1. Fifth-round pick Tyler Johnson played four years for the Golden Gophers at Minnesota.
Johnson had the opportunity to come out after his junior season but elected to stay in school and finish his degree. Across his Gopher career, Johnson amassed 3,305 receiving yards with 33 touchdowns. His 2019 season accounted or 1,318 of those yards – a career high for Johnson – on 86 receptions, 13 of which went for touchdowns.
Both him and fellow Bucs' draft pick Antoine Winfield Jr. were team captains at Minnesota. They'll now reunite at the next level in Tampa Bay, which is where they played their last collegiate game in the Outback Bowl against the Auburn Tigers.
It's where Johnson did this:
2. Johnson is etched in Minnesota football history.
Over the course of his four-year career, Johnson accumulated his fair share of accolades. He surprised long-time Denver Bronco Eric Decker on many of the school's record lists. Johnson currently holds Gopher records for career receiving yards (3,305), career 100-yard games (16), career receiving touchdowns (33), season receiving yards (1,318), season receptions (86), season receiving yards per game (101.4), season 100-yard receiving games (7), the list goes on and you get the point.
3. Sixth-round pick Khalil Davis played at Nebraska.
Davis led the team with 8.0 sacks and 12.0 tackles for loss in 2019. He tallied a career-high 45 tackles last season too, playing as a redshirt senior. Over the course of his Cornhusker career, he recorded 106 total tackles, 23.0 of which were for loss, 13.0 sacks and even a couple forced fumbles. He was named the Cornhuskers' defensive lineman of the year in both 2018 and 2019 and earned third-team All-Big Ten honors on the coaches poll.
4. Khalil has a twin brother, Carlos, who also played DT at Nebraska.
You could say the two did a lot of things together, include come out of the womb at the same time – though Carlos is five minutes older. Not only did they anchor Nebraska's defensive interior together, they were the first brothers to letter eight times for the university, four each in football and track. They became just the eighth and ninth players to do so in Husker history.
Growing up they ran track and swam together in addition to playing football. Davis said on a Zoom call following his selection that by their senior year, their parents had to install a second refrigerator to keep up with the boys' appetites.
5. Linebacker Chapelle Russellplayed four years for the Temple Owls.
With the first of their two seventh-round picks, the Bucs chose linebacker Chapelle Russell out of Temple University. The 6-1, 230-pound linebacker will help provide depth and the inside linebacker position, being added to a room that includes veteran Lavonte David and 2019 first-round pick Devin White.
While with the Owls, Russell totaled 237 tackles, 19.5 of which were for loss, as well as 3.0 sacks across his four seasons. In 2018, after returning from back-to-back ACL injuries and winning the school's Comeback Player of the Year, Russell was awarded one of the Owls' nine single-digit jerseys, given to the toughest players on the team.
6. Russell comes from a familiar program.
Though they may be decades apart, the Temple Owls are a very familiar program for both Russell and his new head coach. Bruce Arians was the head coach of the Owls in the 1980s, while many of his current coaches on staff, including Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles, played for him there. Arians has held an affinity for the school ever since. In fact, General Manager Jason Licht joked after the draft's conclusion that he and Arians had struck a deal that entailed Arians getting a Temple player if Licht got a Nebraska player (Licht started his college football playing career with the Huskers). They both ended up with their wish.
7. Running back Raymond Calais was a Ragin' Cajun for the past four years.
The Bucs' 245th, and last, pick of the 2020 NFL Draft was Calais out of the University of Lousiana-Lafayette, nicknamed the Ragin' Cajuns. Calais rushed for 886 yards on 117 attempts in 2019, scoring six touchdowns. Over the course of his four-year career, the 5-foot-8 running back ran for a total of 1,845 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also added 145 yards on 17 receptions, one of which went for a touchdown.
He was used as more than just a running back in college and is likely to be used at the next level in the same way. Calais was First-Team All-Sun Belt Conference as a return specialist and Coach Arians called him a 'joystick' because of his abilities in the ground and return game. Arians envisions a pretty good battle among the running back group especially in the return game. The team will get T.J. Logan back from injury and drafted Ke'Shawn Vaughn from Vanderbilt in the third round.
