The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have agreed to a contract with second round pick Austin Seferian-Jenkins that will be signed on Friday. Inking a deal with the giant tight end from Washington will wrap up the signings for their 2014 draft class. Jenkins showcased first round talent while at U-Dub, but a foot injury discovered at the NFL scouting combine prevented him from being able to work out and held him back, which ultimately caused him to slip to the second round. Along with Vincent Jackson and first round pick Mike Evans, the Bucs offense will boast an enormous offense in terms of sheer size that will be difficult for opponents to defend.
Jenkins has terrific size and in a different era, he is probably an offensive tackle. He has showed that he can be an outstanding blocker inline, but the effort and technique are not always consistent. When he is going and on his game, he can collapse the side of the defensive line along with the right tackle and create huge running lanes.
Jenkins has showed he can also be virtually indefensible when it comes to going up and high pointing the football. In addition to being tall, he is broad and can jump, so he looks like an eclipse in front of opposing defenders when he catches the ball. His athleticism is good but not as good as it could have been and part of what made the foot injury so disappointing for Jenkins was that he dropped weight and wanted to show that he could be more athletic and not being able to work out at the combine or a Pro Day forced teams to project how athletic they thought he could be. At 100% health and if he can really buy in and focus on football, he had the talent to be the best tight end in the class, giving the Bucs a big asset both in the running game as a blocker and as a receiver in the middle of the field.