The Bucs were offered 49ers wide receiver John Taylor in 1986 for a 10th round pick. Obviously, the Bucs passed.

Joe thought — and still does — that the Bucs wasted a second round pick on Sgt. Winslow when they could have had Tony Gonzalez for the same price.

But that is peanuts when you consider the Bucs were offered an All-Pro for a draft pick so low that it doesn’t exist any longer.

Mike Lombardi of the NationalFootballPost.com tells a tale of how he was responsible for the 49ers drafting John Taylor. But Taylor stunk so badly in training camp that Lombardi was ordered to shop around Taylor.

Convinced Taylor was just raw, Lombardi called his pals at the Bucs to try to find work for Taylor and save his career.

Taylor struggled to be productive or win favor with the coaches. When you get in the head coach’s doghouse, there aren’t many people in the organization who have the courage to challenge the evaluation. He was so far behind that almost everyone was convinced he had no chance to make the team. In fact, it was so certain he was getting cut that John McVay, our general manager, had me call around to my buddies in the league to see if we could get something back for him.

I called my friends at Tampa and begged for them to take my man, but they were convinced that if the 49ers wanted to get rid of a player there must be something wrong with him, so they passed — even for a 10-round pick conditional pick.

Imagine, an All-Pro and maybe a Hall of Famer was passed on for a 10th round pick? Wow.

Joe knew the Bucs were a rudderless ship back then, but geez.