Michigan Cornerback Raves About Pre-Draft Visit With Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have brought in a number of high-profile draft prospects for Top 30 visits, including the likes of Alabama’s Kool-Aid McKinstry and Florida State’s Jared Verse, among others. There’s one player they’ve hosted, however, that felt the Bucs made a big impression on him.

The team recently hosted Michigan cornerback Mike Sainristil on a Top 30 visit, one of multiple at the cornerback position along with McKinstry. He recently sat down for an interview with The Draft Network, and when asked about teams he has visited, he had a lot of great things to say about the Bucs and his visit to Tampa Bay.

“I recently completed a visit with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It went really well. They treated me like family. I loved everything about that visit,” Sainristil told The Draft Network. “It kinda felt like the first time I visited the Michigan campus, to be honest with you. I interpret that in a great way.”

This is intriguing for a number of reasons. While it could perhaps be simply that the Bucs are quite hospitable to their pre-draft visitors, the high praise from Sainristil could perhaps also be an indicator that the Buccaneers liked him, too. There is certainly a need for cornerback, but it’s moreso an outside need, and Sainristil has admitted that while he has talked with some teams about that, he’s projected at the nickel position.

“I’m definitely hearing more nickel than anything else, but I’ve had some boundary corner as well,” he said in the interview. “A lot of teams are very aware of the positional versatility I bring to the table.”

As it stands, the Bucs are likely to have a competition between Christian Izien and newly-acquired Tavierre Thomas for the nickel slot, but the addition of Sainristil could bring a depth option that could turn into a long-term investment going forward.

He had a stellar year at Michigan last year, netting six interceptions and two forced fumbles. Whether or not he’ll take that production to the Bucs depends on if they select him at any point from April 25-27 during the NFL Draft.

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