The Tampa Bay Buccaneers need solutions at edge rusher, where they haven’t had a player make a Pro Bowl since Shaquil Barrett in 2021 and were grossly ineffective in 2024.
Headed into another long offseason, Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine thinks the Buccaneers should make a move to trade for Carolina Panthers edge rusher and former No. 1 overall pick Jadeveon Clowney.
Clowney only has 1 year remaining on a 2-year, $20 million contract he signed in March 2024 and the $10 million he’s due in salary for 2025 would be almost equal to the money going out the door with Tampa Bay free agent edge rushers Anthony Nelson ($5 million), Joe Tryon-Shoyinka ($2.8 million) and William Gholston ($1.37 million), who are all likely headed elsewhere.
“Todd Bowles is a coach that wants to get after teams defensively,” Ballentine wrote. “He’s built his career on aggressive defenses and the Buccaneers are routinely among the league’s heaviest users of blitzes … Finding an upgrade on the trade market at the edge-rusher positions could be the way to go. The Panthers might not be too keen on helping out a division rival by trading Jadeveon Clowney, but he’s a logical cap casualty and likely a short-term fix to a major problem.”
While any hypothetical trade for Clowney would likely involve a later round pick going from the Buccaneers to the Panthers, Ballentine makes a great point when he says the Buccaneers might not even have to do that in order to land him.
