Bucs To Send Ryan Smith To Safety
- Although Ryan Smith lined up at cornerback in 2015 for North Carolina Central, he’s expected to work at safety for the Buccaneers, Roy Cummings of Today’s Pigskin writes. The Bucs added Vernon Hargreaves III in the first round after signing Brent Grimes in an attempt to fortify a cornerback corps that helped yield 31 touchdown passes last season and allow the second-highest quarterback rating in the league. The 5-foot-11, 198-pound Smith arrived in Tampa as the No. 108 overall pick and will compete with the likes of Chris Conte and Keith Tandy for playing time on the Bucs’ back line. Cummings identifies Bradley McDougald as a starter at either the free or strong safety spots, with his complement undecided. Pro Football Focus graded Conte as the Bucs’ best safety last season and tabbed the now-27-year-old veteran as its No. 32 safety.
Volin: Alterraun Verner On Notice?
Jets quarterback Geno Smith, Ravens tackle Eugene Monroe, and Buccaneers cornerback Alterraun Verner are among the veteran players who may have been put on notice as a result of their respective teams’ draft picks last weekend, writes Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. PFR’s Dallas Robinson singled out all three of those players, and a handful of others, when he explored the same subject earlier in the week.
Buccaneers Sign Dan Vitale
- Fullback Dan Vitale signed his deal with the Buccaneers, GM Jason Licht tweets. Selected in the sixth round (No. 197 overall) and with the Bucs’ final pick, Vitale made his mark as a ball-carrier in the passing game. The Northwestern blocking back accumulated 135 receptions for 1,427 receiving yards with the Wildcats from 2012-15. He only received six carries in college.
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- Fullback Dan Vitale signed his deal with the Buccaneers, GM Jason Licht tweets. Selected in the sixth round (No. 197 overall) and with the Bucs’ final pick, Vitale made his mark as a ball-carrier in the passing game. The Northwestern blocking back accumulated 135 receptions for 1,427 receiving yards with the Wildcats from 2012-15. He only received six carries in college.
Buccaneers Sign Vernon Hargreaves
Four first-round picks have now formally signed their rookie contracts, with cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III, the 11th overall pick last Thursday, joining Laremy Tunsil, Eli Apple, and Keanu Neal. Hargreaves signed his deal with the Buccaneers earlier today, the team announced via its website.
Hargreaves, who played his college ball at Florida, was the second cornerback to come off the board in the 2016 draft, having been selected one spot behind Apple, after the Buccaneers traded down from No. 9 to No. 11. He’ll compete for a starting job in Tampa Bay’s secondary this summer, joining free agent signee Brent Grimes at or near the top of the club’s new-look cornerback depth chart.
The four-year contract signed by Hargreaves comes with a fifth-year option for 2020, as is the case for all rookie deals for first-round picks. The overall value of Hargreaves’ pact is about $14.178MM, with a signing bonus worth $8.511MM, according to Over the Cap’s data.
In addition to locking up Hargreaves, the Buccaneers also confirmed that they’ve signed linebacker Devante Bond, the first of two players the team selected in the sixth round on Saturday.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bucs Sign Rookies Ryan Smith, Caleb Benenoch
- The Buccaneers have agreed to terms with fourth-round pick Ryan Smith and fifth-round pick Caleb Benenoch, as freelance reporter Jenna Laine tweets. Smith, a defensive back out of North Carolina Central, left college as the program’s all-time leader in solo tackles (168) and kickoff return average (28.1). Even though he played cornerback during his final year at UNCC, the Bucs plan to use him as a safety. Benenoch, an offensive linemen from UCLA, has experience both at tackle and on the interior line and that versatility helped his stock heading into the draft.
Bucs Agree To Terms With 19 UDFAs
The Buccaneers’ rookie free agent class is a large one, with 19 undrafted players agreeing to terms with Tampa Bay, according to a team release. Here’s the full list of undrafted free agents who have agreed to sign with the Bucs:
- RB Peyton Barber (Auburn)
- TE/FB Tim Brown (West Chester)
- TE Kivon Cartwright (Colorado State)
- LB Tyson Coleman (Oregon)
- FB/TE Alan Cross (Memphis)
- T Taylor Fallin (Memphis)
- RB Russell Hansbrough (Missouri)
- S Traveon Henry (Northwestern)
- S Isaiah Johnson (South Carolina) ($2.5K signing bonus, per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle)
- WR Anthony Kelly (Kutztown)
- DT/DE Davonte Lambert (Auburn)
- LB Cassanova McKinzy (Auburn) ($10K signing bonus, per Wilson)
- DT Jontavius Morris (Western Kentucky)
- LB Luke Rhodes (William & Mary)
- G Dominique Robertson (West Georgia)
- S Elijah Shumate (Notre Dame) ($13K signing bonus, per Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times)
- WR Dez Stewart (Ohio Dominican)
- DE Channing Ward (Mississippi)
- T Leonard Wester (Missouri Western)
Buccaneers Release Connor Barth
2:10pm: The Buccaneers have formally confirmed the release of Barth, announcing that they’ve also cut defensive end Martin Ifedi, who had signed a futures deal in January. Per Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune (Twitter link), Barth requested his release from the Bucs, hoping for the opportunity to find a new home elsewhere.
