Welcome to a brand new collection I’m debuting referred to as Saturday Scouting, the place I’ll profile a participant, idea, or matchup that’s of curiosity to the Bucs. Bauer Sharp, the Buccaneers’ remaining draft choose of the 2026 NFL Draft, is that this week’s focus for Saturday Scouting.
For 3 years Cade Otton has been a little bit of every part for the Bucs offense. The in-line Y, the transfer tight finish, the chain-mover, the security valve. There was even a four-game stretch in 2024 the place the passing sport genuinely ran by way of him with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr. on the sidelines with accidents. Otton’s 77 first downs from 2023 to 2025 are two fewer than Dalton Kincaid and 6 greater than Zach Ertz. And strikingly, he has led all NFL tight ends since 2023 in snaps with 2,968.
Final yr the tight finish room was one of many weaker models within the NFL so far as manufacturing is anxious. As a unit they ranked Thirty second in receptions (61), Thirty second in receiving yards (589) and tied for thirty first in touchdowns (2). With no additions to the room by way of free company, the staff stood so as to add to the room by way of the draft. And so they took their swing within the sixth spherical with LSU’s Bauer Sharp.
A sixth-round choose isn’t the reply to a Thirty second-ranked place group. Sharp doesn’t have to be. The worth he provides reveals up first in what he unlocks for Otton.
Sharp’s positional versatility means Otton will have the ability to play extra to his strengths and require him to be much less of a catch-all participant. Sharp can play the F, line up within the backfield as an H-back, movement throughout formations, and may cut up out extensive because the apex of a journeys bunch. He can play the Y too, however the worth of placing him on the F is that it lets Otton keep on the Y the place he’s at his finest.
Bauer Sharp’s Positional Versatility
Sharp is a pure transfer tight finish. Line him up as the surface man on the wing simply off the road of scrimmage and he presents a risk motioning from the sphere to boundary. He’s not explosive off the snap from a static set, however movement solves that. By the point the ball is snapped he’s already transferring, and his carrying velocity is actual as soon as he’s underway. Sharp ran a 4.63 within the 40-yard sprint on the NFL Scouting Mix.
Cut up him out extensive and the protection has to account for him with a defensive again. Linebackers won’t be able to maintain up with him in area. And the largest defensive backs within the NFL can be mismatched in opposition to his 6-foot-5, 249-pound body.
LSU TE Bauer Sharp – Photograph by: IMAGN Photographs – Stephen Lew
Or you’ll be able to line Sharp up within the backfield as an H-back, the place he’s a aggressive blocker within the run sport and a free launch into the seam in play motion. That alignment is the place his run-pass duality issues most, as a result of the identical pre-snap look serves each.
Bauer Sharp’s Blocking Is A Work In Progress
Now to the half that truly issues for whether or not he performs an actual snap depend as a rookie, which is the blocking. The Bucs are a play-action staff with a downhill working sport, and you don’t get on the sphere at tight finish on this offense in the event you can not block. Devin Culp has discovered that out the arduous means. Bauer Sharp competes his ass off and who likes to drive along with his decrease half to maneuver defenders again, and his first rep in opposition to Houston in LSU’s bowl sport was a textbook drive block the place he moved a defender about 10 yards off the spot.
Sharp works nicely on doubles. He’s keen to dig out defensive ends. He strains on the perimeter. Sharp climbs off double-team blocks to the second stage with effort and timing, which issues in a large zone scheme the place the second-level block is commonly the distinction between a four-yard acquire and a forty-yard one. And most significantly he’s greater than keen to place his shoulder down and decide to what the scheme requires of him.
The blocking warts are actual and they’re each technical and bodily. Sharp will get over-anxious and loses his steadiness at occasions, which ends up in him getting side-stepped and dropping his latch. He can lean an excessive amount of into the block and whiff. Sharp’s concentrating on system as a split-flow blocker wants work, as he offers up an excessive amount of floor when blocking laterally, and his pad stage will get too excessive in pursuit.
