The NFL Draft remains the second-biggest event in the NFL calendar behind the Super Bowl. Like it or not, it also remains one of the biggest things that fans and media enjoy going back and analyzing to see “what could have been.”
Pro Football Focus has done a good job this offseason by starting a re-draft series that we have been tracking here on Bucs Wire. In their latest draft, they looked back on, it just so happens to be one of the more impactful ones in recent memory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise: The 2014 NFL Draft.
The Cleveland Browns had a good stretch of building up their offensive line in part due to the selection of Nevada guard Joel Bitonio in 2014. The former Wolfpack offensive lineman would be apart of two All-Pro teams and is a centerpiece to their offensive line to this day.
In PFF’s re-draft, the Bucs end up with the talented guard.
Trevor Sikkema discusses the pick writing, “The 2014 NFL Draft was loaded at guard, and Bitonio is the second player at the position off the board in this redraft’s top 10. While Zack Martin produced a Hall-of-Fame career, Bitonio is the most valuable guard in the league since being drafted in 2014, per PFF WAR. Bitonio has been one of the NFL’s five highest-graded guards in four of his 11 seasons and led all guards in 2021 with an elite 93.6 PFF overall grade.”
The idea of an offensive line eventually being anchored on one side by Bitonio and Tristan Wirfs is an entertaining prospect to consider. You want to talk about how cornerbacks can take away one side of the field, that offensive line pairing would take away an entire edge for a quarterback to worry about.
This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: Buccaneers land a different All-Pro in PFF’s 2014 re-draft
Reporting by Andrew Harbaugh, Buccaneers Wire / Bucs Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
