Ayden Garnes And The Mess At Corner
August 16th, 2026
Can he meet the moment?
The status of the Bucs cornerbacks frightens Joe.
Right now the Bucs’ best corner has limited experience at outside corner, though Joe believes Jacob Parrish will be a fine player. Bored Zyon McCollum — he has “a groin” (hat tip to former Bucs commander Greg Schiano). And as tricky as those can be, its unclear if he will be healthy Week 1.
Benjamin Morrison is a walking injury and cannot even get on the practice field. So after him, you are looking at Josh Hayes and undrafted rookie Ayden Garnes as a possible starting corner opposite Parrish.
(For those inclined, you may want to put in a good word with your supreme being that Parrish stays healthy. Light a candle, use your prayer rug, whatever).
Friday night against the Jets in this summer’s first worthless preseason game, Garnes, when the moment arose, proved it wasn’t too big for him under the lights in New Jersey. He had a pick-six in the first half.
Jenna Laine of ESPN typed that all Garnes has done this summer is make plays.
Joe salutes Garnes for making plays when they came to him. But let’s not get too crazy here. Bailey Zappe is not Joe Burrow, the quarterback the Bucs will face in Week 1.
Joe cannot imagine the Bucs not making a move, any move, between now and Week 1 for a cornerback.
The team has no healthy depth corner. Not some, but none. No one dependable.
McCollum is coming off likely his worst season and when Bowles said he was bored, which led to busted plays, Joe has no words for that.
It was pretty obvious, both coming out of college and in his rookie season, Morrison’s toughest NFL battle would be staying out of the trainer’s room. This continued in 2026 when Morrison missed time in OTAs and minicamp. Then — SURPRISE! — Morrison turned up lame (again) right as training camp opened.
He’s yet to practice this summer but he was in costume uniform at least up in New Jersey.
Trick or treat!
So Joe doesn’t know how the Bucs can trust Morrison to be a possible starter in incinnati Week 1 unless he shocks the western world and stays on the practice field the rest of the summer.
Morrison is expected to practice this week at some point, as the Bucs practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday leading up the second worthless preseason game Saturday night. Joe’s heard this story before. Seeing is believing.
So again, if McCollum and McCollum can’t go Week 1, you likely are looking at either Hayes (a special teams player) or Garnes as a starting corner opposite Parrish — facing Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Burrow.
How is your morning going?
Joe hopes the jerseys the Bucs wear in Cincinnati are flame-retardant.
August 16th, 2026 at 3:03 am
Have to believe Licht feels he can get a decent corner during final cutdowns, but it’s still going to take them weeks to get acclimated and learn the D. Definitely not all on Licht though, as I’m sure he’s getting input fron todd and the staff re: their talent & depth at the position. Certain the word “potential” has been used a ton in those conversations.
August 16th, 2026 at 3:15 am
The problem is two-fold about getting some depth at CB. First, Bowles is stubborn and probably thinks his guys, Morrison and Zyon, will get it together before week 1. Second, Jason Licht may realize that CB is a weak link and that Bowles is a bit too loyal to his favorite players but his weakness is covering draft picks. The guy will not flip a draft pick for a decent CB, he’d rather keep a day 3 draft pick and take a flyer on someone in 2027 so then the Bucs are basically competing with other CB depleted teams for the few cast-offs which will be worth a second look when the cuts start.
Now perhaps Jason will trade Vea for a decent CB but then he will have a big hole in the middle of the DL and from what we learned last year; Bowles will not adapt his schemes to the talent he has available like good coaches tend to do. Instead he will try to hammer the square peg into a round hole and we will be seeing deja vu all over again as Bowles D cannot get off of the field. Hey jason, swallow your pride and trade for a decent CB.
August 16th, 2026 at 4:10 am
Won’t matter if Morrison Zyon n Parrish stay healthy, that’s 1 overrated CB, 1 small nickel playing outside and 1 with no experience, what could possibly go wrong, it’s not like Bowles defense covers anyone anyways
August 16th, 2026 at 5:04 am
Wow this Joe is back to trashing oreseason games. Did you have AI Joe working the past couple days? He seemed a bit more enthusiastic about the preseason