None of those are dealbreakers. All of them are the type of factor a decent ends coach fixes in a developmental participant if the participant is keen. And each indicator on Sharp’s tape says he’s keen. His blocking improved measurably from 2024 to 2025.
The true query comes right down to how nicely Sharp’s body will maintain up as a blocker as he ascends competitors stage. The Houston rep above was stunning. It was additionally in opposition to a defensive again. When he tries the identical factor in opposition to linebackers, the outcomes change. The pressure and enthusiasm are at all times there. The outcomes range wildly relying on the energy and body of the opponent.
The sincere evaluation of Sharp as a blocker is that he’s not but a man you belief to deal with an edge defender on a base-down isolation block, and he in all probability by no means can be. That’s fantastic. That’s what Otton, Payne Durham and/or Ko Kieft are for.
What Sharp initiatives as is one thing Otton is able to however not wonderful at, and what Durham and Kieft are utterly misfits for. That’s because the F in 12 personnel, to kick out a drive defender on the perimeter, and climb to the Will linebacker on a large zone, and pin a bottom finish on a pin-and-pull, and chip a blitzing nickel earlier than releasing into the flat. That isn’t a small record. That’s, in reality, many of the blocking calls for the F place generates on this offense.
Bauer Sharp As A Receiver
Bauer Sharp transitions from catcher to runner easily, and he has the carry velocity to threaten vertically on seams when a security rotates down with a poor angle. The 65-yard catch in opposition to Florida final yr is the play that will get lower into spotlight reels. The extra helpful tape is the stuff between the highlights, the place Sharp snaps off routes on the stem cleanly, climbs off of preliminary blocks with an actual really feel for timing, and turns brief catches into yards due to his transition velocity.
The fingers are the receiving wart. Sharp had drops he shouldn’t have had at LSU, together with a gimme catch in the long run zone on a two-point conversion in opposition to Auburn in 2024 the place he gave up on a late response throw. That’s the type of play that scares an offensive coordinator. The counterweight is that he additionally makes some genuinely robust grabs by way of contact, and his catch charge was suppressed by quarterback play that, charitably, was not optimized to present a decent finish a clear goal window. His profession contested catch charge in faculty was a powerful 54.5%.
The fingers are inconsistent somewhat than unhealthy, and inconsistent fingers are coachable in a means that unhealthy fingers usually are not.
Sharp Has A Actual Path To A Roster Spot – And Play Time
The place it provides as much as an actual Bucs position is within the snap distribution. Otton has been a workhorse. With out an F on the roster the previous few seasons he has been required in 12 personnel and and not using a high quality receiving risk behind him the staff hasn’t felt comfy taking him off the sphere in 11 personnel.
Sharp gives a skillset Kieft and Durham don’t have. And pairing him with a kind of two offers pure positional slotting that may assist Otton reduce his workload and preserve him recent. It additionally offers them a chance to get to 12 in numerous methods. Durham because the true Y, Sharp because the true F and Otton because the pure Y who can flex.
If Sharp can take up 25% of these snaps as a reputable F, you’ve got simply purchased your $10-million-a-year tight finish (Otton) an additional seven or eight video games of recent legs over the course of a season. That alone will be motive sufficient for Tampa Bay to take a sixth-round flier on a former quarterback who started his profession at Southeastern Louisiana.
Sharp is just not a completed product. He must play extra bodily by way of contact as a route runner. His ball safety wants work. And he’s not going to be confused with a Y-iso blocker any time quickly. However the position he was drafted to play is well-defined, the room round him is constructed to assist it, and the participant he’s being requested to enhance simply received paid to maintain doing precisely what he’s finest at.
Cade Otton performs extra Y. Bauer Sharp offers the offense a extra pure F. After an early run on tight ends on day two of the 2026 NFL Draft the Bucs wanted to pivot to a participant who match their roster in a selected means. And Sharp is the precise piece for that puzzle.
