Bucs Safety Room Is In Flux With New Arrivals

Bucs safeties coach Nick Rapone has been doing this for a very long time. At 67 years young, Rapone has been coaching football since 1979 at the collegiate and professional level. He’s seen a lot of things in his career, and his next challenge yet consists of getting a new group of safeties together that come from all different areas.

Even after free agency and the NFL Draft, the Bucs are still relatively thin at safety. Plus, only two are returning from last year’s team – Antoine Winfield Jr. and second-year player Nolan Turner, who played one defensive snap last season after spending much of his rookie year on the team’s practice squad.

Gone are veterans Mike Edwards (Chiefs), Keanu Neal (Steelers) and Logan Ryan (unsigned). All three started at times in the Bucs secondary last season. The safety position is certainly in flux right now as a result of those departures.

The Bucs brought in talent with Ryan Neal as a free agent signing, plus drafting Kansas State defensive back Josh Hayes to compete for the slot DB role. With that said, bringing in so many new faces is a challenge in of itself.

“Right now? We have three guys here – Antoine [Winfield Jr.], Ryan Neal, and Nolan Turner,” Rapone said. Nolan Turner was a free agent from Clemson [and] Nolan played a whopping one play last year – against Carolina he made a great play on a tight end screen. So we only have three here. Whoever is with us is going to have to step up and then as usual, [General Manager] Jason [Licht] and ‘Spy’ (Vice President of Player Personnel John Spytek) do a great job.”

Bucs Undrafted Free Agents Will Vie For A Roster Spot(s)

This has also left the door open for an undrafted free agent or two to potentially make the roster or practice squad. Turner was a undrafted free agent last year out of Clemson, so the Bucs have gone to that well before. There are a couple of talented prospects this year that have legitimate chance to crack the 53-man roster this summer in Rutgers’ Christian Izien and Iowa’s Kaevon Merriweather.

“We’ve got two kids coming in – when you’re 66 you can say ‘kids,’” Rapone said.  “We’ve got a kid from Rutgers and a kid from Iowa coming in. They do a great job of bringing in free agents. So, next weekend we’ll have both of them but right now we’ll have five safeties on the roster and go from there.

“First of all, I’ll start with the young man from Iowa. Iowa does a great job with safeties and he’s exactly what an Iowa safety is. There’s no flash to him, he is fundamentally sound, and he’s physical. That’s what we liked about him. The young man from Rutgers 5-foot-8-and-a-half, 5-foot-9, extremely physical, [and] plays with his hair on fire. So, we liked his athleticism, and we liked how physical he was. That’s what the two free agents [bring]. “

Nick Rapone Explains Why Antoine Winfield Jr. Is Moving Back To Free Safety

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles revealed at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine that Antoine Winfield Jr. would be moving out of the slot position he manned last year and back to free safety. There weren’t exact reasons given at the moment. Is it to keep him healthier this season? Or is it to increase the number of turnovers?

Bucs S Antoine Winfield Jr. – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Rapone answered those questions on Wednesday, revealing that last year in training camp was just not enough time to work on the amount of responsibilities that are required of a nickel defensive back. Winfield and Bowles each agreed that having him at free safety was what’s best for the Bucs.

“What it really is, is this: when you play nickel, you have to play man, you have to play zone, you have to work stacks in man, you have to work bunches in man,” Rapone said. “Most guys in the NFL are corners because what we do in practice is all adjustments. So, it’s hard to get Antoine all that man that he needed. So, Todd and him made the decision what’s best moving forward, [is] let’s move you back, [and] let’s take you out of the nickel.

“Now in base he’s still going to be up close to the line of scrimmage [because] he’s our best blitzer, by far. The reason is what that job description is, yeah there wasn’t enough time to do all the adjustments and then get him enough man work. So, Todd and him after the season sat down and that’s what they came up with.”