Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2016 first-round pick, Vernon Hargreaves, has plenty of reason to play well in 2019. Overall, his career has been an injury-riddled disappointment. He has struggled to stay healthy as well as produce when he is. In three years of NFL play, Hargreaves has 125 total tackles and one interception. ONE interception in three years. For comparison, reserve cornerback, Ryan Smith (who is currently on the roster bubble), has the same number of career interceptions. Something has got to give.
Money or Motivation?
Aside from the poor play overall, Hargreaves is scheduled to earn $9.5 million next year for the Buccaneers. All of that money for a first-round corner with more blown coverage highlights than interceptions. However, there’s good news to all of this; Tampa Bay has yet to pick up his fifth-year option, which means he could be cut before June 1 and the Buccaneers would be off the hook for the entirety of the nine and a half million dollars. At that point, the team would have spending ammunition to lock up a young, budding talent at the corner position next year or address the position early in the draft.
Expectations
Either way, Hargreaves is aware of this. Unlike in years past where his high-pitched laugh was the highlight of training camp that aired on Hard Knocks, I expect to see a more mentally sharp, no-nonsense player who understands this is his contract year. The new coaching staff doubled down on the pressure by adding two cornerbacks in the early rounds of the 2019 draft, via Sean Murphy-Bunting and Jamel Dean, giving Hargreaves all the more reason to fight to keep his starter position. The moral of this story is very simple: He has 16 games to prove he’s worth $9.5 million to the Glazer family. Will it be enough motivation to get a fringe Pro-Bowl season out of him? We’ll see.
