Starting Corners Rising To The Top
August 14th, 2025
Impressing in Pittsburgh today.
The roughly one-third of Bucs fans that hoped/expected Jamel Dean to be out of the starting lineup this season — Sage Ira Kaufman included — probably will have to wait a year, or until Dean has his annual injury.
Starting cornerback Zyon McCollum is a good player, a great athlete, and he’s had a solid training camp, including getting under the Steelers’ skin today. Dean keeps doing what he does every August, play damn good ball.
Today, the Bucs defense went full lockdown on the Steelers in the final 11-on-11 series of today’s joint practice in Pittsburgh.
The hot and humid day was throttling as 4 p.m. approached. This was the last go-round after Mike Evans closed out the Bucs’ first-team offense work with a touchdown catch.
On 3rd-and-long against the Tampa Bay defense, guess who dropped in coverage? Joe held back the vomit long enough to see Bucs free agent edge rusher Hasson Reddick make a play in the middle of the field. But this was practice. No punting here. Aaron Rodgers was lined up to go for it on fourth down.
And guess who skied for a pass breakup to end practice? Well, Joe’s not supposed to write about that under the Steelers’ official practice rules. But Joe will say it was a really long guy whose name rhymes with “Odell Creen.”
Bowles talked about his starting corners after practice.
“[Dean’s] been practicing well for us. He and Zyon have been doing a very good job in man coverage and trying to disguise their coverages and switch things up for us,” Bowles said.
At this point, on Aug. 14, Joe doesn’t see how anyone will unseat Dean or McCollum starting at outside cornerback in Week 1. While rookie third-round pick Jacob Parrish is capable, and his work in 1-on-1 pass coverage was impressive again today, Joe thinks Bowles will have Parrish keep locking in at nickel corner and see how it goes.
When/if Dean gets injured, Parrish should be ready for that full-time role.
Second-round pick cornerback Benjamin Morrison watched today’s practice in black shorts. He will not play this preseason as he heals a hamstring injury.
August 14th, 2025 at 6:23 pm
I’m fully in the third. Dean is soft. You cannot rely on him finishing a game.
August 14th, 2025 at 6:23 pm
People sleep on Jamel Dean because they believe the only barometer of success for CBs is INTs. So much for B-Moe taking his job and is trading Dean before the season starts, which even typing that out makes me feel ridiculous.
August 14th, 2025 at 6:36 pm
Availability is the best Ability
We’ll see how the season go for Dean
I’m pulling for Dean, actually, hope he’s All- Pro
August 14th, 2025 at 6:38 pm
Dean is good when he isn’t injured. We’ll see if he can stay uninjured this season.
August 14th, 2025 at 6:38 pm
I’ll keep this as simple as possible. Dean is a damn good Corner. He’s long, has great speed and is a willing tackler. Yea he gets hurt, yea he doesn’t get many ints. But you never feel like he’s out there not giving effort or being soft. I think we need to appreciate what he had contributed to this team, which includes a Super Bowl. He covers well, doesn’t get burned often and is physical/gives effort. Injuries are unfortunate. You think the guy wants to get hurt and miss time? I just think it’s time that we change the narrative on the guy. He’s been our best corner for a few years now when healthy. I appreciate him and hope that he balls out this year.
August 14th, 2025 at 6:40 pm
If somebody farts Dean will be out for at least a week.
August 14th, 2025 at 6:41 pm
6’2, 205, 4.35 speed. Long arms. Willing tackler. He gets hurt laying it all on the line. I never feel like I see him slacking off with the hopes of not getting hurt. Let’s show some respect to the guy. Not to mention that he seems like a really good dude.
August 14th, 2025 at 6:43 pm
@Warren I agree 100%. I like B-Mo and have faith in him being the future. But Dean is the now. I like him matched up on ANY type of WR when healthy. The small, fast and shifty and the big and physical. We are lucky to have the guy.
August 14th, 2025 at 6:48 pm
He gave up very few TDs last year. He’s fast, a willing tackler and fundamentally sound. As others have pointed out previously, he misses games but so do many of the other top corners in the league.
Very happy to have him on the squad AND very happy to have legit backup’s too 👍🏼
August 14th, 2025 at 7:00 pm
Both Dean and McCollum are amazing, astonishing athletes. Dean’s RAS is a 9.93 and McCollum is a 10. They are literally the most athletic corners of any team in the NFL. When they are both on the field, the Bucs win.
It really is simple as that.
So let’s avoid injuries this season. Would be great!
August 14th, 2025 at 7:20 pm
Good to see that it’s only a minority who are not for Jamel Dean. He’s contributed a LOT to the Bucs over his 6 years with us. And in case some haven’t noticed, he’s an excellent outside corner when healthy.
