebacker, who is a nifty blitzer, has a nose for the football and may be Tampa Bay’s best coverage ‘backer. Although Dennis played on just 81 passing plays last year with 64 coverage drops, he posted the second-highest Pro Football Focus grade among Bucs defenders seeing the field for at least 15 pass plays.

Should Dennis falter or not be able to handle a full-time role at Mike, Tampa Bay signed veteran Anthony Walker, who is viewed as an upgrade over Britt and Russell, especially in coverage. And the team also re-signed 30-year veteran Deion Jones, who earned a 71.1 pass coverage grade and a 74 overall grade in the 23-20 playoff loss to the Commanders while platooning with Russell. The Bucs liked how Jones fit into Todd Bowles’ scheme and want to see more from him in 2025.

If the season started today, the Bucs would feel good with David and Dennis as the starters and Jones and Walker as the backups. And Tampa Bay is expected to draft another linebacker next month to add youth, talent and more competition to the room. I don’t think it’s going to be in the first or second round where I expect the Bucs to continue to address their pass rush and find a starting-caliber cornerback.

If this team passes up the likes of Alabama’s Jihaad Campbell or UCLA’s Carson Schwesinger early, that means that Bowles and general manager Jason Licht really believe in Dennis – and that his injuries, which have limited him to appearing in just 17 games in his first two seasons in Tampa Bay, are a thing of the past.

FAB 4. The Loss Of Justin Skule Stings A Bit

The Bucs have had a successful start to free agency so far, but not everything has gone according to plan. Tampa Bay lost veteran swing tackle Justin Skule to Minnesota on Thursday afternoon and the team had hoped to re-sign him.

Tampa Bay was counting on the success that Skule had last year under the development of offensive line coaches Kevin Carberry and Brian Picucci would be enough to sway him to return. In addition to his close friendship with All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs and the close-knit offensive line group.

But Skule, who is entering his sixth NFL season, opted for opportunity instead. As a reserve swing tackle, Skule wasn’t going to see the field in Tampa Bay unless Wirfs or right tackle Luke Goedeke gets injured. He started one game for Wirfs last year and four games for Goedeke in 2024.

But with Vikings Pro Bowl left tackle Christian Darrisaw coming off a torn ACL, there may be a chance that Skule sees more action in Minnesota, especially early in the season where he may have to start. And at age 28, that’s what Skule is looking for – the opportunity for more playing time.

So while Skule’s departure stung the Bucs’ front office for a few hours, they quickly rebounded with the addition of Charlie Heck on Thursday night. Tampa Bay feels the 6-foot-8, 311-pound son of former NFL Pro Bowl lineman Andy Heck, can be just as good as Skule, especially with Carberry and Picucci there to develop him.

Remember that Skule was signed to Tampa Bay’s practice squad in November of 2023 and that this time last year he was a reserve/future signing. Skule did a lot of developing last offseason with Tampa Bay’s offensive line gurus and the Bucs’ brass is expecting the same type of development to occur with Heck and that Skule may not be missed in the end.

FAB 5. Watch Pewter Report’s New Bucs Mock Draft Show – Presented By Walk-On’s

Yours truly and Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo debuted the third of our five 7-Round Bucs Mock Drafts of the year on Thursday evening – sponsored by Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux. Then we hosted a special Bucs Mock Draft Show podcast at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday night – just hours after the release – to go over our third Bucs Mock Draft of the offseason, answer your questions and get your reactions.

Check out the episode below and let us know what you think in the comments.

There are three Tampa Bay area Walk-On’s locations in Wesley Chapel, Midtown Tampa and Lakeland. Make sure you download the Walk-On’s Rewards app and get FREE mozzarella logs on your next visit after signing up.

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