So What About Cornerback?
March 5th, 2026
Still valuable.
Yes, Joe knows the Bucs have holes at inside linebacker. Joe is on record saying 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 that in this franchise’s DNA is an inability develop an edge rusher (and they’re) 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 let 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.)
So if the Bucs let Dean walk, it seems common sense to flip Jacob Parrish to outside corner. He may have been the Bucs’ best defensive player last year aside from Tykee Smith.
Joe doesn’t know if that is the plan.
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 (Darrelle Revis). There’s no rhyme or reason to dig more holes for a struggling defense.
The smart thing here is to either keep Dean, or target a corner in the first round, move Parrish to outside corner and McCollum to slot.
March 5th, 2026 at 12:25 am
Suddenly Dean is all world corner? if you cannot stay on your feet or on the field after 5+ years you are not worth it. I am willing to take my chances. Great guy I am sure just another guy. He rides the bus and for that kind of money he needs to be the driver.
March 5th, 2026 at 12:36 am
Thankfully the defense is uncomplicated, so the defensive backs must all be morons. They’ll be easy to replace with other morons to produce the same results we’ve been enjoying, especially in 2025. The Bucs were in fact better than a few teams at pass defense. This is quite an accomplishment in today’s highly competitive NFL.
March 5th, 2026 at 2:35 am
I’m starting to come around to Avion Terrell at 15 despite all the day 2 picks devoted to DBs since Bowles hit town. Morrison might be a 2nd round pick who locked down Marvin Harrison Jr. once but he looked like Funderburke with short arms in 2025. Compare their PFF grades.
Dean has gimped his way to big FA dollars after making a mint in Tampa for what after the Super Bowl year? Let him go. What big or even decent dollar CB deal has worked out for the Bucs?
I’d feel good with McCollum and Parrish starting at outside CBs week1 but if Bowles’ job is on the line he just may quit effing around at CB. Bowles thinking he can genius the ability to cover into undersized and/or undercapable players for Licht to overpay has been a weight tied around the Bucs waist for the duration of Bowles time here. MJ Stewart and SMB still have jobs and so does Carlton Davis but where are the Bucs at CB right now? Overpaying Antoine Winfield junior too much to do anything about it in FA.
It’s not that I love Terrell as a prospect- I do like him a ton- it’s just being real about this regime’s patterns and self-limitations.
March 5th, 2026 at 3:44 am
I’m not a Dean fan but he never got “bored.” McCollum got married and paid then stopped caring. I would rather keep Dean.
March 5th, 2026 at 4:49 am
We’ve spent a ton of money, and draft capital on the secondary, anf we’re still lacking? Some ROH, AC, DC lovin GM we have.
March 5th, 2026 at 4:52 am
I’m thinking Dean wants to play for the Bucs and Bowles. I think he stays.
March 5th, 2026 at 5:24 am
CB will be a weakness unless Morrison pans out and fast. Nobody talking about drafting another guy but with what we have we may need to. The Bucs did Dean dirty so I’d be shocked if he stayed. Talent wise he’s been our best CB since we traded Davis, but he was then and is still only a solid CB2. And I don’t trust him to stay healthy now another year older. McCollum is at best a CB3. Stupid contract. Said it when Jason gave him the bag. Not a starting caliber guy.
March 5th, 2026 at 5:30 am
Can we trade zyon for a bag of domino’s please…dude is top chef buns on field
March 5th, 2026 at 5:30 am
Doritos*
March 5th, 2026 at 5:54 am
Dean agreed to a huge pay-cut last season…with the trade off being he was granted free agency in 2026. I have to believe there will be demand for his services next week. I guess we’ll find out soon.
As for Zyon, that early extension isn’t aging so well. Oh swell.
March 5th, 2026 at 6:25 am
We already have Dean 2.0 in Morrison. I like Dean but doubt he comes back after that pay cut.
March 5th, 2026 at 7:34 am
This is what I gave them so far. Yeah sure some will probably have something to say about it but I still think they’re gonna have to trade down because they’re gonna have to address more needs & they’ve got seven picks. Unless they do go out in FA which I seriously doubt.
1st round: AKHEEM MESIDOR (DE Miami)
2nd round: KYLE LOUIS (LB Pitt)
3rd round: BRIAN PARKER (OL Duke)
4th round: CHANDLER RIVERS (CB Duke)
5th round: JACK KELLY (LB BYU)
6th round: BRANDON CLEVELAND (DT North Carolina St)
7th round: ENI FALAYI (TE Wake Forest)
Yeah I’m not really big on drafting older players but I think Mesidor would be able to come in & help right away. Especially when Bain & Hunter will be gone. Yeah I’m sure there will be some that’ll say something about it but I’d still consider trading down as much as I can.
