The Bucs have addressed one of their biggest needs this offseason – cornerback. The team signed veteran Kindle Vildor and re-signed veteran Bryce Hall. They Bucs drafted a pair of cornerbacks in Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish in the second and third rounds, respectively. Now, Tampa Bay can boast a deeper and more athletic secondary than the one that plagued the team throughout 2024.
Now as rookie camp concludes and the OTAs are on the horizon, both Morrison and Parrish give reason for hope. The Bucs may be presented with a very favorable dilemma come Week 1 of the regular season.
Locked In Spots
Assuming we consider five starting spots in the secondary, including the nickelback position in the slot, we can safely assume that three of them have locked in starters. Antoine Winfield Jr. is entrenched as the team’s free safety. Zyon McCollum’s continued development has him set as one of the perimeter corners. And Tykee Smith is assuredly going to be on the field as a starter. There’s an extreme likelihood this will be at the other safety spot, but there is also an outside chance it could still be as the slot defender.
Bucs S Tykee Smith – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R
Bucs Positions Up For Grabs
It is apparent the team is concerned with Jamel Dean’s injury issues. This has led to the drafting of Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish on Day 2. But amidst a draft class that had plenty of uncertainty at the cornerback position – almost all of the top options had some yellow or red flags on their jackets – the team opted to keep Dean instead of releasing him.
Letting Dean go would only hinder the team’s primary goal at the position, namely getting deeper to hedge against injuries. He is still a more than capable corner when healthy. Per Next Gen Stats, Dean was targeted on just 12.7% of his coverage snaps. That’s fewer than some of the biggest names that were set to be free agents this year including Byron Murphy (17.2%), D.J. Reed (12.9%), Carlton Davis III (18.1%) and Paulson Adebo (21.0%).
He also only allowed 0.97 yards per coverage snap. That’s less than all of the above, save Reed.
And for all the talk about a lack of ball production from Dean, he still registered a pass breakup or interception on 1.36% of his coverage snaps in 2024, which is above the league average for corners. He is one of the best run-defending outside corners in the NFL with a career missed tackle rate of 5.7%. And he has ranked in the top 25 of all corners in coverage grade every year in this decade.
If he is healthy, Dean should have the inside track on the starting perimeter corner spot opposite McCollum. But the health issue is the real issue. Enter the new draft picks.
For all the excitement surrounding Morrison and Parrish, playing cornerback well as a rookie is more an exception than a rule. Every year, one or two corners show out in their first year in the NFL. Last year it was Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Martin for Philadelphia. But more often than not there are growing pains. If Dean is healthy, it will be difficult for them to pry the starting job away from him.
Who Will Man Bucs’ Nickelback Role In The Slot?
Let’s assume Jamel Dean is healthy and Tykee Smith is moved to safety. That leaves just the nickel cornerback position left to fill. The current working assumption for most following the team is that Jacob Parrish has the inside track in a competition with Christian Izien. But are they the only options?
The Bucs selected Benjamin Morrison before Parrish. Working under the assumption that Morrison is back to full health from his 2024 hip surgery it would make sense that the team would want to find him a path to play time as a part of their best five. Could that mean he is given a shot to win the nickel? I think so.
Bucs CB Jacob Parrish – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Neither player has much experience in the slot, with Parrish logging 202 snaps at Kansas State college to Morrison’s 96 snaps at Notre Dame. And the slot receiver position is evolving. Some of the top snap shares in the slot last year included bigger, taller receivers like Drake London, Cooper Kupp, CeeDee Lamb, Keenan Allen, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Keenan Allen and Andre Iosivas. Power slots are here, and they aren’t going anywhere. Slot defenders have to be able to match their size. Morrison clears Parrish by 2.5 inches.
And Bucs head coach Todd Bowles isn’t sold on Parrish being pigeonholed into a nickel role. When asked about the third-round pick after the first day of rookie mini-camp Bowles remarked, “He can’t play outside in a pinch – he can play outside. He can play outside corner. We’ve got him learning nickel; I’m very comfortable with him outside. He can start at corner in this league probably for anybody and he can play inside, as well. That’s the beauty of him. He’s not just a nickel, I think he’s an outside corner first and then a nickel second. The fact that he plays inside is just a bonus for us when we have a few guys that play inside. It helps us from a matchup standpoint, from a gameplan standpoint, which one could play nickel at which time – it keeps a lot of people guessing.”
This is all to say, the Bucs have options at both outside and inside corner with both rookies. Parrish may factor in on the perimeter just as Morrison may factor into the nickel. Despite the lack of experience, Morrison has looked comfortable when dropping into the slot in college and his press-man experience gives him a leg up over others who have had to make the transition before. His playmaking past and taller frame may be traits that the Bucs are hoping to take advantage of in the slot in 2025.
All of this is to say, there appears to be a couple of open roles with multiple contenders to fill them. It should make training camp position battles fun. And it may be more open than anyone has previously thought.