Has anyone else ever noticed that just about ALL the members of our Secondary got beaten up last season? For instance …
o Winfield – 9 games
o Izien – 14 games
o Smith – 13 games
o Merriweather – 14 games
o Dean – 12 games
o McCollum – 17 games
o Hayes – 15 games
o Funderburk – 13 games
Only 1 Secondary player gave us all 17 games. The average for the Secondary 8 players above was only 12 games. Hmmm, guess that means that Jamel Dean had average availability last year.
August 14th, 2025 at 7:21 pm
I get not trusting Dean’s injury history but is there are reason fans root against a Bucs player? … Especially a player that helped win us a Super Bowl.
Let’s start rooting for guys to succeed. I’d love to see Dean have a Pro Bowl year.
August 14th, 2025 at 7:32 pm
I stated if Morrison stayed healthy, and had a good camp, preseason, he’d win the starting job over Dean. That didn’t happen. Can’t win a starting job standing on the sideline. Maybe there’s a reason a first round talent fell to the second round. Bucs rolled the dice on Morrison, and for now they came up with snake eyes. His injury history is troubling to say the least.
August 14th, 2025 at 8:22 pm
It’d be awfully hard for just about anyone ‘to get beat’ when you are consistently giving up a 10 to 15-yard cushion, & seems like he gets hurt every-time he hits the ground. Seriously. Anytime you see him make contact with an opposing player, and then hits the ground, you better start immediately, praying… Cause, you will rarely ever see him get back up 💯 clean from it. He’s made of glass. That’s the only thing I see with him, other than the huge cushion, but I’m assuming that’s just more typical Bowles nonsense, there. And, I don’t know HOW you waste a 2nd-Rounder on Morrison, with THAT injury history!? I hope I’m proven wrong on that. Doubtful.
August 14th, 2025 at 8:27 pm
@Sly
Dean gets to the pro bowl and is healthy in the postseason, we’re at least talkin NFC championship.
@WestPhilly
I get not liking that he gets hurt a lot, but I think part of the what fans dislike is knowing how value Dean is from a talent perspective and how he affects the cap. Reasonable reasons, but like others have said with Dean we’re a lot harder to beat on defense and is that not the whole point?
August 14th, 2025 at 9:10 pm
Don’t believe what I am reading here. Tampa Bay has had the 4th worst pass defense in the NFL the last couple of years yet, somehow Dean and McCollum are headed into the HOF? Don’t care about height, weight, 40 times. Here are a few problems: neither cover very well, are poor tacklers, and neither get many INT’s. Other than those issues, they are “great.”
August 14th, 2025 at 10:11 pm
Gipper, I’ve been wondering if a healthy dose of competition wouldn’t be a good thing for this defense and it seems to be. I think Bowles has made some changes not just in scheme but in attitude. I like Dean and McCollum but when we’d be getting bludgeoned in the secondary last year I was thinking they ought to be playing more aggressively. They have the skills to jump a few routes. Let the safety know you’re jumping this and have my back. We need turnovers to be considered a good defense. I’m just sad that half our secondary is not practicing. We can’t have proper competition without that changing.
August 15th, 2025 at 12:49 am
Agree, WestPhilly
August 15th, 2025 at 1:29 am
Oh yeah, I don’t like Zyon’s ball-skills, either. I don’t think his hands are horrible, like Dean’s, but his overall ‘ball-skills’ are not great. He anticipates wrong too often, and is too slow to find the ball and react at times, too. He plays hard tho!!!!
August 15th, 2025 at 1:34 am
I mean, they both aight. Dean has just been waaaayyy overpaid, for what he’s given us.
August 15th, 2025 at 7:56 am
Might be time to extend McCollum
August 15th, 2025 at 9:00 am
Can we officially change his name to Odell Creen?
August 15th, 2025 at 9:12 am
So do we trust jason, or not. why did jason draft the way he did this year? why does todd say he needs ballhawks. davis is gone, dean is next, lets finish turning the page on the brittle brothers and move on.
for a front office and coach that says almost nothing but positive platitudes about everyone they sure have been clear about the problem with dean.
August 15th, 2025 at 11:05 am
Thanks for the informative comment, DR!! The Bucs are loaded for bear in the secondary. I call the injury bug ‘Buc Luck.’ Bucs were bit bad by it last year, but still finished with a winning record, and won the Division. They’re due for it to back off. I have no complaints with guys like Izien being backups. I’m concerned with the linebackers. Future HOFamer LVD is set to retire. I hope SVD and the others stay healthy.