The 2013 NFL Draft was so bad, trading for Darrelle Revis may have been smart-ish

Remember 2013? When Greg Schiano was entering his second year as Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach, with a roster that looked pretty talented, and just needed some extra fire and a re-energized Josh Freeman to get over the hump?

That was fun. Especially the bit where the Bucs turned into the laughing stock of the NFL with so many scandals everybody seemed to lose track, including a starting quarterback that got cut after three games, and a recurring infectious disease that ended an All-Pro starter’s career. Oops.

One reason the Bucs were awful that year was because they gave up a lot of resources for Darrelle Revis, then didn’t really use him to actually design a defense around, and he himself was a little disappointing too. In fact, the Bucs gave up their first-round pick that year, and a conditional second-round pick the next year (that got converted into a third-rounder after they cut him). Plus the measly sum of $16 million per year, every year of his contract—so, a total of $16 million.

That trade looks like a complete disaster in hindsight, but one reason to make that trade has held up over time: the 2013 NFL draft was absolutely terrible, so that first-round pick really didn’t matter much.

Here’s the Ringer’s Danny Kelly on how terrible that draft class was:

After four seasons, the 2013 draft class is flirting with infamy, at risk of going down as one of the worst in league history: The class’s top 12 picks have produced just one Pro Bowl appearance (from Ziggy Ansah in 2015) and the first round has given us just one true superstar (Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins). Once the dust settled on free agency this spring, just 34 of the top 100 players taken that year are still with the team that drafted them.

The Bucs’ draft class looks pretty horrible, too. The only draft pick still on the roster is fourth-rounder William Gholston, who’s turned into a solid player overall. But other than that, everyone’s gone: Johnthan Banks turned out to be bad, Mike Glennon can enjoy his $17 million for sitting on the bench in Chicago, Akeem Spence left for the Detroit Lions, as did Mike James.

The Bucs might have gotten more out of their first-round pick, whoever that would’ve been, but I wouldn’t count on it given general manager Mark Dominik’s track record—especially given the fact that he thought the first round was so bad, he might as well give up their pick anyway.

Of course, it’s not like trading for Revis turned out to be smart so eh....who are we kidding here? Everything about 2013 was bad. Maybe we should erase it from Bucs history.