Historic Success At Cornerback
December 11th, 2025
Jamel Dean’s advanced stats remain eye-popping and have caught the NFL’s attention.
Joe’s referring to league data queen Cynthia Frelund in her breakdown of tonight’s Bucs-Falcons matchup on Thursday Night Football.
Most fans know NextGen Stats are an official NFL property, a data vault filled with all kinds of treasures tracked by satellite technology and trackers in players’ equipment and footballs. The NFL releases only a fraction of the stats to the public, but Frelund can see it all.
She advises the Falcons to stay away from Bucs cornerback Jamel Dean because he’s having a season for the ages.
“It would be best for Kirk Cousins to avoid any sort of pass in the direction of Jamel Dean, who has allowed just a 26.1 passer rating on 46 targets with 18 of them being caught with 3 being intercepted,” Frelund said on her Numbers Game Media show. “That is tracking as the best single-season passer rating allowed in the NextGen Stats era.”
Bucs cornerback legend Rondé Barber said it months ago and Joe will echo it today. Dean is going to get a fat contract in free agency next year, if he can finish 2025 healthy.
For tonight, Joe hopes Dean is in full earn-a-fatter contract mode. The Bucs need more playmakers to step up so Kirk Cousins doesn’t go Peyton Manning on their defense yet again.
Per Frelund, Cousins has a 115 passer rating against the blitz this season. Outside of that, he’s been awful.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:14 am
If Dean wasn’t banged up and consistent at this level of play, the Bucs wouldn’t have reduced his contract. As it stands he is gone if they don’t pay him more.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:19 am
Too bad we blitz a lot.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:20 am
Put the franchise tag on him and trade him for picks. We can’t afford to keep him and can’t afford to let him walk.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:22 am
Even Ray Charles can see he is only playing good in hopes of getting a BIG contract. Once he does he will become complacent again. And Stevie Wonder agrees!
December 11th, 2025 at 8:23 am
I’m not suprised and unfortunately we won’t keep him because the price is too big and we invested in 2 young corners in order to let him walk. I know a lot of you on here say we over paid or paid too early for a few players but this one is going to hurt down the road.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:43 am
“Per Frelund, Cousins has a 115 passer rating against the blitz…” Which is exactly why Mensa member Bowles will blitz the crap out of Cousins.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:46 am
Todd Bowles problem as DC is that he has no answers. No tricks left in the bag. Opposing offenses know exactly where & who to target. Our interior DLine is meh; it’s not getting any push. Our OLBs are meh; they’re not really getting any substantial pressure on opposing QBs.
Our ILBs blitz more than any other position group, but haven’t been getting home. And worse, they’re leaving gaping holes in coverage that opponents gleefully exploit. LVD is currently allowing opposing QBs to complete 79.6% of their passes, while SVD has allowed them to complete 83.0%. What’s even sadder is that SVD has been tagged with allowing 595 yds … the most of any Bucs defender (McCollum is a close 2nd with 585 yds).
Our Secondary isn’t doing terrible, but it’s nothing to write home about either. Jamel Dean is having an awesome year (allowing only 45.5% completions). And he’s gone BTW; a big contract awaits, and not from the Bucs. Winfield is having a nice year, allowing 53.7% completions. The rest are up in the 60’s … Morrison (60.9%), McCollum (61.3%), Vildor (64.3%), T Smith (65.2%) then Parrish (73.7%). Parrish BTW really has me perplexed; I thought he was outstanding to start the year, but he’s fallen into obscurity.
Strange thing is that TDs Allowed tell a BIG story. McCollum has allowed 6 TDs this year. Winfield & LVD have allowed 3 each, while SVD, Morrison & Parrish have allowed 2 each. Jamel Dean ha allowed ZERO.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:34 am
Great corner that just can’t stay healthy.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:45 am
We missed an opportunity to trade Dean before the deadline. This is where Licht either fails us or shows his hand on his post-season plans. Yeah, I’m not a GM, but given the needs of this team, Dean’s injury history, to me it makes sense to have traded him. The problem we have is Licht’s tendencies to not do anything prior to the trade deadline. Whether its trading for a player or trading away a player. Its rare, in fact I cannot remember throughout his entire tenure with TB any “significant” moves made leading up to the trade deadline.
