The NFL made its annual announcement of the awarding of compensatory draft picks on Tuesday evening and, as expected, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were not among the 13 teams that landed additional selections. However, that announcement did provide some useful information to the Buccaneers and all NFL teams, regardless of where the picks went: The full 2025 NFL Draft order is now set.
There were 35 new picks awarded overall, including three special compensatory selections based on the hrings of minority head coaches or general managers, one each to Detroit, San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams. Six of them fall at the end of the third round, four at the end of the fourth round, eight at the end of the fifth round, eight at the end of the sixth round and nine to close out the seventh and final round. With those added picks, there will be 257 players selected overall in April's draft.
The Buccaneers currently own six picks in the 2025 draft. They have retained their own selections in Rounds 1-5 and Round 7, but their sixth-round pick went to the Lions as part of last year's Carlton Davis trade. That ended up being pick 196 overall.
The Buccaneers earned the 19th pick in the first round and are first in a set of three teams that fnished with 10-7 records during the 2024 regular season and were then eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The Denver Broncos are slotted 20th and the Pittsburgh Steelers are at number 21. Those three teams will rotate those spots in subsequent rounds, with Tampa Bay dropping to 21st in Round 2 and the other two teams moving up. The Bucs will be in the first slot of that trio of picks in Rounds 1, 4 and 7.
Here is a full rundown of the 2025 draft picks Tampa Bay possesses:
- Round 1, Pick, 19, 19th overall
- Round 2, Pick 21, 53rd overall
- Round 3, Pick 20, 84th overall
- Round 4, Pick 19, 121st overall
- Round 5, Pick 21*, 157th overall
- Round 7, Pick 19, 235th overall
* While the NFL still labels this pick as the 21st in the round, the Buccaneers will actually make the 19th selection because two picks earlier in the round have been forfeited. San Francisco was stripped of its 2025 fifth-round pick a year ago when the league found accounting errors regarding player compensation at the end of the 2022 season. Atlanta lost its 2025 fifth-round pick as a result of tampering violations prior to the signing of quarterback Kirk Cousins last March.
The Buccaneers have made the 19th overall pick in the draft twice before, both fairly recently. They got tight end O.J. Howard in that slot in 2017 and defensive lineman Calijah Kancey at the same spot in 2023.
Tampa Bay has also picked 53rd overall two previous times, taking cornerback M.J. Stewart in 2018 and running back Lars Tate in 1988.
The Buccaneers have been surprisingly active in the 84th overall slot, making four such picks since 1998. The best of the bunch was the most recent: wide receiver Chris Godwin in 2017. The other three are linebacker Mason Foster in 2011, CB Dwight Smith in 2001 and linebacker Jamie Duncan in 1998.
If the Bucs stay put at pick number 121, it will break a long drought. The only draft in which the Bucs executed the 121st-overall pick was their first one, as they grabbed wide receiver Richard Appleby in that spot in 1976. The 157th-overall pick has been pretty good to the Bucs, most recently with the selection of cornerback Zyon McCollum in 2022. That spot also yielded safety Jermaine Phillips in 2002 and tight end James Whalen in 2000.
Finally, the 235th pick has one other occurrence in team history. That's where the Bucs took cornerback Justin Phinisee in 2006.
