Cornerback play in focus.

A year ago, Joe had enough of Bucs corner Jamel Dean.

It wasn’t because Joe didn’t think Dean could play.

What drove Joe nuts was Dean was always hurt. Dean had struggled to finish playoff games in the past few years. If seemed he didn’t miss the game outright, he left with an injury.

What good is a guy if he can’t stay on the field for the team’s most important games? And when Dean missed games, the defense struggled.

But last year, Dean remade his body, in part knowing he was not coming back (though he wanted to stay — he’s from Cocoa and owns a trucking company based in Plant City). His physical goal worked. Dean was able to start 14 games last year, second-most of his career.

That wasn’t the sole reason why the Joe typing here wanted Dean back this season.

Fellow starting cornerback Zyon McCollum really dropped off the map. If McCollum was on a team with more options at cornerback, Joe’s not sure he would retain his starting gig this fall.

And unless Benjamin Morrison has a massive transformation this summer (very possible), there was nothing he showed last year, his rookie season, to reveal that he’s ready to start.

Joe thinks it is a no-brainer of no-brainers to move Jacob Parrish to outside corner. But KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles keeps talking about Parrish staying at nickel. Because of this, Joe lies awake in a cold sweat at night thinking of Joe Burrow slinging the rock to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins with McCollum and Morrison guarding these guys in Week 1.

So Joe got to wondering how a defense can improve when it lets its best corner walk and looked at some recent Bucs history.

In 2023 with Carlton Davis, the Bucs coughed up 4,568 yards passing (30th) and 66.12 completion percentage (22nd). In 2024 without Davis, the Bucs allowed 4,464 passing yards (30th) for a completion percentage of 66.35 (22nd). So basically, pass coverage stayed the same.

In 2011, Aqib Talib, in his last full season with the Bucs, Tampa Bay allowed 3,814 passing yards (21st) for a 62.58 completion percentage (25th). In 2013, the first full season without Talib, the Bucs gave up 3,806 passing yards (17th) and a 64.35 completion percentage (24th).

Talib was traded by the Bucs to the Belicheats eight games into the 2012 season.

In 2013, the Bucs also had Darelle Revis. He couldn’t play for lousy Lovie Smith. So the Bucs just cut him (funny, Bill Belicheat found a way to use Revis and won a Super Bowl with him — and Talib, too!).

The first year after Revis? The Bucs allowed 4,084 yards passing (28th) and allowed a completion percentage of nearly 70 percent (!) 68.62 percent, dead-friggin’-last in the NFL.

So as you can see from this information, when the Bucs let walk/ran off their best corner, only once did the defense get better and not very much.

Again, if the Bucs plan to start Parrish in place of Dean, Joe could live with that. So far, Bowles has given no such indication.

Common sense says McCollum/Morrison vs. Chase/Higgins/Burrow is a major, major mismatch in the Bengals’ favor. It doesn’t have to be.

“I will tolerate you until I can replace you,” former Bucs coach Raheem Morris once said.

Right now, this Joe doesn’t see Dean’s replacement on the roster if Parrish sticks at slot corner.

Jeff Okudah chart breaker https://t.co/sPftRoc8uB pic.twitter.com/gv50b4qf0K

— Football Insights 📊 (@fball_insights) June 10, 2026