Jamel Dean Isn’t Going Anywhere — Yet
July 8th, 2025
Roster security.
It seems one follower of NFL football thinks Jamel Dean is toast.
And while this stenographer makes sense with his fact, he overlooked one major reality: The Bucs report for training camp in two weeks.
Ely Allen of Pro Football Rumors makes the case for the Bucs to shed the veteran corner. More to the point, Allen makes the case for shedding Dean’s salary.
To begin with, injuries have been starting to impact the 28-year-old lately. Now, Dean has never played every game in a season, missing at least two games each year, but 2023 saw Dean miss four games with neck, knee, and ankle issues and 2024 saw Dean miss five games, including four straight, with a hamstring issue and a knee injury. Ultimately, it’s understandable to a degree, given the nature of the sport, but as Dean’s salary ($12.5MM in 2025 and $13MM in 2026) and cap hit ($15.14MM in 2025 and $15.78MM in 2026) continue to increase each year of his second contract, those missed games hurt that much more.
That brings us to our second point to this theory. Dean’s second contract — a four-year, $52MM re-signing in 2023 — features a potential out after the 2024 season that would have allowed the team to terminate the deal with only $6.85MM of dead money and $8.29MM of cap savings. Now that we are post-June 1, that potential out looks even more tempting as it would leave Tampa Bay with only $2.28MM in dead money and $12.85MM in cap savings.
In the very next paragraph, Allen answers his own question by typing the Bucs need to make sure they can replace Dean. Duh.
And that’s why Dean will be on the roster this year.
“This Joe” has maintained — has all offseason and will continue to do so — that Dean is the best cornerback on the roster when he’s on the field (note that Joe did not type Dean is a Pro Bowler).
Rookies Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison are complete unknowns. And how do you think two rookies will do if they’re coached up to be 12-15 yards off receivers at the snap?
The Bucs have plans to make a postseason run. Teams generally don’t seal that deal by unloading a guy like Dean, injury-prone or not, two weeks before training camp. If Dean was going to be a post-June 1 salary cap casualty, he likely would have been released around, you know, June 1.
Joe is sure Dean will get hurt. We all know this. We just don’t know when.
Then Morrison will replace Dean and when Dean returns, he might split time with Morrison. If, come the playoffs, Morrison appears up to the task, 2025 will end up being Dean’s final Bucs season unless he has his best year since the Bucs drafted him in 2019.
July 8th, 2025 at 10:35 am
Quote of the year.
“And how do you think two rookies will do if they’re coached up to be 12-15 yards off receivers at the snap?“
Mike drop moment. Say no more. Spot on. Hammer meets nail on head.
Thank you.
July 8th, 2025 at 10:42 am
I said it the day Morrison was drafted, and I believe it more now considering Morrison’s injury is healed. Morrison will win the starting job, and when some team loses a corner Dean will be traded. Morrison was drafted to replace Dean, not back him up. He’s way more talented, and has a reputation as a ballhawk. The sooner he hits the field the better for the Buc defense. That will happen the first day of the season. Dean has been tolerated till he could be replaced. Morrison is that replacement.
July 8th, 2025 at 10:49 am
Hodad – where you gettting this info from? You only seen Morrison in college how can you possibly say he’s better then Dean?? The dude hasn’t played one NFL snap and you jump to conclusion – i’m assuming you’re man, you cant be so emotional
July 8th, 2025 at 10:50 am
I’m hearing rumors up here!! Dean to the Bills for picks!! Shed some cash for another d-end!!!! Go Bucs
July 8th, 2025 at 10:51 am
Hodad, solid logic. Only time will tell, but I think you are spot on.
July 8th, 2025 at 11:06 am
i hope Dean is on the roster the entire year…
at the very worse he’s quality depth and thats what hurt us last year..not having quality depth at CB…
GO BUCS!!!!
July 8th, 2025 at 11:06 am
Before cutting Dean…..I’d like to know where the money would be spent.
All it takes is one injury and we will somewhat strain our depth at CB.
Perhaps Dean will take a cut…..I think a trade may be unlikely.
Our trade possibilities lie on the offense at WR & RB.
July 8th, 2025 at 11:23 am
Dean is soft.
July 8th, 2025 at 11:31 am
The fact remains the Bucs win when Dean plays. So until someone else can say that, I think replacing him is a bad idea- especially with how decimated by injuries we were *last* year. Hopefully it was a learning experience and we hold on to all good cornerbacks since they don’t seem to last the season often.
July 8th, 2025 at 11:43 am
I think they should keep Jamel Dean. He’s still by far the best CB on their roster. Didn’t allowed a TD all season. Maybe he did play off his man, but he has 4.3 makeup speed. Our Corners wasn’t the problem last season. Our safeties and ILBs were the problem..
July 8th, 2025 at 11:44 am
All these articles about Bowles bad pass D. Your point around Dean not being a pro bowler, as our highest paid CB1 speaks volumes. I also went back to looks at the stat that matters Point Per Game. Top 10 3/6 years, 2 years in the teens and 1 in the 20s (1st year 2019).
