Deone Bucannon on the buyer beware of Pro Football Focus

One of the keys to the rebuild of the Arizona Cardinals will be if Steve Keim can start to nail his first round picks.

It is unlikely that any pick from 2013 or 2014 will be on the roster when the 2019 season begins, meaning the Cardinals got nothing for the future in their first two drafts in the Keim era.

While the team could potentially bring back Deone Bucannon, their 2014 first round pick, it seems unlikely based on how Vance Joseph uses his linebackers.

Well, according to Pro Football Focus the other reason the Cardinals should be weary of bringing Bucannon back is because he just hasn’t been very good:

Arizona Cardinals’ Deone Bucannon had a career year playing his hybrid linebacker/safety role in 2015, giving reason to believe the former Washington State first-rounder could be a difference-maker in the NFL for years to come. That simply hasn’t been the case.

Bucannon has failed to come close to his career-high 72.6 overall grade in 2015 in the three seasons following, earning extremely low run-defense and coverage grades in the process. He’s a former first-rounder with a lot of natural ability, but paying him the big bucks in the offseason could prove costly.

Bucannon highlights a list of buyer beware free agents heading into the 2019 offseason.

To be fair to Bucannon, most of the reason he has struggled is because his coaching staff misused him his entire career, wrecking his body and causing him to lose the burst that made him a special prospect. Now, it seems too little too late to move him back to safety, so instead it seems like he is destined to end up in Tampa Bay and to try and recapture some of the magic from 2015.

Oh what could have been.