"We needed to get some guys and Jason and the staff did a great job with M.J. and Carlton," said Secondary Coach Jon Hoke. "M.J. is a guy at North Carolina who played multiple positions. He played outside, he played inside. He moved all over the place and adapted well. He's a very smart football player. He understands concepts, so that was a big part of it, his versatility and his ability to handle both. Carlton had a lot of different coaches when he was at Auburn. He had three different coordinators and so he adapted. Every style was a little bit different from his freshman year to his sophomore year to his junior year. So, it was good to be able to see him, when you watch him from his freshman year when they played off to his last year when they played more up. So, it was easy to see the skill set that he had."

The Bucs also made Northwestern safety Godwin Igwebuike a high-priority target among the ranks of undrafted players. The final addition to the secondary is another undrafted rookie, but Mark Myers had to do a bit more to prove himself, first coming to the Bucs' rookie mini-camp on a tryout contract. Potentially the first NFL player produced by the fledgling football program at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Myers impressed in that camp and was given a spot on the 90-man roster.

"Godwin did a good job [at rookie camp]," said Hoke. "A young man from Northwestern, he did a good job. Mark Myers, who was really a tryout guy and I'll be honest, I didn't even know about his college. One of the scouts showed me a tape and I said that he should definitely be a tryout guy. He's not very big, but he is very quick, he's explosive and he's fast. It's interesting."

How do they all fit? That's the unknown we referred to above. There are essentially five starting spots to be filled, when one includes the nickel back job, though the Buccaneers are sure to use more than five DBs over the course of the season. At corner, the Bucs have Grimes plus Hargreaves, who started 23 games over his first two seasons after he was taken 11th overall in 2016, and Smith, who opened 10 games last season and got some very valuable experience. That could be your starting three, with Hargreaves in the slot and Smith joining Grimes outside, unless one of the two second-round rookies muscles his way in.

The Buccaneers drafted Stewart with the belief that he could excel in the slot and also potentially win a job on the outside. They picked Davis because he's bigger than any of their other corners and can play a physical game against the many oversized receivers in the league. Davis, in particular, has been drawing a lot of attention in spring practices and has even gotten a lot of first-team work with Smith sidelined by injury.

Meanwhile, Whitehead joins what seems to be a perpetual competition at the safety position. When last year began, the starting duo was Chris Conte and Keith Tandy, with rookie second-rounder Justin Evans and Ward, the late free agency addition, looking to muscle their way in. Evans did so and, a year later, seems like the surest thing in that group. He was a full-time, every-down player by about a third of the way into last season. Conte and Tandy are still around, though, and each is capable of holding down a starting spot. With Whitehead's arrival, there are a lot of ways the top four on the depth chart could be arranged, and this one might not even be settled by the start of the regular season.

"I think Whitehead is a really good guy to talk to," said Defensive Backs Coach Brett Maxie. "He's very bright, he's from Aliquippa. He's a good person. Obviously you know he's a good player. Just like every year, it's our responsibility to make sure that everybody gets a chance to compete, and they will. Us as coaches, we have to make sure that the best players play."

Notable 2017 Numbers: Simply put, opposing quarterbacks didn't have much difficulty completing passes against the Buccaneers' defense last year.

Tampa Bay surrendered a completion rate of 67.6%, which was fourth worst in the NFL. The Bucs also gave up 260.6 net passing yards per game, which ranked last in the NFL, and opponents picked up a league-high 2,489 yards after the catch. The Bucs' interception total (13) was smack dab in the middle of the league's rankings but they clearly were not contesting enough additional passes.