With the New Orleans Saints first pick out of the way, they now look ahead to what their other NFC South rivals will do. We got our first glimpse of what Jason Licht has in mind for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers draft class tonight with their first-round selection.
With the 26th overall pick, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Graham Barton, an offensive lineman from Duke University. Barton is an intriguing prospect, playing at left tackle the last three seasons, however, he did play center his freshman year. Some platforms project him to play center at the next level, while others believe he could stick at tackle possibly. The problem with that for Tampa is that Barton has not played right tackle, and Tristan Wirfs currently plays on the left side.
Ultimately this leads me to believe that Barton is going to start off as a competitor for the center position with Robert Hainsey, who had nine penalties last season and gave up 33 pressures with four sacks. Ultimately the flexibility of Barton is a positive, and his skillset made him one of the better players remaining on the board.
Grade: B+
