Still valuable.

Yes, Joe knows the Bucs have holes at inside linebacker. Joe has been on record the Bucs need to add three inside linebackers this offseason. The position is that bad.

And Lord knows the Bucs need an edge rusher. But given this franchise’s DNA in not being able to develop an edge rusher and largely being dismissive about sacks and rushing the quarterback, Joe has no real confidence that the Bucs will magically find a double-digit sack guy from the edge.

So the Bucs better play damn good in the secondary. However, if the Bucs left veteran starter Jamel Dean walk, the outside corner with the most experience is Zyon McCollum.

(Joe will give you a moment to clean up your keyboard now.)

So if the Bucs let Dean walk, it seems common sense to flip Jacob Parrish, who may have been the Bucs’ best defensive player last year aside from Tykee Smith, to outside corner.

Joe doesn’t know if that is the plan.

Kevin Patra of NFL.com broke down Bucs needs this offseason. He referenced cornerback.

Here is the way Joe looks at it: Is McCollum worthy of being a No. 1 corner? Joe doesn’t think so. Did Benjamin Morrison look ready to take over for Jamel Dean? Joe doesn’t think so — maybe one day but not yet.

So it would behoove the Bucs to keep Dean. Joe has always been against letting a perfectly good corner walk unless you have a guy ready to go to replace him. Parrish could be that guy but last week in Indianapolis, Bowles gave zero indication he would move Parrish to outside corner.

There’s no need for the Bucs to pull a lousy Lovie Smith. That guy took over the Bucs with a leaky defense and started tossing defenders off the pirate ship, including a future Hall of Famer. There’s no rhyme or reason to dig more holes on your defense (which already isn’t good) unless you have the players ready to go who are of equal or better talent.

So the smart thing here is to either keep Dean around, or target a corner in the first round, move Parrish to outside corner and McCollum to slot.