11:06am: After trading up in the draft to select Florida State kicker Roberto Aguayo in the second round, the Buccaneers will release veteran kicker Connor Barth today, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link).
[RELATED: Bucs trade up to No. 59, select Roberto Aguayo]
The move had been expected since the moment the Buccaneers turned in their draft card for Aguayo — the team wasn’t going used a second-round pick on a kicker, only to have him compete for a job. Barth had been cut and re-signed by the Bucs multiple times in the past, but he’s unlikely to return this time, barring an injury to the team’s rookie kicker.
Last season, after opening the regular-season schedule with Kyle Brindza handling kicking duties, the Buccaneers made a change several weeks into the season, bringing back Barth to replace the struggling Brindza. The 30-year-old ultimately made 23 of 28 field goal attempts (82.1%), along with 25 of 26 extra point tries.
Barth had been in line to earn a $1.333MM salary in 2016, but that figure was non-guaranteed. Tampa Bay will clear the entire amount from its books by cutting Barth, creating a little extra cap flexibility.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Mixed Opinion On Roberto Aguayo
The Buccaneers didn’t just draft kicker Roberto Aguayo in the second round of the draft — they traded up to get him, sacrificing a third- and fourth-round pick to acquire the 59th overall selection from the Chiefs. Not everyone around the league was on board with the move, as one general manager told Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report that Tampa’s choice of Aguayo was “the dumbest pick in the history of the draft.”
Auman: Bucs Likely To Sign DT Before Training Camp
- Greg Auman of The Tampa Bay Times expected the Buccaneers to draft one defensive end and one tackle, and while Tampa Bay did draft a DE (Noah Spence), the team did not grab a DT. As such, Auman expects the club to sign a DT before training camp opens (Twitter link).
Draft Rumors: Glennon, Vikings, Colts, Giants
Jason Licht said the Buccaneers did not engage in any trade discussions involving quarterback Mike Glennon, according to Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com (on Twitter), who added Licht and Dirk Koetter are “happy to have him.”
Jameis Winston‘s backup has not played since 2014 and was speculated as a trade target for quarterback-needy teams, joining Nick Foles, A.J. McCarron and the now-released Brian Hoyer in that regard. A 2013 third-round pick, Glennon is entering his contract year and as of now would net the Bucs a low-round compensatory selection if he departs in free agency.
The 26-year-old owns a 5-13 record during his starts as a rookie and then in 2014, completing 58.8% of his passes and throwing 29 touchdown passes compared to 15 interceptions before receding into a practice-only player once the Bucs drafted Winston.
Here’s the latest from Day 3 of the draft, beginning with a bit of history.
- German League standout Moritz Boehringer informed the Vikings he’d sign with the team as a free agent after the draft, according to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, but those assurances evidently weren’t enough for the Vikings, who took the wide receiver project in the sixth round. A Vikings fan since he saw some Adrian Peterson YouTube videos in 2011, the 6-foot-4, 229-pound Boehringer is responsible for a landmark draft moment: he’s the first foreign-born player selected who didn’t attend a North American college (Twitter links courtesy of Tommason).
- The Giants are going to add between 12 and 15 undrafted free agents, which is a slightly heightened figure from recent years, NJ.com’s Jordan Raanan tweets.
- We heard earlier the Steelers were trying to move into the fifth round in order to select potentially a running back or quarterback, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets, but balked when the players they targeted were no longer on the board.
- The Colts had some issues on their offensive front last year but did not necessarily intend to devote half of their initial six picks during the draft to the line, Jim Irsay told media (including Mike Chappell of IndySportsCentral.com). Ryan Kelly and Le’Raven Clark went to Indianapolis in the first and third rounds, respectively, with the team adding Carson Wentz‘s top blocker at North Dakota State in guard Joe Haeg in the fifth.