Draft History: Buccaneers best list dominated by Super Bowl participants
The Buccaneers are one of the most unique franchises in terms of on-field success. After three rough seasons, Tampa Bay went to the playoffs three times in four years, including a run to the NFC Championship Game in 1979, before a 14-year playoff drought that was so bad that fans sometimes referred to the team as the “Yuccaneers.” There was a light at the end of the tunnel, though. From 1997-2007, the club enjoyed the most success in its history, making the playoffs seven times and winning its only Super Bowl. Most of Tampa Bay’s best players graced the field during this era, and are feature heavily on the best draft picks list.
BEST
10. Mike Evans, WR (Round 1, Pick 7 in 2014) – A 2013 All-American at Texas A&M, Evans is the team’s all-time leader with 462 receptions, 7,260 yards, and 48 touchdowns. The three-time Pro Bowler has posted at least 1,000 yards in all six seasons, with a high of 1,524 in 2018. Despite the fact that Chris Godwin is now taking away some of his targets in the offense, Evans is a dynamic presence who still has room to get better.
9. Jameis Winston, QB (Round 1, Pick 1 in 2015) – The Florida State product earned all kinds of accolades after a 4,057-yard, 40-touchdown season as a freshman. He won the Heisman Trophy, Walter Camp Award (Player of the Year according to coaches and sports information directors), Davey O’Brien and Manning Awards (Best Quarterback), AP and Sporting News College Player of the Year, All-American and ACC Player of the Year, all while leading the Seminoles to the National Championship. Two years later, he was taken first overall and made his only Pro Bowl (so far) as a rookie. “Famous Jameis” led the NFL with 5,109 yards in 2019, and tops the team list with 19,737 yards and 121 scores. However, there are two drawbacks to his game: His lack of leadership (a 28-42 career record and no playoff appearances), and his decision-making as a passer (88 career interceptions, including a league-high 30 this past season).
8. Gerald McCoy, DT (Round 1, Pick 3 in 2010) – A two-time All-American at Oklahoma, McCoy ranks third in team history with 54½ sacks. He is a six-time Pro Bowler and earned his only All-Pro nod after posting a career-high 9½ sacks in 2013. Despite tearing both biceps over his first two seasons, McCoy started 123 games in nine years in Tampa Bay before signing with Carolina in 2019.
7. Warrick Dunn, RB (Round 1, Pick 12 in 1997) – One-half of the two-pronged running attack Tampa Bay offered in the late 1990s, Dunn had 19 touchdowns and ranks third on the franchise list with 4,986 yards. He is also fourth with 306 receptions. A member of the 1993 Florida State squad that won the National Championship, Dunn was a Pro Bowler and earned Offensive Rookie of the Year honors after rushing for 978 yards in 1997. He was selected to the Pro Bowl again in 2000 after one of two 1,000-yard seasons with the Buccaneers. He left for Atlanta in 2002, the year before the Buccaneers made the Super Bowl, but returned in 2008 and ran for 786 yards.
6. Mike Alstott, FB (Round 2, Pick 35 in 1996) – The bruising half of the Buccaneers late ’90s run tandem was Alstott, who tops the team list with 58 rushing touchdowns and ranks second with 5,088 yards in 11 seasons. From 1997-2002, “A-Train” was selected to six straight Pro Bowls and was a three-time All-Pro. He scored four touchdowns in the 2002 playoffs, including a two-yard run during Tampa Bay’s 48-21 win over Oakland in Super Bowl XXXVII. Alstott ranks right behind Dunn with 305 receptions, but his career was cut short due to neck injuries.
5. John Lynch, S (Round 3, Pick 82 in 1993) – One of the hardest-hitting safeties in NFL history, Lynch spent his first 11 seasons with Tampa Bay. The five-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro posted 788 tackles (hitting 100 or more three times), 23 interceptions and six sacks. He had 15 tackles in the 2002 playoffs, with six in Super Bowl XXXVII. Lynch signed with the Broncos in 2004, earned Pro Bowl honors in each of his four years in Denver and retired after the 2007 season. He spent time as an analyst on FOX before becoming the general manager of the 49ers in 2017. San Francisco reached Super Bowl LIV, and Lynch was named the Pro Football Writers Association NFL Executive of the Year this past season.