Hear me out, if a high-profile player at a premium position is in the last year of their contract, and it just so happens they are putting up career numbers leading towards the deadline, i.e. their stock his high, the player is late 20’s, has an injury history and is looking for one last big contract of their career, the price tag will be significant. Sometimes the needs of the team are greater than loyalty to a player. Godwin was having a career year leading up to the trade deadline last season, in what was a contract year for him, and he probably would have fetched some nice draft capital, +reducing the cap, instead, he gets injured a week before the deadline, then Licht signs him for a gaudy $20M per year contract and at almost 30 years old. That’s not a sound business strategy for running a team. Same could be said for Dean, and he surely isn’t as beloved as Godwin. Licht missed a valuable opportunity to unload Dean prior to the deadline, and/or to perhaps use him as a trade piece to either grab a draft pick, or acquire a DE/OLB to fit in the pass rush rotation. If you’re not trading him, than he literally walks for nothing?
If he re-signs Dean, Licht needs to be fired, as he obviously to close to the situation and is clearly compromised. Not one person on these boards, or at JBF believe that we need to re-sign Dean to new premium priced 3-year contract. No way.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:58 am
Jamel Dean is having a monster season yet Bowels put him on the pine to give Morrison reps in the Bills game, and Morrison got burned. Idiotic. I hope the Glazers are keeping receipts for all these boneheaded moves by the HC.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:58 am
He’s made some really nice plays on runs that broke loose. He’s picked some passes.
When he’s played.
And that’s the problem.
Injury prone.
Let him go after this season. Along with the Hall, Diaby, Zyon the Bored, SVD, Reddick, and urge David to retire.
That’s a lot to replace for Licht but that’s on him for misapprehending how bad these guys are.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:59 am
Our cap situation after this season will be better than it ever has in the past. We could actually afford to pay Dean, but the bigger problem is 4 of our front 7 probably won’t be here anymore. I don’t see how you remedy that without signing some high-price free agents
December 11th, 2025 at 10:01 am
And Jason Licht picked him to take a pay cut???? Bucs have made some bad moves this year and keeping Todd Bowles was just one of them.
December 11th, 2025 at 10:29 am
mensa member lmfoa trainwreck coming around the bend
December 11th, 2025 at 10:35 am
Defense rules, no interior push from our DTs. That’s what happens when you draft college DEs, and move them inside!
December 11th, 2025 at 11:17 am
Dean is as good as gone after the season. Who’s gonna stay with the team who cut his salary drastically? He won’t sign any contract with the Bucs again after that move.
December 11th, 2025 at 11:18 am
would teams give a FAT contract to a player that only plays half the season due to injuries?…
i dont think so lol…
Dean will be a BUC next year…he’ll get his 8mil plus some back with the BUCS in 2026
GO BUCS!!!!
December 11th, 2025 at 12:15 pm
But Morrison needed to get tds thrown against him so we could lose games. That way everybody on the team would start to resent then question then hate their coach Todd Blows.
December 11th, 2025 at 12:25 pm
So he’s having a good year before a new contract. Imagine that.
December 11th, 2025 at 12:34 pm
I always like Dean better than Davis from the start. Too bad they might lose him after all that they’ve put in.
December 11th, 2025 at 12:47 pm
Typical.
Guy finally turns into our best CB and hasn’t missed much time but he will be playing for someone else next year.
Zyon and Morrison better figure it out!
December 11th, 2025 at 1:23 pm
Rick is spot on. Bucs are stupid if they do not put the franchise tag on him. Of course, the Bucs did pick Bowles over Liam Coen.
December 11th, 2025 at 2:32 pm
Well duh, just target Zyon on every play. As long as the WR doesn’t give up on his route, it’s probably a completion.
Zyon has allowed a 98.2 passer rating when targeted this year, with average of 11.4 yards per reception against him.