After the first seven teams in the draft tonight made their own picks, the next two have been traded. The Buccaneers have sent the No. 9 overall pick to the Bears, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link).
Per Jenna Laine (Twitter link), Tampa Bay gets a fourth-round pick (No. 106) from Chicago, in addition to the Bears’ first-round pick (No. 11). The Bears will use the ninth overall pick to select Georgia outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, tweets Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune.
Floyd has been rising up draft boards in recent weeks — indeed, perhaps no player has accrued more buzz over the past few days. Many teams around the top-1o were rumored to be in on Floyd, including the Buccaneers, Bears, and Giants, so it makes sense that Chicago would aim to move ahead of New York. With the Bears, Floyd figures to team with Pernell McPhee in getting after opposing quarterbacks. He’ll join Jerrell Freeman, Danny Trevathan, and Akiem Hicks as part of a remade Chicago defense.
The Buccaneers, meanwhile, will get a bit of a financial windfall by moving back to No. 11. As Joel Corry of CBSSports.com notes (via Twitter), the fifth-year option for picks made outside of the top 10 is equal to the average of the third through 25th-highest salaries at a given position. Had Tampa stayed at No. 9, a fifth-year option would have been equal to the transition tag figure, always a higher number.