March 5th, 2026 at 7:34 am
Kenton … ‘I’m thinking Dean wants to play for the Bucs and Bowles. I think he stays.’
I’m thinking exactly the opposite Kenton. I can’t ever remember a player voluntarily taking an almost $9 mil pay cut in 1 year ($13.0 mil down to $4.25 mil). Something was going on that none of us know about IMO (Bucs threatened to release him, etc) because there was no reason for Jamel to accept less than what his contract called for.
Nonetheless, Dean is now a UFA & can sign with any team. His previous counterpart, Carlton Davis, signed a 3-yr contract last season with the Patriots for $54 mil ($18 mil per year). And oh ya, that was Carlton’s first season in 8 years in which he played every game (926 def snaps). Jamel’s inline for the same type of contract … with a contender. No way he trusts the Bucs after what they pulled last year.
March 5th, 2026 at 7:35 am
I was at the Bucs annual movie night for Junior Bucs. We took 2 of our grandsons, I thought it was strange that Jamel Dean was there to be the lone Buc player standing there to take pictures we the kids. He was there like $2 hours. Last year they had a camp meat offensive lineman. He is a free agent, I thought that was very weird.
March 5th, 2026 at 7:55 am
DR. Go back and read the archives of this site when they had reworked Dean’s contract. Dean said some things about how he wouldn’t want to play anywhere else or for anyone else. I haven’t went back and looked for it. But I remember it. I thought it was strange at the time so I remember that.
March 5th, 2026 at 8:03 am
No need to worry. We have Bowles’ Godson, and Lickt’s newest big-money man.
March 5th, 2026 at 8:20 am
Dean took a huge pay cut to be a free agent.
Then he watched McCollum scoop up that money and get bored. Geeze.
Which btw, Dean played more games in 25 than McCollum.
March 5th, 2026 at 8:31 am
Dumb… Move McCollum to slot? Dude is clearly a prototype outside CB. Yeah, he EARNED a big deal based on what the team saw and sees in the future. He was hurt the entire season. Yes, he wasn’t good. As for playing the slot… are we that limited in football intelligence that we don’t think an outside CB can play the slot when the team is in nickle? Did we not do that for 50 years with Ronde Barber… did we not do that with Sean Murphy-Bunting? If Dean bolts, Parrish the starting RCB and bumps to slot in the nickle. McCollum at LCB and Morrison or competition plays RCB when we’re in nickle. It’s a simple concept done innumerable times here in Tampa.
March 5th, 2026 at 8:34 am
“It was just more like I’m comfortable here,” Dean said on Thursday, via the Tampa Bay Times. “So it’s just really not about the money anymore. I’m not in the mood to try to figure out a whole new team and city and go through all I went through my rookie year. So just to save me a headache.”
-Jamel Dean on talking the restructure.
Also, I think Deans’ trucking company DMASID(Don’t Make A Scene It’s Dean) and some of his other business ventures in the local community. I presume that’s part of the “save me a headache” part of it outside of what he mentioned in regards to the team. Also think Bowles has some, not all the influence with due to their professional relationship being as tight as it’s been since both arrived in 2019. I remember hearing about the two having 1 on 1 film session which obviously played a part in Deans’ long-term development. So, Dean has some strong ties within the 1Buc and the local community that in theory should make retaining him more likely.
I’m not the biggest fan of thinking Parrish is enough to replace what we have in Dean on the outside. I think it’s a bit of a trap intellectually, as yes Parrish is athletic and talented enough to make it sound good in theory, but he’s not replacing the reputation of QB avoidance that Dean has had when he’s been available for us.
Also think it’d be best for Parrishs’ development to let him master nickel, and keep him hovering around the tackle box so we can blitz him when need be while taking advantage of his ability tackle in space.
There’s some CB talent in the draft I wouldn’t mind going after, some more or less day 1 starters and others that may need some more refinement to have their talent translate to the NFL game with time.
Dean or no Dean, we’ll have to fill Vildors’ spot and I’d think he’d be easier to upgrade than it would finding someone to be an upgrade over Dean. Some JBFers were certain last offseason that’s what Morrison would do, and imo when he played he just showed how important it was having Dean in the lineup.
March 5th, 2026 at 8:48 am
Lest we forget, Van Morrison can’t stay healthy either.
