The Buccaneers had just about everyone on the block before Tuesday's NFL trade deadline. Now that the deadline has come and gone, safety Mark Barron is no longer a Buccaneer.
Tampa Bay traded Barron to St. Louis at the 4 p.m. buzzer, ESPN's Adam Schefter was first to report. The Rams are giving up fourth- and sixth-round picks to acquire him.
Barron, the seventh-overall pick in the 2012 draft, never lived up to his billing as a hard-hitting playmaker out of the University of Alabama while in Tampa. He flashed his moments over two and a half seasons, but ended his time graded out as Pro Football Focus' No. 66 safety. He was ranked No. 55 in his second season after being No. 70 as a rookie, so there was little improvement there.
There were hopes he could turn it around under Lovie Smith, but Barron's continued poor play at a position critical to Smith's defense made him expendable. The Buccaneers have had terrible secondary play other than cornerback Alterraun Verner all season.
Fortunately for Tampa Bay, it found a more desperate team in the secondary. Consider the Rams just featured four rookie corners against the Chiefs in Week 8. The safeties aren't that much more experienced in T.J. McDonald and Rodney McLeod.
Per ESPN's Adam Caplan, the Rams will waive quarterback Case Keenum to make room for Barron on the roster.
Tampa also traded reserve linebacker Jonathan Casillas to the New England in exchange for draft picks.
Casillas started the first three games of the season before losing the strong-side linebacker's job to Danny Lansanah, who has returned two interceptions for touchdowns. The Bucs sent him and a sixth-round pick to the Patriots, receiving a fifth-round pick in return.
Contributing: The Associated Press
