Paying the price.
Well, we know at least someone who has a work office at One Buc Palace would bite the bullet to get a premiere edge rusher.
Over at Buccaneers.com, senior writer/editor Scott Smith was posed with a question from a Bucs fan if he had the power to do so, would he make a trade for help in the second, an “elite” edge rusher or beef to the defensive line, what would he do?
Smith answered he’d go get an edge rusher.
Now Smith was quick to point out that he is not speaking on behalf of the Bucs, of Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht or Bucs coach Todd Bowles. Nor does Smith claim he has any inside knowledge of how the Bucs’ braintrust will work on adding to the Bucs roster in the coming days, weeks and months.
Besides, Smith pointed out, there is this little thing called “tampering” he doesn’t want to be involved with.
Still, Smith typed, he would pay a large ransom if the Bucs could grab Myles Garrett. In fact, Smith said he’d cough up two first-round picks for Garrett because he believes Garrett has at least five more seasons of gas in the tank.
But also, Smith made a [very interesting observation](https://www.buccaneers.com/news/draft-day-dealing-s-s-mailbag) about edge rushers and defensive backs.
> Even if we’re not talking about any specific players here, I would still pick “elite pass rusher” as my first choice from the options that presented. Next would be cornerback, because I’ve long held that’s a position at which a team could reasonably add depth to in any given season, no matter who is on your depth chart. As we saw last season, cornerback depth is critical and hard to cultivate and maintain.
If Joe recalls correctly, this is the Father Dungy method. And it’s a smart method. Father Dungy used to preach to his parish that a team must draft a defensive back every year because a team cannot have too many cornerbacks and safeties.
And that’s just what the Bucs did. Each year that Father Dungy was with the Bucs, Richie McKay drafted a defensive back, usually a cornerback.
And Smith is right: We saw last year how important depth is in the secondary. Even more so when one of your starting corners has a torrid affair with the hot tub.
Still, Joe found it intriguing that even folks who work at One Buc Palace (not in football operations) can see the Bucs need a quality edge rusher.