4. Ronde Barber, CB (Round 3, Pick 66 in 1997) – Like his twin brother Tiki, Ronde attended the University of Virginia and had an outstanding NFL career. Barber is the team’s all-time leader with 47 interceptions, including a league-leading 10 in 2001, and he also returned eight for touchdowns. The five-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro tops the team by a wide margin with 197 passes defensed, sits second with 1,251 tackles, is second among Buccaneers defensive players with 12 fumbles recovered and also has 28 sacks, the most ever by a defensive back in NFL history. Barber had three tackles and four passes defensed in Super Bowl XXXVII. He currently works as a color analyst for FOX’s NFL game coverage.
3. Lee Roy Selmon, DE (Round 1, Pick 1 in 1976) – The first draft pick in Buccaneers history, Selmon was a two-time All-American and the 1975 Outland Trophy winner as best interior lineman while playing with his brothers, Lucius and Dewey, on the two-time National Champion (1974-75) Oklahoma squad. As the Hall of Famer improved, so did the team: Selmon won Defensive Player of the Year honors in 1979 while Tampa Bay reached the NFC Championship Game (a 9-0 loss to the Los Angeles Rams). While sacks were not an official league statistic for most of Selmon’s career, he posted 11 in 1983 and eight more the following year before a back injury forced him to retire. The six-time Pro Bowler and 1979 All-Pro later served as the Athletic Director at South Florida and has a portion of an expressway named after him in the Tampa Area. He died due to complications from a stroke in 2011.
2. Derrick Brooks, LB (Round 1, Pick 28 in 2008) – Brooks was a high school All-American, and a two-time honoree at the college level, where he also helped Florida State win the 1993 National Championship. “The Sheriff” also holds team records with 1,713 tackles, including 1,300 solo and 12 straight seasons with 100 or more, as well as 24 forced fumbles. Brooks’ 25 interceptions and six touchdown returns are the most among non-defensive backs in franchise history. The Hall of Famer went to 11 Pro Bowls (10 straight), was a five-time All-Pro, earned Defensive Player of the Year honors after registering 118 tackles and five picks (three returned for scores) in 2002. Brooks had 10 tackles and returned an interception 44 yards for a touchdown in Super Bowl XXXVII. He now works as an appeals officer with the NFL and the Players Association.
1. Warren Sapp, DT (Round 1, Pick 12 in 1995) – One of the most dominant and vocal leaders in modern NFL history, Sapp is the all-time Buccaneers leader with 77 sacks and ranks fourth with 14 forced fumbles. He was a freshman on the University of Miami’s National Championship team in 1991, and was an All-American and a Heisman Trophy finalist as a senior. With Tampa Bay, Sapp went to seven straight Pro Bowls, was a four-time All-Pro and posted double-digit sack totals three times, including 12½ in his Defensive Player of the Year season in 1999 and 16½ the following year. One of three Buccaneers players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Sapp had two tackles and a sack in the Super Bowl XXXVII win over the Raiders. He was not without fault (unsportsmanlike conduct, domestic battery, solicitation and assault arrests, and filing for bankruptcy), but he deserves his spot on this list for his on-field contributions to Tampa Bay’ only championship.
WORST
10. (tie) Jimmy DuBose, RB (Round 2, Pick 29 in 1976) and Jackie Walker, LB (Round 2, Pick 28 in 1986) – The Buccaneers found a few players who started in their 1976 expansion season, including Lee Roy and Dewey Selmon (pick 60) and center Steve Wilson (154). However, one pick they did not hit on was DuBose, the SEC Player of the Year with Florida in 1975 who had just 704 yards and four touchdowns in three seasons with the Buccaneers. Despite being Tampa Bay’s first player to rush for 100 yards in a game, an ankle injury and torn knee ligaments cut his career short. DuBose was traded to Miami in 1980, but never played a game for the Dolphins. Another pick in the late 20s that didn’t pan out was Walker, who was overshadowed by the club’s first round pick in 1986 (see number one on this list). He was the Southwest Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 1985, but he did not perform well at any of the pre-draft combines. Walker started just nine of 57 games in his four years and played mostly on special teams. He left the NFL in 1989 and bounced around the Arena Football League.
