The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense will need to play up to par with its high-powered offense if this team is going to end its playoff drought that’s stretched for more than a decade.
While Tampa Bay boasted the league’s best run defense in 2019, their secondary got off to a slow start, and despite finishing strong in the second half of the year, the pass defense finished 30th in the league.
Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles is hoping his young players can make a big jump in Year 2 in his system, and one player who will be looked upon to be a major contributor is second-year cornerback Jamel Dean.
Dean had a nightmare debut in his first start last season on the road in Seattle, but over at ESPN.com, Rivers McCown had Dean ranked No. 4 on his list of the top 25 young prospects ready for breakout years in 2020.
Per McCown:
“In Dean’s first NFL action against Seattle in Week 9, he allowed 155 yards on targets in his coverage, including 81 alone on two DK Metcalf bombs.The rest of the season, Dean was targeted 30 times and allowed 107 total yards. That includes holding his targets to 0 yards against Arizona, 38 in two games against Atlanta, and 28 against Houston. He also picked off Deshaun Watson and Kyler Murray.
“Scouts liked Dean’s size and speed coming out of Auburn but were concerned about his multiple high school and college knee surgeries. His 4.3 40-yard dash at the combine seemed to assuage a lot of those fears. The Bucs were a terrific landing spot for him precisely because of how much aggressive coverage Todd Bowles plays, but anyone who can play outside corner as well as Dean played for the last seven weeks of the season deserves to raise some alarm bells.”
Dean and fellow cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting both seem poised for big years, and the addition of rookie safety Antoine Winfield Jr. should add further athleticism and speed to this young defensive unit.
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