The Top 10 Draft Hits In Buccaneers History - #4 John Lynch

by Sander on Apr 25, 2011 12:01 PM EDT

At number four in the Bucs' best draft picks, John Lynch comes in. The Stanford two-sport athlete was drafted in the third round by the Buccaneers on a recommendation by Bill Walsh, but for the first three seasons it didn't seem like Lynch would amount to much. He didn't get on the field very often and was mostly a special teams player. But in 1996 the light went on, and he became a key cog in Dungy and Kiffin's Tampa Two. Lynch played 11 seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and earned 5 Pro Bowl selections and 4 All-Pro selections as a Buccaneer. He would later add another 4 Pro Bowl selections with the Denver Broncos, after the Buccaneers released him due to injury and salary cap problems.

Lynch was a terrific, intelligent safety who understood the defense. But he was best known for being a ferocious hitter. He would fill gaps in the running game and hit running backs as hard as they'd ever be hit. If someone caught a ball over the middle, he'd better be hoping a jersey with #47 wasn't coming straight at him. For all of that, NFL Network named him the #10 Most Feared Tackler of all time, and you can see that clip after the jump.

John Lynch was one of the best Buccaneers ever, who played for the team for a long time at a high level, and who helped build the vaunted Bucs defense and win a Super Bowl. And he was a third-rounder - a terrific draft pick for the Bucs.

10. Warrick Dunn

9. Doug Williams

8. Mike Alstott

7. James Wilder

6. Paul Gruber

5. Ronde Barber

4. John Lynch

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Easily one of the most exciting players to watch, ever.

This list rules.

If you will it, dude, it is no dream.

by Kilgore on Apr 25, 2011 12:17 PM EDT reply actions

Agreed.

I’m kind of excited to know he’ll be calling out our 2nd round pick in the draft this year. It was pretty well known that he was disappointed that he wasn’t getting a contract extension with the Bucs.

by LABucsFan on Apr 25, 2011 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions

I love this list too

Was sad to see him leave and even sadder when he produced more productive years for the Broncos…

"No man ever achieved worthwhile success who did not, at one
time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging
well over the brink of failure."

-Napoleon Hill

by G Yeti on Apr 25, 2011 12:40 PM EDT reply actions

That's what happens when you're backed up against the salary cap....

When Sapp and Lynch left for other teams, the Bucs were maxed out in cap room. There wasn’t enough they could do to restructure contracts to re-sign their own players. Part of this was high priced free agents and the rest was the fact that they had enough of their own home-grown talent that had warranted big contracts. When they had players like Sapp, Lynch, Alstott, Barber, Brooks, etc. all signed to big deals, and had free agent signings like Keyshawn, Brad Johnson, Keenan McCardell, Jerevicious, Simeon Rice, etc signed to pretty good deals, they had no room to keep players around.

We may be in a similar situation in a few years when guys like Freeman, Williams, Blount, Benn, etc all come up for new contracts if we also have some big name free agents on the team (say for example Asomugha). The team would go from cap floor to cap ceiling in no time and it would make it more difficult to retain good players. This is why it’s imperative to keep scouring the free agent market for mid-grade guys that can fill roles adequately (although maybe not exceptionally) rather than go after high dollar top notch free agents.

However, I think they could sign Asomugha to a 3 or 4 year deal and let him go when it’s done so they’d have room for signing their own talent at that time. If they’re going to get a high priced free agent, the time is now so his contract will be up when it’s time to sign our own. In the meantime, they’ll need to groom a replacement for that high dollar guy.

by Bruce McRae on Apr 25, 2011 2:38 PM EDT up reply actions