March 5th, 2026 at 9:04 am
Warren Brooks Lynch … Thanks for the great info; nice analysis. Agree 100% with your keeping Parrish at Nickel. He seems to have good durability (17 games – 746 def snaps) and his productivity, mostly at Nickel, was quite good, especially for a rookie (2 INT, 2 sacks, 7 TFL, 1 FR, 7 PD, 76 tackles with 50 of those solo, with 21 blitzes). Allowed 2 TDs & had a 71.4% Pass Completion Rate Allowed with 562 total yds allowed (266 Air & 296 YAC). Those stats are good for a Nickel, but they’d be very ??? for an outside CB.
I’m a huge Jamel Dean fan, and I’m convinced that a lot of his injuries are because of how he’s being used (his forte is really man not zone, and that large separation when he has to tackle some of these big dogs gets folks hurt I’m convinced). Carlton Davis had a similar injury history here, but played all 17 games for the Pats this season. I’d love to see us re-sign either Jamel Dean or a veteran outside CB of similar talent.
March 5th, 2026 at 10:05 am
“Allowed 2 TDs & had a 71.4% Pass Completion Rate Allowed with 562 total yds allowed (266 Air & 296 YAC). Those stats are good for a Nickel, but they’d be very ??? for an outside CB.”
The pass completion right imo isn’t a big deal, because that includes, same as Dean btw, a vareity of WR screens and crossing routes that can looked as long handoffs horizontally and vertically.
My thing with Parrish is, how he plays NB, makes it so we don’t have to constantly bring either saftey down into the box and we can set up in a cover 2 shell, but mix in man and zone looks on the outside with that 2-high look acting as a lid of sorts.
That, and again run support and the few times Bowles would shoot Parrish on those weakside blitzes are something I look forward to seeing the young fella take advantage of with a more refined role there.
Just to keep him away from what we did with Zion having him moonlight all over the secondary, if we can make the personnel decisions that will allow Parrish to just be a helluva nickel CB, we get more from him instead of trying to spread his talent too thin.
March 5th, 2026 at 10:52 am
If the goal in last year’s draft was to replace Dean due to availability issues, why did you draft a guy who was already hurt with upcoming surgery for other problems? JL and TB are constantly outsmarting themselves. I guess they listen to all that hype from clueless announcers who think they’re geniuses. Now we need to beg Dean to return after mugging him last year.
Why are those 2 still here?
March 5th, 2026 at 11:43 am
I am not sure why I have this opinion except for how elite Morrison was in college, but I see this season setting up very well for our defensive backfield.
Parrish nickel
McCollum outside
Morrison outside
Smith safety
Winfield safety
I think that will be a stronger set than most teams. More depth needed but there are ways to do that without signing Dean for 15 million a year or whatever
March 5th, 2026 at 12:32 pm
Parrish needs to learn the nose tackle position while Vita drops deep. Confusion is king.
March 5th, 2026 at 1:05 pm
Maybe they should put McCollum at DE instead since they keep dropping the DEs out anyway.🙄
March 5th, 2026 at 1:50 pm
One positive thing about Bowles super soft garbage zone, is that it doesn’t require much from corners to just stand around flat footed and wait for something to happen. Generally you don’t want to start a rookie, but since the zone scheme is so awful, it really doesn’t matter who you start. This isn’t he 2002 Bucs zone defense, his is a terrible loose zone with little movement. You can pretty much put anyone in it and they’re going to look bad – just depends on if they’re going to be really bad or horrific, either way, everyone will be yelling for them to be benched since they have no idea what they’re watching.
March 5th, 2026 at 5:11 pm
Yes Sir Joe, I would let Zion walk the way he played last season. Dean needs to stay or we will regret it.. the only one with a ring that he played for.
March 5th, 2026 at 6:00 pm
Geno711 … ‘I see this season setting up very well for our defensive backfield.’
I wish I felt that confident. Tykee is a beast at Safety, and Winfield had a MUCH better 2025 than he did in 2024. Parrish had a great rookie season at Nickel, but his Completion Rate Allowed is still too high for my liking. Morrison only gave us 10 games, and McCollum only gave us 13. And oh ya, Morrison & McCollum gave up a combined total of 9 TDs, which projected over a 17-game season would’ve been 13-14 TDs allowed.
My preference is to add a starter-capable CB and let him fight it out with both McCollum AND Morrison in the pre-season. Baed on their availability in 2025, it’ll take at least 1 starter-capable CB to compensate for the 11 games the 2 of them were unavailable. Voldor wasn’t the answer (he’s a FA anyways) and Jamel Dean is probably gone, so we need TWO quality CBs anyways to come up to the 5 CBs that we normally keep. Most reasonable would be to sign a quality FA AND draft a CB in Rnds 2-4 (I’m still reserving Rnd 1 for a beastly DLineman to pair with Vea).