Top five free agent targets for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tony Jefferson, Safety

Tony Jefferson has been a starting safety for the Baltimore Ravens for the last few years. He played at a high level for Baltimore but was released for salary-cap space. Jefferson is coming off an injury and shouldn’t be too expensive to sign. Similarly, to the Bradberry analysis, the Bucs have a big group of young safeties and bringing a guy like Jefferson in will help bring some guidance into that room.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have some young safeties that they like in Jordan Whitehead and Mike Edwards, but Edwards had an up and down season and Whitehead, even though he is talented, ended the year with a hamstring injury. Adding Jefferson to the roster would not only add talent but will also add depth.

The safety position is definitely a need for the Bucs, and I would expect them to address it in the draft, but if they sign Jefferson, that’d give them more options to consider come draft weekend.

Jefferson fits the mold of a Todd Bowles safety, a hard-hitting, gap-filling tackler who offers physicality. The Buccaneers defense adopted a new identity last year under Todd Bowles and looked fast and aggressive, something it hasn’t looked in years. Adding Tony Jefferson to that scheme would be seamless.