9. Ray Snell, G (Round 1, Pick 22 in 1980) – With future Pro Bowl offensive linemen Dwight Stephenson, Keith Bishop, Tunch Ilkin and Ray Donaldson on the board, Tampa Bay took Snell, a Wisconsin product. Snell started 35 games in four seasons, as well as two playoff losses to the Cowboys. He was traded to Pittsburgh in 1984, and two years later he suffered a fracture in which a bone got lodged behind his eye, essentially ending his career.
8. (tie) Regan Upshaw, DE (Round 1, Pick 12 in 1996) and Marcus Jones, DE (Round 1, Pick 22 in 1996) - An All-American in high school and college, Upshaw was a member of Pittsburg (California) High School’s 1991 National Championship team. Although he started 47 games and had 18½ sacks in his first three seasons with Tamp Bay, Upshaw was traded to Jacksonville in 1999 for just a sixth-round pick. He started for the Raiders against the Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII. Like Upshaw, Jones was an All-American in both high school and college. He had 13 sacks in 2000, but just 24 overall in six years in Tampa Bay. A knee injury ended his football career, and he spent three years in mixed martial arts.
7. Vinny Testaverde, QB (Round 1, Pick 1 in 1987) – A year after the whole Bo Jackson fiasco, Tampa Bay had another shot with Testaverde, who was a member of Miami’s National Championship team in 1983 and won the Heisman Trophy three years later. He ranks second in team history with 14,820 yards and third with 77 touchdown passes. However, his 24-48 mark and team-record 112 interceptions in six seasons leave a lot to be desired. In 1988, he threw for 3,240 yards, but led the league with 35 interceptions, leading to taunts from fans that he was “color blind” (a claim that was not very believable due to the bright orange jerseys the Buccaneers wore at the time). Testaverde went on to play in two Pro Bowls, one with the Ravens after leading the league with 4,177 yards and 33 touchdowns their inaugural season in 1996, as well as two years later with the Jets. He threw for 356 yards but tossed two picks as the Jets fell to the Broncos in the 1998 AFC Championship Game. Testaverde played with seven teams in 21 NFL seasons.
6. Josh Freeman, QB (Round 1, Pick 17 in 2009) – Freeman left Kansas State as the school’s all-time leader with 8,078 passing yards. He threw for 13,534 in five seasons with Tampa Bay, including franchise records with 4,065 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2012, but he lost focus over time. When the Buccaneers hired former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, the two had a disconnect. Freeman was benched and later released. He bounced around from Minnesota, the Giants, Miami and Indianapolis before trying out for the CFL. He signed with Montreal, but retired in May 2018 before playing a game with the Alouettes.
5. Roberto Aguayo, K (Round 2, Pick 59 in 2016) - Rarely do kickers make the list of worst draft picks, mostly because teams don’t usually select them in the early rounds. Aguayo was an exception, since the Buccaneers not only drafted him late in the second round but also traded up to select him. When he declared for the draft, he was the most accurate kicker in college football history and also won the Groza Award for best kicker in 2013. As a rookie in Tampa Bay, Aguayo made just 22 of 31 field goals (the worst percentage in the NFL in 2016), and he was cut in favor veteran Nick Folk during the 2017 preseason. His tryouts with the Bears, Panthers and Chargers were unsuccessful, and Aguayo turned to his second-favorite sport, golf. He spent last year working with the PGA of America’s REACH charitable foundation.
