Buccaneers Cut Vernon Hargreaves

Overtime Heroics Editorial

2124 days ago

The Buccaneers have parted ways with starting cornerback Vernon Hargreaves. Coach Bruce Arians benched the 11th overall pick in the 2016 draft on Sunday because of a perceived lack of effort in the third quarter. As stated in my article a couple of days ago, Hargreaves was on thin ice. This wasn’t the first time this year, Arians had called Hargreaves’ work ethic into question. Clearly, the ice had already cracked.

After being out for almost all of the 2018 season, Hargreaves had a strong start to the year. He had three tackles and a pick-six in the Bucs’ opening loss to San Francisco. He also set a career-high with 12 tackles against the Panthers Week 2, including a game-sealing goal-line stop of Christian McCaffrey. As Hargreaves production leveled off around three tackles per game, rookies Jamel Dean and Sean Murphy-Bunting have improved their play dramatically.

The move leaves the Buccaneers’ secondary even younger. Six of the remaining nine players are in either their first or second year in the league. Corner Ryan Smith and safety Andrew Adams are the now the veterans in their fourth, safety Darian Stewart is in his tenth. The team did not immediately announce an accompanying roster move to fill the vacancy.

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