With the Draft steadily approaching all eyes will be on Head Coach Raheem Morris and General Manager Mark Dominik to see how they stack up to the previous men-in-charge before them. To take a look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers past NFL Drafts from inception (’76) to present date click here (2000s), here (1990s), here (1980s), and here (1970s). While compiling this list I came up with the following observations; let’s see if you agree:
Buccaneers best Draft? Hands DOWN… 1995 DT Warren Sapp, LB Derrick Brooks, DB Clifton Abraham. The Draft Class of ’07 (Adams, Sears, Jackson, Piscitelli, Black) could rival that ’95 class in another 10 years…
Biggest Head Scratcher? Three way tie between 1993, 1988, and 1987. The ’87 Draft class netted QB Vinny Testaverde as well as FOUR Running backs. Another QB in Mike Shula was also taken. Considering they had 20 Draft Picks I guess this was a reasonable conclusion, but could you imagine a team taking FOUR Running backs in the NFL Draft! The worst part is those FOUR RB’s apparently didn’t work out as they drafted another FOUR RB’s the following off-season, yikes! In ’93 FOUR Wide Receivers were chosen, two of which came from the University of Miami (Fla.). DB John Lynch and DE Chidi Ahanotu were part of that class. I guess the Bucs were drafting for quantity over quality.
Did you know? In 1976 the Bucs Drafted Hall of Fame DE Lee Roy Selmon, they also drafted his brother, Dewey (a linebacker), in the second round. How cool is that? They both attended the University of Oklahoma.
Biggest Draft disappointment? 1986 First Round Draft Pick RB Bo Jackson. The Bucs drafted him and he opted to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals. He would go on to play for the Los Angeles Raiders. How does that even happen? His rights should have reverted back to Tampa when he elected to play football again. Could you imagine drafting WR Jeff Samardzija with the 4th Pick in the Draft instead of Gaines Adams only to then have Samardzija chose baseball, ugh? That would be pretty tough to recover from.
With the first pick in the NFL Draft the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select… ’76 DE Lee Roy Selmon, ’77 RB Ricky Bell, ’86 RB Bo Jackson, and ’87 QB Vinny Testaverde. Notice how those occurred consecutively in two different decades, that’s bad. The Bucs have had 14 Top 10 picks over the past 30 years…
Draftee most likely to overachieve, er not so much: 2002 RB Travis Stephens (Tennessee). This kid had a ridiculous senior season for the Vols: 10 touchdowns and a UT record 1,464 rushing yards. He played behind Jamal Lewis until his senior year and he didn’t disappoint. I thought he was a lock to carry the rock for the Bucs. He didn’t even make it to camp that season having been a 4th round pick.
Greatest Football Name: 1992 11th Round Draftee RB Mazio Royster from Southern Cal. I mean how could you resist drafting a name like that? Yeah Boy!
Remember: You can access the Bucs past NFL Drafts any time by clicking the links: here (2000s), here (1990s), here (1980s), and here (1970s) as well as in the NFL Draft widget in the left sidebar of this site.
