{"id":292621,"date":"2026-07-17T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=292621"},"modified":"2026-07-16T18:03:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:03:53","slug":"buccaneers-cornerback-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/07\/17\/buccaneers-cornerback-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers’ Cornerback Room Slated to be Team’s Weakest Position Group in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buccaneers\u2019 cornerback room enters 2026 with the biggest question mark on the roster. How will the young and mostly unproven group perform for Tampa Bay’s defense?<\/a><\/p>\n

Buccaneers’ Cornerback Room Slated to be Team’s Weakest Position Group in 2026<\/h2>\n

The Bucs\u2019 pass defense struggled mightily in 2025.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay ranked in the bottom third of the NFL in passing yards allowed, passing touchdowns allowed, opponent completion percentage, and opponent passer rating. The Bucs also allowed 55 pass plays of 20 yards or more, while opposing quarterbacks threw for more than 250 yards in nine games.<\/p>\n

Naturally, a big reason for those struggles was inconsistent play from the cornerback position.<\/p>\n

Jamel Dean<\/a> had a career year for Tampa Bay. He posted a career-high three interceptions and added nine pass breakups in 2025. According to Next Gen Stats, Dean allowed the lowest passer rating when targeted and the fewest yards per target in the NFL. Following his stellar season, Dean signed a three-year, $36.75 million contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n

The players returning to the Bucs\u2019 cornerback room did not enjoy the same level of success.<\/p>\n

Zyon McCollum had the best season of his career in 2024 but was unable to sustain that level of play in 2025. McCollum recorded 17 pass breakups in 2024 while allowing an 86.9 passer rating when targeted. Last season, he had just six passes defended and allowed a 100.9 passer rating.<\/p>\n

Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison also experienced up-and-down rookie campaigns.<\/p>\n

Parrish served as the Bucs\u2019 primary nickel corner in 2025. He recorded two interceptions, seven pass breakups, and seven tackles for loss. However, he experienced the typical week-to-week inconsistency of a rookie, earning Pro Football Focus grades as high as 89.7 and as low as 28.2 in individual games.<\/p>\n

Parrish still earned spots on ESPN\u2019s and the Pro Football Writers of America\u2019s All-Rookie teams. He also became just the fourth rookie defensive back to record at least 75 tackles, multiple interceptions, and multiple sacks in a season.<\/p>\n

Morrison appeared in 10 games and made three starts. Opposing quarterbacks posted a 112.2 passer rating when targeting him, and he allowed 15.2 yards per completion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Outlook For Tampa Bay\u2019s Cornerback Room Entering Training Camp<\/h2>\n

The Buccaneers’ cornerback room has major questions that need to be answered in training camp later this month.<\/p>\n

With Dean now in Pittsburgh, the Bucs will use training camp to determine who fills the outside cornerback spot opposite McCollum.<\/p>\n

The competition will likely come down to second-year players Morrison and Parrish.<\/p>\n

While Parrish primarily played in the slot as a rookie, he also logged snaps on the outside when McCollum and Dean missed time with injuries.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay\u2019s coaches have said they believe Parrish can play outside cornerback.<\/a> He does not possess the prototypical size for the position at 5-foot-10 and 198 pounds, but he has shown the ability to cover bigger receivers.<\/p>\n

Morrison<\/a> fits the mold of a traditional outside cornerback. At Notre Dame, he developed a reputation as a lockdown defender, holding opposing quarterbacks to a 45% completion rate and a 44.1 passer rating when targeted. His standout college career led to the Bucs selecting him in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

A hamstring injury sidelined Morrison during training camp last season, delaying his debut until Week 2. That injury may have contributed to some of his struggles during his rookie season.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay also selected defensive back Keionte Scott<\/a> <\/span><\/span>in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Scott recorded 64 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and three interceptions last season at Miami. During his college career, he played nickel corner, outside corner, and in-the-box safety. His physical style against the run makes him a strong candidate to compete for the nickel role in Todd Bowles\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Training camp will likely determine who starts opposite McCollum on the outside and who lines up at nickel.<\/p>\n

Those unanswered questions, combined with the lack of proven production, make the Buccaneers\u2019 cornerback room its weakest position group entering the 2026 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Buccaneers\u2019 cornerback room enters 2026 with the biggest question mark on the roster. How will the young and mostly unproven group perform for Tampa Bay’s defense?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5859,"featured_media":292654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,6431,29],"tags":[33533,32847,33154,5992,34185,9194],"class_list":["post-292621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-nfl-teams","category-buccaneers","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-benjamin-morrison","tag-jacob-parrish","tag-jamel-dean","tag-keionte-scott","tag-zyon-mccollum"],"modified_by":"Sue Levine","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5859"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292621"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292657,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292621\/revisions\/292657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}