{"id":825044,"date":"2026-03-21T12:25:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T12:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/825044\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T12:25:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T12:25:50","slug":"drafting-jamel-deans-replacement-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/825044\/","title":{"rendered":"Drafting Jamel Dean’s Replacement? – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTodd, if only those dopes in the media could see Benjamin Morrison\u2019s bench press.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Joe was listening to sports radio on Friday, Joe couldn\u2019t believe his ears. Someone actually thought the Bucs had a good free agency week.<\/p>\n

How? Someone explain to Joe how losing the greatest offensive player the Bucs ever drafted, a future Hall of Famer, and their best corner makes a team better?<\/p>\n

Yes, Joe is well aware who the Bucs brought in \u2014 a Bucky Irving clone, a mid defensive lineman, a double-digit sacks guy (good!) who can\u2019t start (not good) and a good linebacker who, let\u2019s be clear, is not quite Fred Warner.<\/p>\n

Having Benjamin Morrison or Zyon McCollum trying to guard receivers in Todd Bowles\u2019 defense with no edge rush and limitless time for the quarterback to throw, well, that will be fun! Not sure how that makes for better football but it will be fun.<\/p>\n

The cornerback position scares Joe. Mike Tomlin said it best about a player he may not care for: \u201cI will tolerate you until I can replace you.\u201d Joe isn\u2019t sure the Bucs have Jamel Dean\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n

(Now if the Bucs move Jacob Parrish to outside corner, that\u2019s a different story. As of yet, Joe has not heard that is the plan.)<\/p>\n

So yeah, how are the Bucs going to replace Dean? Folicly-challenged Billy Barnwell of BSPN has thoughts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The solution: Add a cornerback in the draft. The Bucs are going to give Morrison a shot at a full-time job in 2026, which makes sense given that they invested a second-round pick to add the Notre Dame product last season. Given how he played as a rookie, I\u2019d hope that the Bucs add at least one cornerback to compete with Morrison.<\/p>\n

GM Jason Licht and coach Todd Bowles have typically trusted their ability to draft and develop defensive backs. With Dean leaving, using a relatively early pick on another corner to either test Morrison or serve as a fourth cornerback would be wise. As a relatively deep team, though, the Bucs lack for star power more than they have glaring weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Well, here is the problem with letting Dean go: It\u2019s a domino effect.<\/p>\n

With Dean gone, that\u2019s a hole the Bucs did not address in free agency so they have to turn to the draft with pick that likely would have otherwise been used on a more pressing need at inside linebacker and\/or edge rusher \u2014 not that the Bucs can develop an edge rusher.<\/p>\n

Look, Joe has absolutely nothing against Morrison. He may become a fine player. But has he earned a starting gig? Joe would suggest no.<\/p>\n

And just because Morrison was hurt at Notre Dame shouldn\u2019t mean that\u2019s a quick pass to a starting gig in the NFL.<\/p>\n

The Bucs didn\u2019t need to dig an extra hole by not replacing Dean. That\u2019s how lousy Lovie Smith got run. He unloaded decent defensive starters (who later started for playoff teams); instead of filling holes, he dug several more, including a hole for himself that he couldn\u2019t climb out of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTodd, if only those dopes in the media could see Benjamin Morrison\u2019s bench press.\u201d When Joe was listening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-825044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116267165815274269","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}