![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Slaughter.png\")
<\/a>There\u2019s a lot of buzz for a Florida Gators player in this week\u2019s NFL Draft, and it\u2019s not because the guy is an overweight lineman battling a huge personal challenge.<\/p>\nThe buzz is for Gators center Jake Slaughter.<\/p>\n
Iconic helmet-hair draft guru Mel Kiper was on ESPN TV barking about how Slaughter is one of his favorite players in the draft because he\u2019s so damn tough and smart and works like a dog\/dawg. Kiper insists Slaughter is a complete player who allowed only six pressures and three sacks over in 33 starts.<\/p>\n
A two-year Gators captain, Slaughter measured 6-5, 303 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine. Joe\u2019s only question is whether he can play guard, because the Bucs desperately need a talent upgrade among their interior linemen. That was evident last year and the Bucs have yet to address it.<\/p>\n
As Joe has noted, Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht has not had back-to-back Bucs drafts without drafting an offensive lineman. There was no O-lineman picked in 2025.<\/p>\n
Joe\u2019s eye says Slaughter is a better athlete than former Bucs center Robert Hainsey, currently the Jaguars starting center and Licht\u2019s third-round pick in 2021.<\/p>\n
Ira Kaufman Talks Bucs Future And Dives Into The Annual Podcast Mock Draft With Draft Guru Sean Sullivan, And More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jake Slaughter And The Bucs April 22nd, 2026 There\u2019s a lot of buzz for a Florida Gators player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872135,"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-872134","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\/116450094013923020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872134","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=872134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}