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BY IRA KAUFMAN

When it comes to productive Buc drafts, you can’t beat the 1995 haul that welcomed future Hall of Famers Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks to Tampa.

The 1976 class was led by another Hall of Famer, Lee Roy Selmon, and Jason Licht hit it big in 2018 by selecting Vita Vea, Ronald Jones, Carlton Davis, Alex Cappa and Jordan Whitehead.

Buc fans are hoping the upcoming draft also proves fruitful as the organization marks the 25th anniversary of an underappreciated class that helped fuel a perennial playoff club.

Looking back at 1997, Tony Dungy was entering his second season as head coach feeling very good about a team that had won five of its final seven games after a 1-8 start. Brooks and Sapp were beginning to assert themselves as difference makers and John Lynch was emerging as a Hall of Fame safety.

Bucs GM Jason Licht would be pleased to channel the historic 1997 haul.

Needing a playmaker on offense, GM Rich McKay tabbed Florida State running back Warrick Dunn with his first pick. In his six years with the Bucs and six more with Atlanta, Dunn earned three Pro Bowl berths and finished with 15,306 yards from scrimmage, which still ranks 20^th all-time in NFL annals.

Midway through Round 1, the Bucs made a mistake by focusing strictly on need. In a draft short on quality wide receivers, Tampa Bay reached for Florida’s Reidel Anthony, who caught only 16 TD passes in a pedestrian 5-year career.

After missing on Anthony, the Bucs quickly got back on track, selecting right tackle Jerry Wunsch and right guard Frank Middleton, both 3-year starters. They each played eight NFL seasons and Middleton started against the Bucs when Tampa Bay faced the Raiders in the 2003 Super Bowl.

With the 66th overall pick, the Bucs hit the jackpot with an undersized defensive back out of Virginia. After a shaky rookie year, Jamael Oronde Barber emerged as one of the most versatile corners the NFL had ever seen. He is a two-time finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a member of the Bucs Ring of Honor.

Still, the Bucs weren’t quite finished. Next up was linebacker Al Singleton, a 3-year starter who played 140 games as a pro and started for Tampa Bay during the 2002 championship season.

Patrick Hape, a blocking tight end out of Alabama, arrived in Round 5. He lasted eight years in the NFL, finishing with 11 TD catches in 124 games.

Just when you thought this superb draft harvest was done, the Bucs selected defensive back Al Harris with the 169th overall pick.

Harris played at Texas A&M-Kingsville, a Division II school whose Javelina Stadium held a capacity of 15,000 fans. Incredibly, the school produced three Hall of Famers — Gene Upshaw, Darrell Green and John Randle.

Harris was relegated to Tampa Bay’s practice squad as a rookie and then was one of the final cuts coming out of training camp in 1998 because he wasn’t deemed a good fit for the club’s zone scheme.

The Eagles pounced, grabbing Harris the very next day. Only six days later, he started in Week 1, the beginning of a 14-year career that included two Pro Bowl berths.

Ronde Barber was Warrick Dunn’s roommate during his early Tampa days.

“Tampa was a great place, great staff, but just to get a shot to play — I was thankful I went to a place where I kind of got to play the style of defense I was accustomed to in college,” said Harris, who now coaches defensive backs for the Cowboys.

Those eight players drafted by the Bucs in 1997 went on to start 772 games in the NFL.

“The best thing we’ve done is draft players who are solid and who like to play football and who were good in college,” McKay said at the conclusion of the ’97 draft. “We didn’t draft people on potential and that’s a little bit of the problem that existed before.”

A quarter-century has passed since that impressive draft splash. In the interim, the Bucs have drafted well and they’ve drafted poorly.

They’ve hit home runs and struck out looking.

Batter up.

Yes, that warranty includes USED vehicles!
Ira drives a 2020 Ford Escape (cherry red).

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