The 2019 NFL Draft is a very deep defensive draft. It’s not a very deep offensive draft. As a result, expect the Bucs front office to focus on the defensive side of the ball for the majority of the draft. Obviously, free agency comes first, but keep in mind, the Bucs don’t have a lot of cap room to play with.

Despite the reports that claim Gerald McCoy will be back with the Bucs next year, that is not a guarantee. William Gholston’s production has been lacking. Noah Spence has potential, but is also injury-prone. Carl Nassib and Jason Pierre-Paul are both good and Vita Vea is an up and coming star, but it wouldn’t shock me to see the Bucs address the defensive line at some point again this offseason, at least for depth purposes if McCoy doesn’t return to the Bucs. It’s also been reported that Kwon Alexander is going to test the waters of free agency, but he has said that he wants to come back to Tampa Bay. There is a report out there that Jameis Winston has said that Kwon will be back in Tampa this fall, but we’ll see just how much weight that holds, hopefully in the near future.

The secondary is also a big concern despite drafting M.J. Stewart, Jordan Whitehead, and Carlton Davis last year in 2018. Brent Grimes is gone. Vernon Hargreaves hasn’t lived up to the hype.

Winston also claims that DeSean Jackson will be back this fall. Adam Humphries is a top priority for the Bucs front office to bring him back to Tampa. Chris Godwin is also there as well as O.J. Howard. The Bucs are looking at potentially moving Cameron Brate. For the most part, the offense is set.

If the Bucs address the offensive side of the ball at all this offseason, I would imagine it would be on the offensive line and at running back, but this offseason is going to be about building the defense for Todd Bowles’ 3-4 defense.

Byron Leftwich has a big task at hand in fixing the Buccaneers running game. 2018 was a rough year for the run game, there was not enough consistency from the running backs for anyone in the NFL to respect it. A lack of a high producing run game made it easy for defensive coordinators game plan for the Buccaneers offense.

The Buccaneers finished near the bottom of the NFL in pretty much every rushing category, so Leftwich and company has their work cut out for them.

The biggest area Leftwich will need to address is the Buccaneers Red Zone woes, which literally lost the Buccaneers a hand full of games due to not being able to get into the Endzone. Consistently coming away with no points due to a combination of bad offensive line play and poor play calling Caused the Buccaneers to miss out on a lot of Red Zone points.

Tanner Hudson and Donnie Ernsberger will be competing for a tight end spot behind O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate and in this battle, Ernsberger gets the edge as he appeared in two games in 2018 and did well when he was on the field. Both, Hudson and Ernsberger, are pretty evenly matched, so this will make for an interesting training camp and preseason. Both have shown they can produce solid blocks on the run and need to be developed as blockers in order to utilize them in the running scheme. If the Buccaneers cannot develop these guys into filling in as run blockers, then Tampa will need to find others who can take on that responsibility. The Buccaneers need more than one tight end who can block on both, passing and rushing schemes, and have the ability to break out into a passing route causing mismatches.

Backfield woes have plagued the Bucs for a while now. Say what you will about the o-line and its defunct ability, you’re probably right. But one thing still remains: Peyton Barber has pretty much been a 1 man show as far as RBs are concerned. Now, Arians did note that the Bucs were “loaded” a few weeks ago in a few positions and RB was mentioned specifically. This was followed up by the signing of Andre Ellington not long after.

So this brings up the question: How loaded are we?

Again, the woes have been obvious, and the only consistent player has been Peyton Barber. Ronald Jones II seems to have a high ceiling, but whatever it was that happened this past season isn’t helping his case. So, while “loaded” could be appropriate, “proven” is not. So consistency is needed, and Mark Ingram is the perfect example.

Now, I wrote earlier in the offseason about how Mark Ingram needs to be a priority free agent, and I still stand behind it. His consistency and strength have been a huge asset to the New Orleans running game for a while, and his absence was felt during his suspension last year. Splitting snaps with featured back and human Swiss Army knife Alvin Kamara, Ingram still managed to 645 yards, a 4.7 average and 6 touchdowns on 138 attempts. That’s with a 4 game suspension, as well! So would Ingram be a welcomed case at an affordable rate in Tampa? I’d solidly say yes.

Landon Collins is easily a top 5 safety in the NFL. Since 2015 he’s recorded 400 tackles, 30 passes defended and has had at least 95 tackles during the last 4 seasons.

The Giants are expected to use the franchise tag on him worth at least $11 million making him one of the five highest-paid safeties in the league. However, Collins could hold out if the Giants tag him as he is seeking a long term contract. So the Giants could seek a trade.

So can the Bucs afford to get Collins?

With the kind of price tag that Collins would command, I do not see much of a chance of Tampa being able to afford him. Not without either trading a big name and picks or releasing players to free up cap space.

There are a few safeties about to become available in the free agency, so if Tampa is not satisfied with who they have on the roster, they can likely find a cap friendly-suitable replacement next month. Example: HaHa Clinton-Dix, Adrian Amos, Kenny Vaccaro, and Tre Boston, could hit the free agency and any one of them would be welcomed by most fans especially if they were to replace Chris Conte.