2nd Round Of Linebacker Battles
2 min read
Simply Safe
Shaquil Barrett
Carl Nassib
Battling For Position
Kahzin Daniels: An undrafted rookie out of Charleston, Kahzin was a sack machine not only on his team but in his conference with 8.5 sacks last year alone, but was only 4th on his team in tackles. With almost 35 sacks in his 4-year collegiate career, it’s easy to see why the Buccaneers brought him in for training camp, and if he can figure a way to transfer that success to the NFL, he could easily find himself with a roster spot.
Demone Harris: Undrafted out of Buffalo, Demone didn’t see the kind of collegiate numbers that we saw from Kahzin, and if his tape is any indication, Demone is likely playing for a practice squad spot at this point.
Farrington Huguenin: It’s time for that perennial practice squad player to make his appearance, and this time it’s Farrington, but this may be the end of that run for him, as he will be battling for that spot with Demone, and it’ll likely come down to salary in order to make that decision.
Anthony Nelson: A big body out of Iowa, Nelson has the big stats to go with it. In his 4 years as a Hawkeye, he put together almost 120 combined tackles with 23 sacks and added 7 pass deflections and a fumble recovery for a touchdown. He should have no problem beating out the likes of Huguenin and Harris and should even be able to jump ahead of Nelson with little trouble.
Patrick O’Connor: Drafted out of Eastern Michigan by the Lions, Patrick never saw any playing time and was eventually released, only to be picked up by the Bucs. While he showed great work ethic through his college career, it hasn’t amounted to anything noteworthy at the professional level, and he likely won’t even make the practice squad, but that’s up to him and how he performs.
Noah Spence: He’s one that easily could have found himself on the “Simply Safe” list, had he improved upon his rookie season, but in the two years since, he has seen his performance drop off. It dropped off to the point that in 12 games last year, he managed only 3 combined tackles. If it weren’t for the fact he has some guaranteed money still left on his contract, it’s quite possible we’d be talking about him not even making the team. However, that guaranteed money will almost guarantee him one more shot at saving his time as a Buccaneer, otherwise, some other team will be talking about his trying to make their team next year.
