Buccaneers Hall of Famer gives surprising pick for team's biggest impact rookie

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted a few talented rookies, but which one could make the biggest splash?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers former cornerback and Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023 enshrinee Ronde Barber. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers went heavy on defense in the 2025 NFL Draft, with four of their six picks coming from that side of the ball. The move makes sense, as the Bucs' defense hasn't been aggressive and tight as head coach Todd Bowles' reputation would demand in the past few years, and Bucs general manager Jason Licht is looking to fix that.

Bucs legend Ronde Barber is one of the greatest defensive backs ever, earning his spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023. It makes sense that he'd be excited about two of Tampa Bay's draft picks in cornerbacks Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish — the latter is set to play nickel corner, a position Barber helped revolutionize in the NFL. Both players made Barber's list of his potential four biggest impact rookies on the Ronde Barber Show on WFLA, coming in at No. 3 and No. 2, respectively, but his No. 1 pick was quite the surprise.

Barber went with Bucs edge rusher David Walker, who was drafted in the fifth round. Walker, an FCS star out of Central Arkansas, lit up the stat sheet during his career with 39 sacks and 82.5 tackles for loss in four years. Barber acknowledged that he's undersized and put up those big numbers against lesser competition, but he particularly loves the mentality he brings to the game.

"Our No. 1 impact rookie, you might not believe this — it is David Walker," Barber said. "I didn't know anything about him until we picked him, and then you go and look at what he did... when you put the film on, you're like, 'Holy cow, this dude has the mentality.' It's kinda like this underdog mentality that makes people respect him."

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While it's strange that Barber didn't pick a defensive back (or anyone picked by the Bucs in the first four rounds) as his potential No. 1 impact player, his reasoning makes sense. Barber knows what it's like to have a great defense, as he played on many throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. He mentioned that when the team won the Super Bowl in 2002, however, it was because it had gone out and gotten a dominant edge rusher a year earlier.

"I'm not making [this] comparison, certainly, to David Walker. But when the Bucs got really good when I was playing, it's because we went out and got Simeon Rice," Barber said. "And we dominated teams after that because of the pressure generated from the edge of our d-line. We need someone to do that, and I'm not putting a lot of pressure on him, but David Walker looks like a guy that could do that."

Walker will have to fight an uphill battle to get some playing time. Second-year edge rusher Yaya Diaby and new free agent Haason Reddick should start on the first rotation, but the second rotation will feature a competition between Walker, second-year player Chris Braswell and veteran Anthony Nelson.

Edge rushing rooms are all about rotation, though. And if Walker can shine in the limited reps he's set to have, the Bucs' pass rush could hit a whole new high in 2025.

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