The second annual Bucs Nation’s NFL Draft Q&A with NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein."

The 2019 NFL Draft is just a couple days away and there have been a lot of people making a lot of suggestions on how the Buccaneers will handle it. In the SB Nation mock draft Sean Bunting Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jersey , Bucs Nation’s Gil Arcia selected Houston’s defensive lineman Ed Oliver on behalf of Tampa Bay. With the need for a pass rush and the potential for a Gerald McCoy departure of some kind, Oliver — if available — may be the Buccaneers best bet when players like Quinnen Williams and Josh Allen are potentially taken off the board. To provide some more insight into this year’s draft and the direction Tampa Bay may take, NFL Media’s draft analyst Lance Zierlein shares some draft knowledge with Bucs Nation for the second straight season. He also talked about other potential draft candidates as well as a story of the late Reggie Cobb.Bucs Nation: What do you see from this year’s defensive class and what defensive position(s) do you feel is the strongest?Lance Zierlein: Good defensive class overall. It’s got good defensive line talent inside the Top 10, but I don’t feel like the talent is elite necessarily. Deep class in the secondary, but not much early talent at all. Linebacker is going to be weak.BN: Quinnen Williams. Josh Allen. Ed Oliver. Devin White. There is a strong possibility a couple of those names will be there at No. 5 for Tampa Bay. Would they be better off trading back or staying where they’re at and make a selection?Zierlein: Stay there and pick unless the offer is good. I’m always a fan of trading back and adding picks, but there is a finite amount of early impact players in this draft so if you get a chance to add one, you might need to do it unless the offer is just too good.BN: You and many others have the Bucs selecting LSU LB Devin White in mock drafts. There has been a lot of debate on that. So in your opinion, is White truly a Top 5 talent?Zierlein: I don’t have him in the top five personally, but I try to think like teams might. I do think there is a better chance that Tampa goes defensive line if possible.BN: How big is the talent gap between Josh Allen and Brian Burns?Zierlein: Not as substantial as some might believe. The big difference is that Allen is bigger and stronger and has elite physical traits that are common with All-Pro type players in the league. Can Burns stay over 240 lbs in the pros? If he struggles to keep weight on, then he is going to be a designated pass rusher with trouble converting speed to power. That means he’s limited while Allen won’t have those limitations. That’s where the spread comes in as far as I’m concerned.BN: Let’s say the Bucs do not address the need for a pass rusher early in the first round, can you tell us where and when they should address it?Zierlein: If you don’t address it in the first two rounds, you probably won’t address it. You can try, but I don’t think you will be adding “dudes”.... you’ll be adding depth.BN: The Buccaneers will undoubtedly go defense with their first pick. If they do Caleb Benenoch Jersey , give us a name of a player that they can draft that’ll address their offensive line woes in the top of the second round.Zierlein: Greg Little could slide into competition on the left side while Dalton Risner offers competition at right tackle, guard or center.BN: You have Baylor WR Jalen Hurd projected to go somewhere in Rounds 3-4. What is his ceiling and do you see a fit for him in Tampa Bay?Zierlein: He’s still a developmental prospect because he will have to learn to run routes with better tempo to get in and out of his breaks more favorably. If he can get route timing down and improve his hands, he’s got the potential to become a good WR2. I think he has a chance to be a TB target, but keep in mind that Bruce Arians likes big big speed to push it vertical. He’s already got a big WR1 so he might be more interested in adding a 4.4 guy at some point. BN: Finally, the NFL and Buccaneers community lost a great guy by the name of Reggie Cobb over the weekend. You sent out a tweet saying how much fun he was to be around. What is your favorite memory or story you have of Cobb?Zierlein: There were a few. I’ve known him for about 15 years. He was a long-time listener of my morning radio show as he lived in Houston as a scout. I remember just recently, we were all set to fly back from Mobile to Houston after the Senior Bowl and our flight got delayed for about 3 hours. There are several scouts who live in Houston and we all sat around having beer while the scouts recanted war stories from the road and from the war rooms. It was great. Then we talked James Harden and Rockets basketball for about an hour. Whenever you were around Reggie, you had fun. He always had that big smile and made you forget about any problems you might have had. He was really a great dude.(You can follow Zierlein on Twitter @LanceZierlein and his draft coverage along with the profiles of prospects on NFL.com.) The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are coming off their second straight complete game in which they played complimentary football and to no surprise, they are 2-0 in the last two weeks. The team currently sits at 5-7, and while the playoffs are still a long shot, if the Buccaneers win next weekend, they will be at most a game out of the sixth seed in the NFC. Of course, it won’t be an easy task as the New Orleans Saints are coming into town. The biggest turnaround in the last two games have been forcing turnovers and not turning the ball over. The Buccaneers are +5 combined in the last two games in that category. Jameis Winston is arguably playing the cleanest ball of his career in the last two and a half weeks and head coach Dirk Koetter was praising Winston today and his ability to make big time throws during his day after press conference. “When Jameis [Winston] stepped up, that’s something that Monk (Todd Monken) works with those guys all the time – Chris converted right away to scramble rules and that was it. That was a heck of a throw by Jameis. Beau Allen Jersey ,” Koetter said. “That ball had a lot more juice on it than you might think. He had to throw it over the corner and back end zone and the safety was over there to the left. That ball had a lot on it, so that was a little tougher catch than it probably looked like.”Winston was also the Buccaneers leading rusher yesterday as he finished the game with five carries for 48 yards. He has been really effective the last two games at recognizing when plays break down and tucking it and running. Another thing he has improved on while doing that is protecting the football. Koetter commented today on Winston’s ability to scramble.“I think the key to those scrambles is that once you get through the traffic, how quickly you get your eyes back downfield. Then there a lot of moving part there’s because there’s always those guys chasing you,” Koetter said. “He’s gotten stripped from behind before, so he’s doing a lot better job of keeping two hands on the ball and then he’s keeping his eyes downfield and then very rarely now is he drifting and running sideways. He’s getting north and south and making quick decisions.”A few weeks ago, Koetter stated that many teams do not go to their backup quarterback simply because they don’t like them, but the Buccaneers don’t fall under that criteria. Cam Newton looked similar (4 interceptions) to how Jameis Winston did against the Cincinnati Bengals a few weeks back. Since then, Winston watched from the bench for a couple of weeks and seemed to have learned and Koetter just wants to see him progress forward. “I’m sure we’ll turn it over again at some point. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of turnovers. You see what happened to Carolina yesterday. Cam Newton had been playing right at probably his MVP level from a couple years ago when he had four turnovers yesterday – could’ve had six. We had our hands on other balls. It’s fickle that way. I think as long as Jameis continues to make good decisions then he’s going to play good football. That’s really all we’re worried about, Dirk Koetter said.” Koetter was certainly extremely pleased with Winston on Monday afternoon and rightfully so. If Winston continues to play the way he is and the Buccaneers win some more football games, Koetter might just buy himself one more year in Tampa Bay.