Gonzaga Prep grad Devin Culp tries to make lasting mark in Bucs’ tight end room

TAMPA – There was a time in high school when Devin Culp considered dropping football to concentrate on basketball.

But his mom, Pia, made a deal that if he stuck with the sport and kept catching passes, she would allow him to get tattoos.

Before his career at Gonzaga Prep in Spokane was over, he helped his team go 14-0 and win a state championship.

Putting his stamp on the NFL as the Bucs’ seventh-round pick may prove to be a little more difficult, but the late-blooming Culp is embracing the challenge.

He will have plenty of help. His former Washington Huskies teammate, Cade Otton, is the leader of the young tight end room he has joined with the Bucs.

In fact, Culp is the sixth former Huskies star on the roster, which also includes receiver Jalen McMillan, the team’s third-round pick.

“I had a cool opportunity to meet Vita (Vea) for the first time at the spring football game at the Dub,” Culp said. “Logistically, these guys have all established themselves here in Tampa so they’re definitely going to be great resources to have on how to navigate the city and what not.”

Finding his place in the Bucs offense won’t be as easy. For starters, the Bucs plan to utilize one tight end and three receivers a majority of the time in the new offense under coordinator Liam Coen.

Last season, Otton played 94% of the offensive snaps. The Bucs still are trying to find playing time for tight ends Payne Durham and Ko Kieft. None of them has more than two years of NFL experience.

“I’ve had some young groups before,” said first-year tight ends coach Justin Peelle. “You get them to take it over, so to speak, and that’s some of the funnest rooms or the best rooms I’ve had, it’s been, ‘This is what you’re going to do today,’ and they just kind of take it.

“You’d like for them to learn from somebody, but in this situation, it’s yours and figure it out. When the position is playing well, it’s because of what those guys are doing, it’s not because of me.”

Culp, 24, is only a year younger than Otton, whom he played behind at Washington. He had trouble getting on the field his first three seasons and thought about transferring to Fresno State. In fact, he never had more than 29 catches in any season at Washington.

However, Culp had a special sense for the sensational.

Last October, he made an incredible catch falling backward with Arizona safety Dalton Johnson blanketing him, a play which converted a third-and-16 situation and set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Dillon Johnson on the next play in a 31-24 win over the Wildcats.

Culp’s 22-yard helmet catch at the Los Angeles Coliseum against Southern Cal on Nov. 4 was a defining play in the Huskies’ run to the national championship game.

Culp finished his 54-game career at Washington with 66 catches for 711 yards and four touchdowns.

Peelle already has a plan to eliminate the occasional drop of routine passes that have occasionally plagued him.

“It’s just gaining confidence and a lot of it is concentration,” Peelle said. “A lot of it is trust and just kind of building that in the spring and into training camp and as you get going, getting him to understand that he has good hands. You see the acrobatic catches; the kid can catch the ball. And just kind of building off that.”

At 6-foot-4, 237 pounds, what Culp provides is another big red-zone target with 4.47 speed in the 40-yard dash. He compares his game to big, fast tight ends such as David Njoku, Jonnu Smith, Darren Waller and Evan Engram.

“As a route runner, I feel like a big part of the reason I was drafted here was because of my speed and explosiveness and athleticism, and I know there could be situations where I was able to showcase that,” Culp said.

Otton, McMillan and the other pack of Huskies will be easy to follow.

“You know that standard we hold ourselves to, coming from our program in Washington,” Culp said. “That’s championship level football. Us being able to do walkthroughs together, go through our playbook together and study. … It’s an iron sharpens iron type of thing.”