Bucs Could Bolster Secondary With Recently Released Safety

A good chunk of that poor play has come from the strong safety position. Ryan Neal was signed to man the position vacated by Mike Edwards in the offseason, but Neal has been a sieve in coverage. Head coach Todd Bowles has asked him to do a lot of things he isn’t great at and it showed in coverage throughout much of the beginning of the season.

Lately Neal has been playing better as the team has asked less of him, putting him in the box on early downs and having him focus on stopping the run more. Heck, he even played linebacker against the Panthers with K.J. Britt’s injury on Sunday. And the results have been promising. Over the past three games Neal has been utilized less and more effectively. He has lined up at free safety 3% less over that time span while getting to the box 5% more.

But that still leaves the Bucs using Dee Delaney as their primary passing down safety opposite of Antoine Winfield Jr. And while Delaney has been an upgrade over Neal, he hasn’t exactly been great. And the team still considers itself very much in the NFC South race.

It would make sense based on that premise that they would still want to make low risk moves that don’t jeopardize their future outlook while still improving this year at the margins. One such opportunity may have just arisen as the New York Jets agreed to safety Adrian Amos’ request to release him.

Adrian Amos’ Fit With The Bucs

At 30 years old, Adrian Amos’ best days are behind him. But he is still a solid safety who grades out well as a run defender while not being a liability in pass coverage. Per Pro Football Focus Amos has a 61.0 coverage grade this year in limited snaps.

Last year was a struggle for him with a 45.6 grade, but prior to that he had four straight years of grading out above a 74.0. The Jets knocked him down their depth chart to prioritize developing younger, promising safeties like Tony Adams and Ashtyn Davis. With all due respect to Kaevon Merriweather, the Bucs don’t have that same dilemma.

Amos currently ranks 11th in the NFL in forced incompletion rate among safeties at 20% and can still be helpful piece to a contending team. And the Bucs still feel they are a contending team. That feeling only increased with Sunday’s win at home against Carolina.

With Amos’ experience in the NFL, he could step into a struggling Bucs secondary and acclimate to the system quickly to potentially provide reinforcements for a stretch run the team is hoping to make. His run defense and tackling prowess would fit ideally into the strong safety role.

He has a career missed tackle rate of 9.1%. That rate has gone down to 7.5% over the past five seasons and he has only two years out of a nine-year career where his run defense grade has been below 70.0. But add in the potential upside of an improvement in coverage and you have the perfect low-risk, medium-upside move that is not often available to teams at this time of year.

How Would Amos Impact The Bucs Cap Situation

Adrian Amos signed a one-year contract with the Jets for just $1.75 million in base pay. $500,000 of that was a signing bonus that will stay with the Jets now that he has been put on waivers. With just five weeks left in the season the team that picks him up will only be on the hook for $347,222 in guaranteed salary.

Per Over The Cap, the Bucs have just shy of $3 million in cap space available so they can afford the contract. Plus, at 5-7 they would be 10th in waiver priority and the only one of two teams in the Top 10 who can claim they are just one game out of the playoffs currently. From a financial standpoint this move has no downside, as rostering Amos would likely mean Merriweather would be cut and it would offset $208,333 of the salary they would take on.

And Amos is a free agent at the end of the season so there are no long-term implications of the move.

Bucs Can Make Their Deeds Match Their Rhetoric

The team continues to say it is still all-in on winning the division in 2023. Many of their non-moves have implied that is true.

They have not turned to Kyle Trask at quarterback despite being three games below .500. They have not benched Devin White in favor of finding out what they have in SirVocea Dennis.

But now they have a chance to make a move to bolster their claim of being serious playoff contenders and improving one of the weakest spots on their roster. The question is do they pull the trigger and put a waiver claim in on Adrian Amos or stand pat?