Vernon Hargreaves seemed destined for Tampa Bay Buccaneers

TAMPA, Fla. -- Vernon Hargreaves had custom-designed shoes for the NFL Scouting Combine with "Tampa," written on the side scripted over the city's skyline. He made no secret of his desire to play for his hometown team.

Now Hargreaves is a Tampa Bay Buccaneer from head to toe.

Hargreaves, the Florida Gators' ball-hawking cornerback who played at Wharton High School, fulfilled a personal dream when he was selected No. 11 overall by the Bucs in the NFL draft.

"I'm excited to be back home," Hargreaves said. "It's surreal. I don't know what to feel right now. I'm super excited and kind of ready to get started.

"Of course. It doesn't get better than this, being drafted by your home team. I live 40 minutes from the facilities and I'm able to see my mom when I want to now. It's great."

Tampa Bay traded down two spots from No. 9 with the Chicago to No. 11, picking up the Bears' fourth-round pick, No. 106.

The Bears took Georgia linebacker Leonard Floyd and the Giants followed by selecting Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple. Hargreaves said he had been warned by his agent the Bucs may trade down a few spots.

"So when they actually traded back, that's when my heart dropped,'' Hargreaves said. "Because he turned out to be right."

Considered perhaps the best pure cover cornerback in the draft, Hargreaves provides the Bucs with help in a secondary that was a sieve last season. Opposing quarterbacks completed 70 percent of their passes and threw 31 touchdown passes in 2015.

Hargreaves actually grew up in Miami before starting high school in North Carolina. But when his dad, Vernon, Jr., took a job as the defensive ends and special teams coordinator for South Florida in 2010, Hargreaves started calling Tampa home.

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter, who is the son of a football coach, admitted he's biased toward players with similar backgrounds. Hargreaves' dad is a linebackers coach at Arkansas, but his mom still lives in Tampa.

"I'm biased in that respect," Koetter said. "That's something in college I believed in. When we were recruiting, it seemed like coaches' sons always fared a little better in the football smarts department. We'll see if that's true."

Almost from the start of the offseason, the Bucs and Hargreaves seemed to be running toward each other with open arms.

Hargreaves had those cleats custom-made for the Combine in February.

"I asked him if he was ready to be a Buc," general manager Jason Licht said. "He said, 'Are you kidding me?'"

Koetter said Hargreaves reminds him of another Bucs corner -- Miami free agent Brent Grimes.

Grimes played for Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith in Atlanta and made the Pro Bowl three straight years with the Dolphins with 13 interceptions during that stretch.

"You can ask Brent Grimes if lack of height has affected his career," Licht said. "You can ask Ronde Barber if lack of height affected his career ... there's been a lot of Pro-Bowl corners -- a lot -- that have been his size. He's a thick guy so he plays big. Plays big in the run game."