To keep the secondary talk going, Buccaneer fans learned earlier this morning of the clean bill of health for Jude Adjei-Barimah. Jude, or JAB, for now, came into the Bucs locker room in 2015 as an undrafted free agent and an athlete with great feet and quickness from his time growing up playing soccer and then college ball at Bowling Green.
Relatively unknown to many, he played better than most expected. The Buccaneers office seemed very impressed as he became a part of their plan in 2016. Unfortunately, JAB failed a drug test in November for performance-enhancing substances. Rather than fight it, he took the suspension of 4 games and started it immediately. However, he never returned to the field in 2016 as Bucs coaches better evaluated their cornerbacks for the upcoming off-season. Last February, Jude signed a 1 year deal with the Bucs. Before the regular season even began last year, Jude suffered a significant knee injury and did not play at all. The Bucs had brought in Robert McClain to fill the spot, who played ok, because of his familiarity with Mike Smith in Atlanta. The Bucs waived JAB with an injury designation, and after going unclaimed he ended back with us to finish out his time on IR.
So what now? Jude has been told he can resume football with no limitations and our secondary needs help. Drastic help. So much help I don’t know if he’s enough. The Bucs have the ability to spend, and they could spend a lot. I’ve spent a lot of time of the possibilities, but for now, let’s focus on the cornerback spot. With Grimes still undecided, we have Hargreaves, Josh Robinson (recently resigned) and Ryan Smith from UNC. Robinson is a great special teams player which is also something Jude contributed to as well. I’ve stated my support for Trumaine Johnson, who is also coming off an injury and also Marcus Peters as hopeful additions, but the real question is, do we keep him?
