Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Photos: Five Most Intriguing Players
The Bucs have plenty of established stars and promising youngsters, but there are a few players on the roster who especially pique the author's interest due to their promising but undefined futures. - Scott Smith
There's a decent chance we haven't seen the best of Demar Dotson yet. Pro Football Focus loved him in 2013, their grading system putting him tied for 13th among all NFL tackles, and third among players who lined up at right tackle. He had the second-best pass-blocking grade of all right tackles, after the Saints' Zach Strief. Keep in mind that 2013 was only Dotson's second year as a starter, and that in his first three NFL seasons he had played a total of 22 games, with two starts coming as a "tight end" in a jumbo-line package.
You know what you don't find when you spend some time surfing for info on Dane Fletcher's NFL career? Anything negative about his play. There have been a couple injuries along the way, and he missed all of the 2012 season with an ACL tear, but the basic storyline of most Fletcher articles is, 'Hey, he got a chance to play and he made the most of it.'
It wouldn't be an enormous surprise to see Gholston emerge as the Bucs' second-best edge rusher in 2014. Or he could be a solid rotational player eating up reps inside and outside. Or he could be passed by Means, Bowers or one of the others. The 2014 outcome for Gholston seems to cover a wide spectrum of possibilities, and I find that intriguing.
To this point, we don't know as much as we'd like about ASJ. He couldn't practice with the team during OTAs or mini-camp because the University of Washington's class schedule extended later than that of most schools. He's also joining a group that includes key free agency pick-up Brandon Myers and 2013 rookie sensation Tim Wright, so he'll have to earn his role in the offense. But Seferian-Jenkins has huge potential as a two-way tight end who can block, catch passes downfield and essentially keep the defense guessing when he's on the field. That's hard to find, and the fact that the Bucs invested a very significant draft pick in trying to locate one is intriguing, to say the least.
Demps might be the fastest player in the NFL, and if he's not he's certainly in the very upper echelon. He was an Olympics-class sprinter in 2012 so, yeah...hard to argue with the whole speed thing. The question is, can that translate into production the NFL gridiron?
