Senior Bowl Bucs Target: WR Reed
The 2023 Bucs will look very different than the 2022 version of the team. With 23 impending free agents and limited cap space, general manager Jason Licht will not be able to retain every player. Nor should he want to following the team’s lackluster performance last week. The Bucs were one of the oldest teams in football last year and they often looked the part. Many position groups will need an infusion of youth and speed.
One position group that will need bolstering is that of wide receiver. Last year’s starters Chris Godwin and Mike Evans remain under contract. But beyond those two there is much uncertainty.
Veterans Julio Jones, Scotty Miller and Breshaud Perriman are all free agents and unlikely to be retained. Last year’s big free agent signing Russell Gage could be cut in a cap saving measure. That would leave just undrafted free agent Deven Thompkins left behind the incumbent starters. It is likely that the Bucs will target a wide receiver at some point in the upcoming NFL Draft.
One player the Bucs may want to consider is Michigan State wide receiver Jayden Reed. Reed, a senior who is attending this week’s Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama has been a standout performer among his peers.
Bucs Should Like Reed’s Senior Bowl Performance
Reed has easily been the best receiver running with the National team this week. He has displayed a plethora of traits that you want to see for a guy looking to make the jump to the next level. Those skills include quick feet that allow Reed to release off of jams with ease, requisite speed to be successful at the NFL level, impressive ball tracking abilities and hands that have shown an adeptness at helping him secure contested catches. He also features flexible hips that he can sink on comeback and hitch routes that help him produce separation quickly that will help him on those timing routes.
Reed ‘s movement skills pop when watching him. He generates easy speed with excellent burst, but he never looks like he is straining to make it to his top-end. His suddenness in and out of cuts leave defensive backs struggling to keep up and stay in phase. And on vertical routes he leaves opponents behind without even trying. As my Pewter Report colleague Matt Matera so eloquently put it, “He looks like he is floating.” Per Zebra technologies who have been providing tracking data for the Senior Bowl here are some of Reed’s measurables.
Top Speed: 20.03 MPH (3rd among WR)
Max Acceleration: 4.35 yds/s^2 (6th among WR)
Reed Had A Successful College Career
None of this is revelatory to his game. All of these things have shown on his tape dating back to his freshman year at Western Michigan in 2018 when he brought in 56 catches for 797 yards and eight touchdowns. After sitting out the 2019 season following a transfer to Michigan State, he began his Spartans career in a Covid-shortened 2020 season by snagging 33 catches for 407 yards and three touchdowns.
Extrapolated over a normal 11-game season, that would have translated to a line of 52 receptions for 640 yards and five touchdowns.
In a more traditional season of 2021 Reed had his most successful campaign. He was able to eclipse the thousand-yard mark (1,026) on just 59 receptions (17.4 average) and 10 touchdowns. It was a good opportunity for him to potentially declare for the 2022 NFL Draft as a junior, but he opted to return to Michigan State for one more year.
Reed cited two reasons for his decision to remain in college for his senior year was to finish what the team started in 2021 as well as a deep wide receiver draft class that year. That decision may have been a bad one in hindsight as he took a big step back in 2022 when he recorded 55 catches for 636 yards and five scores.
Why Reed May Be A Target For The Bucs
With the only locks for the 2023 version of the Bucs being Godwin, Evans and Thompkins the team will have a need for additional receivers. Depending on the offensive coordinator the team lands on Godwin could be moving to a more traditional outside “Z” receiver role. With his shiftiness and slighter frame, Reed could easily move into a slot role for the Bucs. That’s not to say he is destined to only serve in that role, but rather that he could compliment the Bucs current receiving core in that capacity.
Ultimately, the Bucs roster needs an infusion of youth, speed and talent. Reed has all of that and more. Which could make him a target for the Bucs in the second round.
