Revenge Of The Birds Community Mock Draft: 3rd Pick, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Strengths:Uses his hands extremely well and shows tremendous strength when fighting off blockers. He is able to stand up linemen, locate the football, and position himself to make the tackle. This should afford him to be able to move between one-gap and two-gap assignments with ease.  Displays good technique when using the swim and rip moves. He has good awareness and reads screens really well. Has good technique when in pursuit. Does a great job of penetrating into the backfield and can be absolutely disruptive at times. He plays very well against both the run and the pass, which is rare to find. He is able to also play DE in the 3-4 defensive system. He is an amazing playmaker, seems to always be around the football. In 08, he led the team in tackles, tackles for loss, sacks and was tied for the leader in interceptions.

 

Weaknesses: Often misses tackles. Sometimes, although he is quick for his size, he is not quick enough to catch the running back. He needs to work on his consistency.  He has had multiple knee injuries and surgeries which would send up a red flag about his durability. 

 

Why the Bucs will take him: The Bucs play a one-gap along the defensive line which would make McCoy seem like the better choice (McCoy was a one-gap, Suh was a two-gap), but you can't deny that Suh was a monster even though he had to read and react more than McCoy (McCoy lined up in a gap and penetrated while Suh lined up over a lineman, read the play and attacked).  Suh had 12 sacks, 24 tackles for loss and 85 tackles last season. At the same time McCoy had six sacks, 15 1/2 tackles for loss and 34 tackles last season even though he was a one-gap penetrator.  With that type of production, you have to be impressed.  There is no easy way to replace a legend and the Bucs have proven that by not being to replace Warren Sapp since he left the team.  Either Suh or McCoy would be a huge step in the right direction.

Thanks to hevchv for submitting the pick and that selection puts cardsfanforlife24 on the clock with the Washington Redskins pick. Please email me at revengeofthebirds@gmail.com sometime today with your selection. The picks and who selected who are after the jump...