TAMPA, Fla. — Before they were teammates and the best of friends with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, defensive backs Jamel Dean and Carlton Davis were teammates at Auburn University.
They played together for five seasons in Tampa Bay until Davis got traded this offseason to the Detroit Lions.
“It caught me off guard,” Dean said Tuesday after the Bucs’ fourth OTA practice. “I wasn’t aware of all the stuff that was going on until I got a phone call. I looked at the news and it said Carlton got traded. I was like, ‘What? Oh, okay. That’s random.’ They always say it’s a business, so, okay.”
Dean knows that it’s a cutthroat business that is all about winning. For a defensive back, like Dean, to help his team win, he needs to make the big plays.
He finished last season with no interceptions and way too many drops. This offseason, he’s using that part of his game to improve.
“For the most part just the jugs machine and, even a month or two when the season is over with, I’m not even thinking about football, I still get a text (from coach), ‘You need to be catching balls.’ ‘Okay, I know,’ I dropped five interceptions last year. I’m sorry. I’m working to improve on that. I’m catching 50 balls a day, if I get a chance to catch with the quarterbacks, I’ll try. Even they are treating me like the guy that shows up at the party, and then everybody just leaves.”
Leaving games early or missing them due to injury has been an issue for Dean. He missed four games last year and never played a full season in his career.
“He’s got to stay healthy number one,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “That’s the biggest thing. When he’s healthy and on the field he’s a great asset for us. To go from good to great, you first have to be healthy. His message for camp is to master the defense and not worry about the offense. If he understands where his help is he will have a heck of a year.”
Bucs cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross said Dean can be an all-pro player if he can pick off passes—all he has to do is catch the ball.
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