clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

"Dumbest pick in the history of the draft" says anonymous general manager

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Folks just can't stop talking about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' decision to trade up into the second round to pick Roberto Aguayo. The pick has been widely mocked, and now one anonymous general manager decided to slag the Buccaneers to Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman.

One general manager told me the selection was "the dumbest pick in the history of the draft."

That seems to be the consensus in the league.

I've been very critical of this pick. I even called it the worst decision in this draft. I still stand behind that, but the "dumbest pick in the history of the draft"? That's just patently absurd. I  mean, aside from all of the obvious busts in the first round like Jamarcus Russell, Ryan Leaf and Johnny Manziel -- you could at least argue that those were the result of taking justifiable risks -- there have been specialists who have been picked higher! Mike Nugent in 2005 and Sebastian Janikowski in 2000 have to be worse picks by definition.

Or hey, here's one Bucs fans don't want to be reminded of: deciding to draft Bo Jackson with the number one overall pick, after said running back explicitly told the Bucs he wouldn't play for them because they screwed up his college baseball eligibility.

Moreover, let's not act like this is a franchise-ruining pick. They gave up too much for a very good kicker. To be specific: a high third-round pick and a high fourth-round pick. Those draft picks are certainly valuable, they're the kind of picks you use to build depth on your team, but third- and fourth-round busts aren't exactly rare -- depending on your exact criteria, well over half of those picks turn out to be massive disappointments. Teams survive those. The Bucs will, too.

Freeman also cites an anonymous scout who liked the pick, and claimed that kickers "could become as valuable as running backs." Now that's just combating extremist nonsense with other extremist nonsense.

In the end, what's done is done. The result is that the Bucs have a very good kicker, whether he's worth what they gave up to get him or not.