Buccaneers lose All-Pro defender in PFF's 2020 NFL re-draft
Pro Football Focus has done a good job this offseason by starting a re-draft series that we have been tracking here on Bucs Wire. In their latest draft, they looked back on, it just so happens to be one of the more impactful ones in recent memory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise: The 2020 NFL Draft.
The Bucs capitalized on the NFL's oversight of a Big Ten playmaking safety, making him their own. They selected Antoine Winfield Jr. with the 45th overall pick, but in this re-draft, he does not last that long. He doesn't even make it to the Bucs' original first-round pick as PFF's Trevor Sikkema has the Browns drafting Winfield Jr. 10th overall.
Sikkema writes, "Winfield has been one of the premier safeties in the NFL for the majority of his career. From 2021 to 2023, he was the highest-graded safety in the league. He is the rare player who can affect games in coverage, as a run defender and as a pass rusher. He should be able to bounce back from a career-worst season in 2024."
Much like Wirfs, the playmaking of Winfield Jr. helped the Bucs secure their Super Bowl victory that season. The fit he was able to throw towards both Pat Mahomes and Tyreek Hill, which resulted in one of the greatest defensive showings in Super Bowl history.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
a few seconds ago
- Washington Post
How a quirk of wartime football led to an extra list of AP All-Americans during the 1940s
Here is a trivia question that should stump your friends: A football player named Dick Todd once made an AP All-America team the year AFTER winning an NFL title. How was such a thing possible? The answer is that in 1943, Todd played for a service team — a quirk of wartime football that led some NFL players back to college football. Sort of. During World War II, military posts in the U.S. fielded football teams of their own. These weren't college teams in any traditional sense, but they were part of the college game. In addition to facing each other, they took on college programs and were included in AP team rankings. The AP, at least in 1943 and 1944, also named a service All-America team in addition to its more traditional one for college players that began in 1925. That's how Todd, who was on Washington's 1942 NFL championship team, became an AP military service All-American in 1943. He played for Iowa Pre-Flight, which finished that season ranked No. 2 in the AP poll — between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 Michigan. 'There were some very strong teams,' said College Football Hall of Fame historian Denis Crawford, who noted that service teams also existed in World War I. That's how the 1918 Rose Bowl came to pit Camp Lewis (Army) against Mare Island (Marines). After making the college All-America team in 1943 with Northwestern, future Hall of Famer Otto Graham was named to the service All-America team the following year with North Carolina Pre-Flight. Bruce Smith won the 1941 Heisman Trophy as a running back for Minnesota. He later played for both Great Lakes Naval and St. Mary's Pre-Flight. The transfer portal was wild back then. Randolph Field played Texas to a 7-7 tie in the 1944 Cotton Bowl, with former Tulsa star Glenn Dobbs throwing a touchdown pass. Since the service teams could include ex-college stars and players with NFL experience, perhaps it's no surprise that facing them could be a challenge. Top-ranked Notre Dame was the AP's national champion in 1943 despite losing its only game to a Great Lakes (Navy) team ranked No. 6. Crawford said he isn't aware of any major backlash to the idea of putting college players up against pros. Just keeping the sport going during the war was hard enough. 'I didn't run across a lot of articles bemoaning this,' Crawford said. 'I think people were just happy to have the distraction.' Wartime football games were just one part of the relationship between the military and U.S. colleges. Training programs could help bring more people to campus — which schools certainly could use. 'The V-5 and V-12 programs had a direct impact on helping a lot of college football teams survive, and in the case of Notre Dame, helping the university survive,' Crawford said. 'To this day, that's why Navy and Notre Dame play every year. Notre Dame has a debt of gratitude to Navy for putting one of the V programs in South Bend, which kept that school humming.' ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: and
NBC Sports
a few seconds ago
- NBC Sports
Netflix sells out all ad time for Christmas NFL games
More than four months before Christmas, Netflix has already sold all its available commercial time for the two NFL games it will show on December 25. 'For our two highly anticipated Netflix NFL games this December, we've sold out of all available in-game inventory and have closed sponsorships with multiple partners like Accenture, FanDuel, Google, and Verizon on in-game and broadcast features,' Netflix said in a statement. One of the reasons live sports have become so attractive to the streaming providers is that viewers are much more willing to sit through ads while watching sports than they are for scripted programming. The NFL is both the most popular programming on American television and a sport in which fans have come to accept that commercial breaks are part of the deal. Netflix will show Cowboys-Commanders at 1 p.m. ET on Christmas Day, followed by Lions-Vikings at 4:30.
NBC News
a few seconds ago
- NBC News
Appeals court agrees NFL can be put on trial over claims Black coaches face discrimination
NEW YORK — The NFL can be put on trial over civil claims that Brian Flores and other Black coaches face discrimination, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday, rejecting the league's attempt to force Flores into arbitration with Commissioner Roger Goodell as the arbitrator. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld Judge Valerie Caproni's ruling that Flores can proceed with claims against the league and three teams: the Denver Broncos, the New York Giants and the Houston Texans. In a decision written by Circuit Judge Jose A. Cabranes, the appeals court said the NFL's arbitration rules forcing Flores to submit his claims to arbitration before Goodell do not have the protection of the Federal Arbitration Act because it 'provides for arbitration in name only.' The 2nd Circuit said the NFL constitution's arbitration provision 'contractually provides for no independent arbitral forum, no bilateral dispute resolution, and no procedure.' 'Instead, it offends basic presumptions of our arbitration jurisprudence' by forcing claims to be decided by the NFL's 'principal executive officer,' the appeals court said. NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said: 'We respectfully disagree with the panel's ruling, and will be seeking further review.' Messages for comment were sent to lawyers who argued before the appeals court. In February 2022, Flores sued the league and several teams, saying the league was 'rife with racism,' particularly in its hiring and promotion of Black coaches. Two other coaches later joined the lawsuit, which seeks to proceed as a class action, although Caproni ruled that their claims could go to arbitration based on the language in contracts they signed with teams. After filing his lawsuit, Flores said he believed he was risking the coaching career he loves by suing the NFL, but he said it was worth it for generations to come if he could succeed in challenging systemic racism in the league. Flores is currently the defense coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings after working previously as a coach for the New England Patriots from 2008 to 2018, the Miami Dolphins from 2019 to 2021 and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022. He joined the Vikings in 2023. Caproni said in a March 2023 decision that descriptions by the coaches of their experiences of racial discrimination in a league with a 'long history of systematic discrimination toward Black players, coaches, and managers — are incredibly troubling.'
