The Tampa Bay Buccaneers zagged in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, grabbing Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka 19th overall when most expected them to address a defense with some obvious needs. As it turned out, that did not prevent them in the slightest from patching up perhaps the most questionable spot on the depth chart, as Day Two brought cornerbacks Benjamin Morrison of Notre Dame and Jacob Parrish of Kansas State.
The Parrish pick was well received, as he scouts' favorite likely only available in Round Three because of his 5-10, 191-pound frame, as he's a feisty and speedy cover man with a nose for the football. Meanwhile, Morrison drew some first-round buzz early in the draft evaluation process and was definitely in the conversation to start the 2024 season before a hip injury and subsequent surgery sidelined him after six games. Morrison, like Parrish, is a ball hawk; he had nine interceptions and 23 pass breakups across the 2022-23 seasons for the Irish.
Would Morrison have been a first-round pick had he not needed hip surgery. We'll never know for sure, but it's within the range of reasonable possibilities that the Buccaneers landed a "first-round talent" at the 53rd pick. That will feel particularly satisfying if Morrison's injury doesn't end up keeping him out of any meaningful action with the Buccaneers.
The Bucs believe that could happen. Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN on Wednesday, General Manager Jason Licht expressed optimism that Morrison would be ready without restrictions when the team reports to training camp in late July, with no concerns about lingering issues from the repaired hip.
"He's in a spot where I think he's going to be full-go by…you know, he probably he could practice right now [in OTAs]," said Licht. "We're going to see how it goes when he comes in here. But we're going to take it easy; we're going to make sure that we're careful with him. But he's going to be ready by training camp, everybody feels like. He had the same injury on the other side, his other hip, back in high school and had it repaired. It's kind of like, from what we understand, once it's repaired and you've proven you can play on it you're good to go, it's almost as healthy as it can be."
Morrison held a workout just four days before the draft to give interested teams an idea of his progress. The Buccaneers had National Scout Andy Speyer in attendance and quickly got a positive report back. After he was drafted, Morrison declared that he felt "great, better than ever." Clearly, the process of his return is on track and the Bucs have felt good about his prognosis every step of the way.
"We have a process here, just like every other team," said Licht. "Our doctors check them all out at the Combine. They wait for imaging, more testing. They ask for more things sometimes in these cases. At the end of the day, we're not going to take a player that our medical team felt uncomfortable with. He ended up working out the week before the draft. We had one of our top scouts there; we got the video of it right away. We felt he looked really, really good."