4. Reidel Anthony, WR (Round 1, Pick 16 in 1997) – Anthony was an All-American and teamed with future Giant Ike Hilliard to star on Florida’s National Championship team in 1996. He never quite reached his potential as a pro, although he had a solid season in 1998, setting career highs with 708 yards and seven touchdowns receiving and 1,118 yards on kick returns. Anthony left the NFL after the 2001 season, and is currently the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Glades Central High School in Florida.
3. Gaines Adams, DE (Round 1, Pick 4 in 2007) - Adams was an All-American and the ACC Defensive Player of the Year with Clemson in 2006. His six-year, $46 million contract with the Buccaneers was certainly not a good investment. Adams had 13½ sacks in 2½ years with Tampa bay, including six as a rookie and 6½ more in 2008. He also added two interceptions, returning one 45 yards for a touchdown. He was traded to the Bears for a second-round pick in 2009, but he would not get to have a second season in Chicago. Adams suffered cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart and passed away on January 17, 2010 at age 26.
2. Keith McCants, DE (Round 1, Pick 4 in 1990) – Another player who collected awards in college but not in the NFL was McCants, who was an All-American and the CBS National Defensive Player of the Year at Alabama in 1989. Even before being drafted, he had knee issues and rumors that his family had been given money by an agent while he was still in college. McCants was moved from linebacker to defensive end with Tampa Bay, and he recorded 12 sacks in three seasons. Then he moved on to Houston, where he appeared in the postseason for the first time and also stepped in between Buddy Ryan and Kevin Gilbride during their infamous sideline fight in 1993. The following year, he joined Ryan in Arizona and returned an interception and a fumble for a touchdown. After his playing career, McCants was arrested three times on drug-related offenses, but has since gotten clean. He currently co-hosts a radio show in Tampa Bay.
1. Bo Jackson, RB (Round 1, Pick 1 in 1986) – To be fair, Jackson’s situation was created by Tampa Bay’s penny-pinching owner, Hugh Culverhouse. Before future Buccaneer Carnell “Cadillac” Williams was setting records at Auburn, there was Bo Jackson, who was a two-time All-American, as well as the Sporting News Player of the Year and the Heisman Trophy winner in 1985. He was also a two-sport star who eventually wowed crowds as a member of the Kansas City Royals. Here is where things get messy. Culverhouse flew Jackson in for a visit to team facilities before the Draft and during the college baseball season. He told Jackson the meeting was cleared with the SEC and the NCAA, which was needed prior to any professional visit. Turns out, it wasn’t cleared, and was a violation of NCAA rules that forced Jackson to miss the rest of the baseball season. Jackson was rightfully upset, and claimed Culverhouse arranged the whole thing on purpose to force him to play football. Instead, Jackson followed through on his threat to play baseball rather than join Tampa Bay. He spent the 1986 season in the Royals’ minor league system (complete with a September call-up to Kansas City) even after the Buccaneers selected him with the top overall pick.
Tampa Bay offered Jackson a five-year, $7.6 million contract, but he simply refused to sign it, instead letting the year pass and going back into the draft. The Buccaneers forfeited his rights, and the Raiders took him in the seventh round. Al Davis gave Jackson what he wanted, the ability to play a full season of baseball, even if it meant missing NFL games. Jackson went on to star in ads, video games and television shows (I can’t be the only one that remembers the old Pro Stars cartoon show, can I?). He hit a leadoff home run in the 1989 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, played in the 1990 Pro Bowl and sent an iconic message to the Seahawks on a Monday Night in November 1987. Before the game, Seattle’s outspoken linebacker Brian Bosworth talked some smack about being able to stop Jackson, but Bo ran over him for an early touchdown, then scored on a 91-yard run and kept going into the tunnel. The two iconic moments capped a 221-yard performance, although Jackson did give Bosworth a ride in his car during a 2016 Kia commercial. All of this was happening while the Buccaneers were forced to watch during the midst of their long playoff drought. I guess the whole “Bo Knows” line really is true.
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Statistics courtesy of https://www.pro-football-reference.com/
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