The NFL Draft remains the second-biggest event in the NFL calendar behind the Super Bowl. Like it or not, it remains one of the biggest things fans and media enjoy revisiting to see “what could have been.”
Pro Football Focus has done a good job this offseason by starting a re-draft series that we have been tracking here on Bucs Wire. In their latest draft, they looked back on, it just so happens to be one of the more impactful ones in recent memory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise: The 2020 NFL Draft.
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The Bucs capitalized on the NFL’s oversight of a Big Ten playmaking safety, making him their own. They selected Antoine Winfield Jr. with the 45th overall pick, but in this re-draft, he does not last that long. He doesn’t even make it to the Bucs’ original first-round pick as PFF’s Trevor Sikkema has the Browns drafting Winfield Jr. 10th overall.
Sikkema writes, “Winfield has been one of the premier safeties in the NFL for the majority of his career. From 2021 to 2023, he was the highest-graded safety in the league. He is the rare player who can affect games in coverage, as a run defender and as a pass rusher. He should be able to bounce back from a career-worst season in 2024.”
Much like Wirfs, the playmaking of Winfield Jr. helped the Bucs secure their Super Bowl victory that season. The fit he was able to throw towards both Pat Mahomes and Tyreek Hill, which resulted in one of the greatest defensive showings in Super Bowl history.
This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: Bucs lose All-Pro defender in PFF’s 2020 NFL re-draft