July 8th, 2025 at 11:45 am
Replacing an oft injured player with a rookie who’s had 2 hip surgeries doing a job that requires hip fluidity is something I’m ready to grapple with. It can go somewhat well, or Morrison could replace Dean in the whirlpool and blue tent which means it went really bad. Dean is gone now depth would be an issue again.
It’s only July, nothing is a sure thing outside of coach Moore showing up for work before everyone else.
July 8th, 2025 at 11:48 am
I never understood why we kept Dean in the 1st place and Traded Davis away. I thought he was much better.
July 8th, 2025 at 11:59 am
^^
Dean is a better athlete, a much better tackler than CDIII, and trading him save us $14M in cap space.
July 8th, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Keep thinking of Arians saying this in a press conference a few years ago
“ we have won a lot of games with Dean at CB”
Dean gives Bucs best chance to win
Period
July 8th, 2025 at 12:03 pm
^^
Dean is a better athlete, a much better tackler than CDIII, and trading him save us $14M in cap space.
—-
But he was a better overall corner and not as oft injured as Dean. I’d keep him personally but thats just me.
July 8th, 2025 at 12:16 pm
Couch Fan.
Davis missed games every single year with the Bucs. In his last three seasons with the Bucs, he missed a total of 16 games. Dean never missed 16 games in any three consecutive seasons.
July 8th, 2025 at 12:26 pm
I hope he is healthy and place as well as he’s capable of because he is much better than people give him credit for.
July 8th, 2025 at 12:33 pm
We have a history of giving away great Corners for nothing
Donnie Abraham had 20 Ints, 64 PDs during his last 3 seasons in Tampa. We let him walk away in Free Agency, didn’t get nothing in return. We waived Revis, the most ignorant decision in Bucs history.
But we did get a 6th round draft pick for Aqib Talib lol, it’s too comical
July 8th, 2025 at 12:34 pm
2020 played the entire season
2021 and 2022 played 13 games each season
2023 played the entire season
2024 played 9 games.
In college played a whopping 4 games in each of the 2017 and 2018 season.
I think the Dean argument can be made for A.W. Jr just as well.
If the secondary has to take the punishment that the front 6 should be delivering
injuries will keep happening.
As far as Dean it wouldn’t be the first time a guy got fired because others failed to doo their job.
July 8th, 2025 at 12:34 pm
I’m not in the mood to analyze it, but Davis misses a lot of games too. To me They were about equal in missed games and general cornerback play. I’ve always liked Dean and his speed a little bit better, though. His salary isn’t exactly terrible as far as corners go. I’ve really never had any reason to believe he’d get the heave this year. That’s especially true when you consider the injury history Morrison has had. Maybe if you rotate them a bit they’ll be less prone to injury. Next year??? I DK.
July 8th, 2025 at 12:40 pm
“We got a 4th round draft pick for the All-Pro CC Aqib Talib”..
July 8th, 2025 at 12:53 pm
” CB
July 8th, 2025 at 1:17 pm
Davis has already moved on from lions I guess they were not happy with him either.
July 8th, 2025 at 2:15 pm
Well of course he hasn’t gone anywhere yet because the season hasn’t started yet but when it does he’ll be right back on the bench.
July 8th, 2025 at 2:16 pm
Two thoughts about Jamel Dean: 1) playing soft coverage 12 yards off line a scrimmage; 2) The back of his jersey as he gets beat for another TD pass. Oh, while I am at it: a cornerback on the 29nth worst NFL pass defense the last two years. I am astounded by those who support Dean. Let’s see which rookie CB can supplant him. If not, there will be cut down players after week 3 of preseason who will surely be better. Time for a reality check about Bucs defense. If we can’t resolve this one, expect another pathetic year by the pass defense.
July 8th, 2025 at 3:07 pm
The cornerback room isn’t the problem skill wise, but depth was an issue, and the issue of our week of edge rush. If we get a pass rush going, our cornerbacks will be fine. Jamel Dean should be kept for the season for sure to keep depth and to also see what we have in our new draftees. I would not want to trade him unless I was getting another corner in return that’s just as good and more durable. But why would some team make that trade?
Gipper, when posting opinions, be some what factual backing it up.
Dean gave up no touchdowns in 2024.
Our entire defense gave up 27 passing touchdowns, 13th in the league. Most of that was Brit (kidding… I don’t know how many he gave up. LOL)
Soft zone was played due to injuries, a lack of a pass rush and a very slow ILB. It looks like we’ve improved in all those areas. We have defenders back healthy and drafted more defensive depth, drafted another edge rusher and added one of the better edge rushers available in free agency and Britt is gone.
Also people forget how bad our punting game was. Great field goal kicker, awful punting. We have a top 10 punter now. Football is a game of field position, how many bad situations was our defense put in because of shanked punts and just bad punts giving the opposition great field position?
I know those memories are coming back, but those days are over. Onward and upward, GO BUCS!