Buccaneers' Vernon Hargreaves: Will have major role in rookie season

Hargreaves will play a pivotal role in the defense during his rookie season, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports. "He's going to play,'' coach Dirk Koetter said Thursday as the team wrapped up its three-day mandatory minicamp. "The guy has made plays every single day. Vernon is the football player we thought when we drafted him. He's going to play. It will all fall in place. We're very confident Vernon can either play inside in the nickel or outside.''

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The 2016 first-round pick has been highly impressive throughout the offseason, even adapting seamlessly to playing inside at slot corner. Hargreaves snagged an inteception late in Wednesday's mini-camp session, and came back Thursday to knock down multiple passes in a red-zone drill. To date, incumbent Alterraun Verner and offseason acquisition Brent Grimes have run with the first-team defense, but Hargreaves' increasingly strong play could certainly enable him to force the issue with respect to a starting role before the start of the regular season. Regardless of where he lines up, the University of Florida product is savoring every aspect of his pro experience so far, and embracing the move inside for now. "I'm fairly comfortable. Not all the way comfortable because I'm used to playing outside. It's a new position. There's new techniques and things I need to learn. It's a learning process, but I'm enjoying it. The closer you are to the ball, the more times you can touch the ball. So I'm happy about moving inside, of course.''