B
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers won the weekend at the trade table. Grade: B.
by alexokf ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 2 steals
· 4 reaches
You can fall in love with a player. You are not supposed to marry him in the wrong round. The Buccaneers did exactly that with Jeff Caldwell in Round 4, Pick 22. They moved the roster forward and banked a B for it.
The Hecht pick is the one they will point to when this weekend is judged. The phones were where this weekend was really won. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped interior defensive lineman, which is a strange place to end up.
It is not that Perkins Jr. is a bad player; it is that the Buccaneers had louder needs to answer first.
Add it up and it is a good, unfussy class.
Pick-by-Pick
They reached into another round for Jacob Rodriguez, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.
They will replay Eli Stowers at the 83rd overall pick for years; that is how good the value is. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
The needs board was loud and they turned it down, spending No. 116 on Harold Perkins Jr. with interior defensive lineman, edge rusher and other spots unsolved.
Sam Hecht in the Round 4 slot is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Jeff Caldwell at pick 122 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Charles Demmings in the 155th pick lands just on the right side of the ledger. It fills a real need, too.
Nothing to complain about; Ephesians Prysock went a shade earlier than his grade, which is fine. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A real head-scratcher, Logan Taylor in Round 7, Pick 13 is miles ahead of his ranking. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.