B-
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers robbed the room for Taaffe. Final grade: B-.
by alexokf ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 6 picks
· 3 steals
· 0 reaches
Thirty-one other rooms let Michael Taaffe slide, and the Buccaneers were the ones holding the card at pick 116. Highway robbery.
Every deal seemed to tilt their way, which is not luck. With tight end, cornerback and other spots unsolved, spending premium capital on linebacker is the choice that costs them. That tight end hole did not close this weekend, and it was the biggest one on the wall.
Adding Maxx Crosby by trade rounds out the weekend beyond the rookies.
A competent weekend that does not make headlines and does not need to.
Pick-by-Pick
Sonny Styles at pick 15 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
Hard to square with the roster. With positions of obvious need still on the board, Jacob Rodriguez adds a linebacker and leaves tight end, cornerback and other spots untouched.
They barely believed it either: Michael Taaffe still on the board at the Round 4 slot. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
A straight-up fair deal on Zxavian Harris at Round 5, Pick 15, value and slot in agreement. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
They stopped a slide they were happy to see, landing Keagen Trost in pick No. 195. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Eric McAlister in the 229th overall pick is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.