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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the NFC South for the fourth consecutive season in 2024, but to stay on top, they must bring in reinforcements in the 2025 NFL Draft. While there are no glaring holes on the Tampa Bay roster, there are several areas they could clearly improve in, so let’s see what happens when we run a three-round Buccaneers 2025 NFL Mock Draft with trades using the Pro Football Network simulator.
Heading into NFL free agency and the draft, the Buccaneers’ biggest needs include adding edge rushers and replacing key, long-tenured veterans like wide receiver Chris Godwin and linebacker Lavonte David after their (possible) free agency and retirement departures.
Well, Bucs fans asked, and the PFN NFL mock draft simulator listened, giving the team one of each of these types of players while making one trade along the way.
Round 1, Pick 19: WR Matthew Golden, Texas
Chris Godwin has been excellent at times for the Buccaneers over the years but age and injures have started to hamper his career, so it seems unlikely that Tampa Bay brings him back in free agency.
With Mike Evans still putting up 1,000 yards every year he steps on the field and Jalen McMillan showing flashes of promise with 576 yards and five touchdowns this season, the Bucs’ WR corps is pretty darn good.
Adding a Godwin-style big-play wideout to the stable, though, in the 2025 NFL Draft would be ideal.
Enter Texas Longhorns pass-catcher Matthew Golden at No. 19 in this Buccaneers mock draft. At 6 feet, 195 pounds, Golden is built a lot like Godwin and is a touchdown waiting to happen on every play, just like the man he may replace.
Golden can play X, Y, or Z receiver and operate on the short, mid, or deep section of the field. In two seasons at Houston, the WR had 76 catches for 988 yards and 13 touchdowns. Last year at Texas, with better talent around him, he went for 58 grabs for 987 yards and nine scores.
If Golden gets single coverage in the NFL — which he would across from Evans and McMillan — he could be a real gamebreaker, just like Godwin was.
TRADE: Round 2, Pick 51: EDGE Donovan Ezeiruaku, Boston College
In Round 2, the PFN 2025 NFL mock draft simulator has the Buccaneers sending the No. 53 pick and a 2026 fourth-round selection to the Cleveland Browns for the No. 51 pick (via the Denver Broncos).
The reason they trade up here is that they see a borderline first-round pick fall to the middle of the second because his measurements aren’t quite as big as NFL teams like. At 6-foot-2, 247 pounds, no one is going to confuse Ezeiruaku with Myles Garrett.
However, when you see Ezeiruaku’s FBS-leading 21 tackles for a loss and 16.5 sacks last season, he and Garrett start to look a little more similar, at least on paper.
Although he may not look the part coming off the team bus, Ezeiruaku is incredibly productive because of his explosion coming off the line and his wide array of pass-rush moves. And while he was elite getting after the QB last season, he is also disruptive in the run game despite his smaller size.
With Calijah Kancey and Vita Vea clogging up the middle, Ezeiruaku would be an excellent upgrade over both YaYa Diaby and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka.
Round 3, Pick 84: LB Jay Higgins, Iowa
If 35-year-old free agent Lavonte David plays football in 2025, it will almost certainly be with the Buccaneers, the team he’s been with for 13 seasons. However, the All-Pro LB flirted with retirement last offseason, so 2024 may have been David’s last dance.
Whether David comes back or not, the Buccaneers need to get deeper, younger, and more dynamic at the inside linebacker position, so drafting an ILB in the first two days of the draft makes a ton of sense.
Here, the PFN NFL mock draft simulator has the Bucs taking Iowa LB Jay Higgins.
Higgins is a 6-foot, 220-pound linebacker who was a two-time All-American for the Hawkeyes and put up almost 300 tackles in the last two seasons. He excels going after run plays and playing zone defense. He doesn’t have elite footspeed for man-to-man or the long arms to take on NFL offensive linemen to blitz a lot, but ultimately, he does more than he can’t do.
Ideally, Higgins would rotate in for a season with David, but either way, this is a solid pick in Round 3.
