Buccaneers Embracing Undrafted Talent in 2024

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are valuing undrafted players like Tyrek Funderburk and Kameron Johnson.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Tyrek Funderburk overcame being an undrafted free agent to make the active roster along with receiver Kameron Johnson (unpictured). Instagram/reek.22 / Instagram/reek.22

There used to be a belief that teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers focused mostly on big-time college programs like Florida State, Washington and others to find their NFL-worthy talents.

Gradually, and with the help of open-minded decision-makers like Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht, smaller programs are starting to get looks they wouldn’t have in those days.

Still, there are players from those smaller programs who will need to go to a training camp with organizations like Tampa Bay and prove it the hard way, like cornerback Tyrek Funderburk did when he came to the Bucs as an undrafted free agent out of Appalachian State. Not only did he enter the league the hard way, he fought and earned himself a spot on the team’s initial 53-man roster.

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“He’s very smart. He has decent size. He’s got speed. He’s a physical player. He likes to tackle, and he just has natural instincts and patience when he’s out there in coverage on an island,"

- Bucs GM Jason Licht on Funderburk

“He’s very smart. He has decent size. He’s got speed. He’s a physical player. He likes to tackle, and he just has natural instincts and patience when he’s out there in coverage on an island,” Licht said of Funderburk when asked what stood out that led to his making the active roster. “It’s something that you either have or you don’t, and he’s got it. We saw a lot – [he’s] got great ball skills, as well, so we see a lot of upside with him.”

Of course, for Funderburk, the moment he found out he made the active roster wasn’t about looking ahead at his own potential or possibilities, but rather a moment he got to look back at what he’s done already in football, and where it’s led him to.

“I was excited,” Funderburk said about the moment he learned he’d made the roster. “I mean, it’s like [my] dreams came true. It’s kind of crazy to watch your dreams come to reality. Years of hard work, years of preparation [and] dedication to what you love to do. It was extremely exciting for me.”

Funderburk wasn’t the only undrafted player to make the roster, and both of them came from relatively smaller programs. Joining him on the roster, but on the other side of the ball, is receiver Kameron Johnson, who entered the league as a UDFA out of Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina.

“It says a lot about them. The quality of men and women in this building,” said Funderburk on the topic of Tampa Bay finding and keeping two undrafted small-school players on the active roster. “They care about players and obviously, they’re willing to take a bet on a guy like me and Kam – undrafted guys from small schools. It lets me know that they see something in us, regardless of what may have happened during camp. We were both hurt at one point, so that says a lot about them [and] about the quality of people that they are.”

It says what Licht and the Bucs have said for years now. The best players will be on the field. 

That’s how you get the best team, how you craft an environment of competition, and quite frankly it’s how you build a three-peat division champion out of a team that missed the postseason altogether from the 2007-2020 NFL seasons.

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