Speed and versatility define this SEC defensive back, a potential first-round fit for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, offering a dynamic solution to bolster their secondary.
There's no consensus for who the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will pick in this year's draft, or even what position they'll target.
But it seems that everybody agrees defense should be the name of the game in the first round.
The Bucs could go with an interior defensive lineman to account for Vita Vea being above 30 and the much-younger Calijah Kancey being injury-prone.
Tampa could address the edge rusher, since the team doesn't have great depth at that position behind YaYa Diaby. It could also take a linebacker, since Lavonte David is 36 and might retire, and the Bucs need to have a plan at that position beyond 2026. It's also plausible that Tampa takes a corner, and that's what one of the country's top draft experts has Tampa doing.
In his latest mock draft, ESPN's Matt Miller has the Bucs taking South Carolina's Brandon Cisse.
A lot of Cisse hype comes from his upside.
He didn't make an All-America team this season and wasn't even an all-SEC performer.
But as Miller pointed out, Cisse has a lot of qualities that could make him a good NFL cornerback. His length and size (6-foot, 190 pounds) make him capable of playing at the line of scrimmage. This is backed up by Pro Football Focus giving Cisse an 89.2 run defense grade, which was 11th in the country among corners.
Cisse is also known for his speed, which Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers raved about last summer.
Miller feels Cisse is a guy who can shut down a team's top receiver. Per PFF, Cisse's passer rating against was 78.9, which is well below average.
A question to ask when evaluating any corner is if he is better in man coverage or zone. Miller says Cisse is more suited to man defense, which could be a problem since the Bucs are a zone-coverage team. But Cisse's run-defense ability could make him effective in zone blitzing, which is a big part of Todd Bowles' scheme.
How much the Bucs need a cornerback relative to other positions depends on what the team decides to do with Jamel Dean, who will be an unrestricted free agent in March. Dean was, statistically, Tampa's best defensive player last season, but the team's desire to bring him back is in question.
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