Tampa Bay selects East St. Louis grad Terry Beckner Jr. in NFL draft

East St. Louis native Terry Beckner Jr. will soon be a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

A 6-4, 295-pound defensive lineman at the University of Missouri, Beckner was chosen by the Buccaneers as the first pick of the seventh round of the NFL draft Saturday in Nashville.

Beckner was projected as a possible late-fourth round selection, but he had to wait until the final day and the No. 215th overall pick.

“He’s going to compete,” Buc’s general manager Jason Licht told the Tampa Bay Times. “I know he’s got a good chance to make this football team if plays the way he did at Missouri and the way we evaluated him.”

A 2015 graduate of East St. Louis, where he played for coach Darren Sunkett, Beckner was ranked the No. 2 high school player in the nation in his senior season and chose Missouri over many of the programs in the nation.

Following his first two years at Missouri, which were cut short due to injury, a healthy Beckner enjoyed his finest season during his junior year in 2017. Playing in all 13 games, Beckner recorded 38 tackles, seven quarterback sacks and 11 tackles for loss. Beckner was the Tigers’ interior lineman of the year in 2017.

Concerns about the health of his knees, however, no doubt contributed his six-round wait in Nashville despite his impressive showing at the NFL Combine.

“Terry went through some adversity earlier in his career with a knee injury, one on each side,” Licht told the Times. “He’s really tough. Love the kid. Love the grit that he had where he’s grown up in East St. Louis. It would be tough for me to walk a day in his shoes with what he’s had to go through. He’s an awesome kid, smart instinctive player. He’s a strong. Like the way he plays.”

A team captain as a senior in 2018, Beckner had another good season, playing in all 13 games and making 34 tackles. He won the team’s Performance Nutrition Golden Apple award.

In his four years at Missouri, Beckner recorded 120 total tackles, 32.0 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks.

Farmer not picked

Tanner Farmer, a 6-4, 325-pound offensive lineman from Highland did not get selected as expected, but may still sign as an undrafted free agent. Farmer played at the University of Nebraska, what didn’t have a player taken in the NFL Draft for the first time since 1962.

This story was originally published April 27, 2019 at 7:59 PM.