Zyon McCollum Is Proving Bucs CB Depth Was There All Along

Relying on 13 rookies this year, the Bucs’ cap situation forced them into a roster-building strategy that many in the world of baseball call “stars and scrubs.” Perhaps no other position group embodied this more than cornerback. At the front of the depth chart the Bucs had two highly-paid perimeter corners in Carlton Davis III and Jamel Dean. From an average annual value perspective, only the Cowboys and Dolphins are spending more on their top two corners.

Behind Davis and Dean, it was more a murderer’s row of “who?”

Zyon McCollum was a draft darling in 2022 with Combine testing that jumped off the page. But he fell to the fifth round where the Bucs traded up to select him before struggling through his rookie campaign. The Bucs selected Josh Hayes in the sixth round of the 2023 draft when he was not on most draft boards. Christian Izien was declared the starting slot corner late in training camp after going undrafted this year. And Dee Delaney was retained and buried on the depth chart after being a capable, but unexciting part of the Bucs roster the past two years.

The general consensus from most (myself very much included) was that if either Dean or Davis missed any time the Bucs could be in trouble. And injuries will happen in the NFL, especially at cornerback. This paper by Michael Gertz on NFL injury rates shows that the cornerback position experiences an elevated injury rate with the average cornerback being available for 14.2 of 16 possible games (the paper was written in 2016 before the expanded 17 game schedule).

In other words, corners tend to miss about 11% of games. Dean is right in line with this having missed eight of 65 (12%) possible games entering this year, while Davis misses slightly more (21%). The bottom line is that the Bucs should have known and prepared for backups being thrust into starting roles.

And while most (again myself included) thought the team ill-prepared, it would seem they were well-prepared. The injuries have come. Davis missed weeks two and three while Dean missed week four. McCollum has outsnapped both players by a considerable margin thus far in this young season. And he has been good.

Zyon McCollum Has Potentially Made The Jump

Bucs CB Zyon McCollum and Falcons WR Drake London – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Last year Zyon McCollum did not look like he was ready to face NFL offenses and NFL receivers. He was late to close on routes, bit on double moves, lost contain in run defense and generally looked lost. This year has been a whole different story.

McCollum is currently the 17th best corner in the NFL in coverage (min. 189 snaps) according to Pro Football Focus’ grading system with a 72.0 grade. And he has done this against some very good competition. While he hasn’t shadowed specific receivers, McCollum has lined up across from D.J. Moore, who just lit up the Commanders secondary, A.J. Brown, Devonta Smith, Chris Olave and Michael Thomas.

That’s an impressive list for anyone to hold their own against, let alone a second-year, fifth-round pick.

Looking at PFF’s coverage matchups, against those specific receivers Zyon has been targeted seven times, allowing five catches for 54 yards and no touchdowns. On the whole this season McCollum has allowed just seven catches for 61 yards on 14 targets. To say he has been impressive would be an understatement.

Zyon McCollum Has Improved In Multiple Areas

While he was physically impressive coming out of college, Zyon McCollum had a lot of work to do to become a legit NFL corner. I went back and looked at my pre-draft notes. One of the biggest areas of opportunity for the young corner was hand usage.

With the level of competition he faced playing at Sam Houston State, McCollum never had to worry about jamming at the line of scrimmage because his size/speed/agility combination allowed him to make up any ground lost from allowing free releases. This year, not only is he using he is hands more, it has become one of the better aspects of his game.

One of the biggest areas of opportunity I noted on his draft eval was a lack of use of hands at the LOS. Doesn’t seem to be a problem now. pic.twitter.com/Yky9SZlxlM

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) October 8, 2023

Additionally, you can see McCollum now feels more comfortable in Todd Bowles’ cover-3 heavy scheme. He understands not just his own role, but the responsibilities of other players on the defense.

The jump in preparedness and football IQ. Here he calls out the MT Crosser to get it cut then bails deep to help with the vertical. pic.twitter.com/uspyBpJxFA

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) October 8, 2023

Bowles typically runs fairly straight-forward coverage on the backend. The 1 BIG exception to that is he loves to layer in rotated C2 looks. U can see it here where TB shows c3 pre-snap and then rotates to C2 with McCollum rotating to S and Ryan Neal running the pipe as the MLB. pic.twitter.com/OIZfFvzJbJ

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) October 8, 2023

The acumen to point out one route concept to ensure teammates can capitalize while simultaneously bailing to help cover a second route is something McCollum wouldn’t have been able to do at game speed last year. The learning curve has been steep and noticeable for the young defensive back.

2nd-Year CB Has Paired Improved Awareness With His Natural Gifts

The reason so many were excited about Zyon McCollum’s drafting was his incredible physical traits. His size, speed, and agility profile are historically great. That’s not hyperbole. Historical.

Zyon McCollum is a CB prospect in the 2022 draft class. He scored a 9.99 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 3 out of 1843 CB from 1987 to 2022. https://t.co/VQ0qXsv0ub #RAS pic.twitter.com/6W3QCVUOgW

— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) March 18, 2022

If McCollum could get comfortable with facing off against savvy receivers in a defense he understood the results could look like…well…this:

We should all agree as a football people that running a fade against Zyon McCollum is not a good idea if you are looking to get a receiver open. pic.twitter.com/x5SLq8gmcA

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) October 8, 2023

Short range click and close pic.twitter.com/6PStEaVXvm

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) October 8, 2023

AJ Brown is so dangerous over the middle of the field. McCollum clamps on the underneath dig. pic.twitter.com/RqjaEHcOJn

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) October 8, 2023

And Todd Bowles appears to comfortable with moving McCollum more than his top two corners. Of his 197 snaps this year, 58 have come at right cornerback, 112 at left corner, and 16 snaps in the slot. It doesn’t look like much, but compare that to Jamel Dean (five snaps in the slot) and Carlton Davis III (three snaps in the slot).

And Bowles was willing to put McCollum in the slot for an entire game last year against the Saints when injuries similarly forced him into action last year. He has the hip dexterity to work against two-way releases against both big slots and smaller, shiftier slot receivers. This gives Bowles and the Bucs a ton of versatility in how they can use McCollum going forward as Dean and Davis both get healthy and return to the field.

Bucs Secondary Has Now Gone From Potential Weakness To A Team Strength

Jamel Dean and Carlton Davis III were the top-heavy pieces everyone recognized at the beginning of the season. But when you add in the emergence of Zyon McCollum and Christian Izien, plus the solid pairing of safeties Antoine Winfield Jr. and Ryan Neal, plus the depth of Dee Delaney being able to sub in anywhere in the back end, the Bucs have a very deep and talented secondary.

The versatility of Izien, Winfield Jr., Delaney and McCollum now give Todd Bowles a ton of options in how he can defend different teams. And McCollum will make the conversation of how they are used more difficult as he pushes to stay on the field no matter who is healthy.