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It's always fun when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers get mentioned as having one of the better drafts this offseason. I like being a fan of a good team, and comments like that give me the illusionidea that the Bucs are doing things the right way. Of course, no one can really judge that until a number of years from now, when we really know whether any of these draft picks have panned. Still, it's hard not to love the universal acclaim the Bucs have gotten. The grades for Tampa Bay's draft have been almost universally good among draftniks, and now we get some evidence that personnel people around the league think the same thing. Cue Albert Breer tweets:
One thing I enjoy ... Making post-draft calls to scouts, execs to talk wrap up. One club that consistently came up as a winner: Tampa Bay.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 1, 2012
Also interesting: Barron was the wild card in the 9-13 range. Jets, Patriots and Lions were all sniffing around, might've struck if he fell.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 1, 2012
... In fact, when the Cowboys/Rams deal went down, at least a few clubs thought Dallas was going up to 6 to get Barron, not Claiborne.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 1, 2012
Of course, that final point is interesting, and something the Bucs have alluded to, too: the Bucs could have missed out on Barron by trading back, too.