Speaker 1: Welcome to Road to the Draft. Casey Phillips here was a
Speaker 1: a senior writer and editor Scott Smith, And as we
Speaker 1: do every week this time of year, we are telling
Speaker 1: you all the things the Bucks have done recently and
Speaker 1: how that might impact what they do or don't do
Speaker 1: in the draft. All of the news, all of the mocks.
Speaker 1: Everyone's favorite time of year for the prognosticating, and we
Speaker 1: know you guarantee to get it right. Isn't that right? Well,
Speaker 1: I highlight about eighteen different players. That's a good way
Speaker 1: to do it. Well, get one of them. This is
Speaker 1: a good strategy you have here. So I know that
Speaker 1: this last week we got to see that the Bucks
Speaker 1: officially signed a new running back. So tell us what
Speaker 1: you think that could mean in terms of do they
Speaker 1: draft a running back? Still? Does that take care of
Speaker 1: that position? You know, the road to the draft is
Speaker 1: a long one and today we're going to take a
Speaker 1: little bit of detour. If you've been following the mock
Speaker 1: drafts and there's endless number of them out there, for
Speaker 1: the first couple of months, you saw the Bucks paired
Speaker 1: with cornerbacks a lot, right, because people assume we were
Speaker 1: going to lose Jamaldine then we resigned jamaldin get him back,
Speaker 1: but crucially released i'mond Smith. So now you see a
Speaker 1: lot of the mock drafts pairing us what the tackle,
Speaker 1: especially in less last week. The most prominent player you
Speaker 1: see is darniell Right of Tennessee, which we talked about
Speaker 1: last week. But the way mock drafts generally going, I've
Speaker 1: done them myself. As you look at a team, you
Speaker 1: see their perceived needs and you match it with the
Speaker 1: best prospect at that position. That's not really it doesn't
Speaker 1: really go as clean as that. In real life, you
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what the Buccaneers or any other team's
Speaker 1: motivations are. So today let's talk about some guys that
Speaker 1: maybe are a little bit more of a long shot
Speaker 1: based on positional value or how deep deposition is in
Speaker 1: the draft. And I would start where you started at
Speaker 1: running back. I have seen some mock drafts that give
Speaker 1: the Bucks Bijon Robinson of Texas. I don't know if
Speaker 1: the Bucks are one of these teams that thinks, no
Speaker 1: way I'm ever spending another first round pick on a
Speaker 1: running back or not. But we are talking about the
Speaker 1: second half of the first round, and say Quon Barkley.
Speaker 1: The Bija Robinson is considered the best running back prospects
Speaker 1: in Saquon Barkley, who went second overall in his draft.
Speaker 1: I think maybe not a greatest of an idea, but
Speaker 1: he's a great player. So if you could take a
Speaker 1: running back, have him, because you take him in the
Speaker 1: first round, you get that fifth year option, which is big,
Speaker 1: and you could even franchise them like the Giants did
Speaker 1: with sa Quon. You could spend the first second half
Speaker 1: first round pick on a running back and lock in
Speaker 1: a really good player for six years. Now, that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily bad value, right, Yeah, I agree with that. And
Speaker 1: you brought up the idea of bringing back Jamaldine. I
Speaker 1: know that the team also is bringing back Cam Gill
Speaker 1: and Lavonte David. So those are two other positions that
Speaker 1: I think we would have said prior to that signing.
Speaker 1: In particular, Hey, the Bucks probably got a draft guys here,
Speaker 1: how much does this change that game? What kind of
Speaker 1: a need do you think we still have. I'll start
Speaker 1: with Lavont his position an off ball linebacker. The Buccaneers
Speaker 1: have one of the best duos in the league for
Speaker 1: the last five years, and Devin White and Lavonte David However, crucially,
Speaker 1: neither of those guy who's assigned for twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: it might be time to start looking for the transition.
Speaker 1: Is Lavonta gonna keep playing? Is Devin White and resign
Speaker 1: here or go elsewhere? You don't really know, and it
Speaker 1: might be a long shot to get him both back,
Speaker 1: So it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world
Speaker 1: to reload at that position. And a guy they could
Speaker 1: look at is Drew Sanders of Arkansas. Another guy that's
Speaker 1: kind of a sideline into silent range. Guy actually does
Speaker 1: give you a little bit of edge rush as you
Speaker 1: see right there. So I'm not saying he's Michael Parsons,
Speaker 1: but that sort of role where he's very good as
Speaker 1: off ball linebacker, but every now and then you can
Speaker 1: rush him off the edge. Yeah, that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 1: And then how about the idea of the other position, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the outside linebacker spot. I don't think bringing Cam guildback
Speaker 1: changes how much you want at that position. And head
Speaker 1: coach Todd Bowles has said on two occasions since last
Speaker 1: season ended that the Buccaneers definitely need more production from
Speaker 1: their edge rush. Good inside with Vida Veya, but you
Speaker 1: need that to be complimented by the edge rush guys,
Speaker 1: you know, so of course you're hoping more from Joe
Speaker 1: Try and Shanka and Anthony Nelson and so on who
Speaker 1: they also resigned. But it doesn't hurt, ever hurt to
Speaker 1: have more guys at that position. And one guy they
Speaker 1: could look at in the second half of the first
Speaker 1: round after most of the blue chip guys are gone
Speaker 1: is Keyon White of Georgia Tech. He's kind of a
Speaker 1: tweener prospect that I've seen all over the board because
Speaker 1: he's really really talented, he measures really well, but he
Speaker 1: played a lot on the inside for Georgia Tech and
Speaker 1: really hasn't had a whole lot of experience rushing off
Speaker 1: the edge, so you're projecting a little bit there. So
Speaker 1: that's why I'm talking about these are maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a long shot prospect, just because are
Speaker 1: you satisfied that you are you comfortable with that projection
Speaker 1: that that can come true? All right? I like it? Well,
Speaker 1: that is going to do it for us on this
Speaker 1: edition of Road to the Draft again, We'll be back
Speaker 1: next week to talk about even more potential options in
Speaker 1: the draft. So we'll see then