It’s not the holiday season until we get our first Todd McShay NFL mock draft.
With the Heisman Trophy ceremony out of the way and the College Football Playoff set — as well as the NFL regular season winding down — we can finally turn our attention to next year’s draft as we try and figure out where the nation’s top prospects will land.
For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it’s looking more and more likely that they’ll be picking in the middle of the first round. The Buccaneers were 3-7 at this point exactly one month ago, but they’ve gone on a four-game winning-streak since then to bring their record back to .500. Where once it looked like the Bucs were for sure going to look the draft for a new quarterback, it’s starting to look like Jameis Winston will return next year.
So, what position should the Bucs target if they don’t go quarterback? According to McShay’s first mock draft, he has Tampa Bay taking South Carolina defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw with the 17th pick.
Here’s what McShay had to say about the (mock) selection:
“The Bucs still need to answer the ‘Is Jameis Winston our quarterback?’ question, and that offensive line shouldn’t be ignored. But with no value available on the board at either position, we turn to the best available player: Kinlaw. Ndamukong Suh, Beau Allen and Jason Pierre-Paul are all set to hit the open market, so Tampa Bay could use Kinlaw’s versatility and twitchiness on that defensive line.”
Kinlaw would certainly help fill the void in the defensive front should the Bucs lose Suh or others in the offseason. Suh only signed a one-year deal with the Bucs, so finding a true replacement for Gerald McCoy is still a priority for this team. Kinlaw looks to fit the bill.
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