The Countdown: Worst 20 Buccaneers Of The Past 10 Years — No. 5
July 20th, 2014
Endless Top-Whatever lists across the Internet got Joe thinking of the Tampa Bay drought since their Super Bowl glory. Not a playoff victory since! And that motivated Joe to rank the 20 worst Buccaneers of the past 10 years.
Serious deliberations went down at JoeBucsFan.com world headquarters.
Beers bottles were thrown. Game film came out. Arguments ensued.
Wild, naïve interns were screaming for sleepy, leaky, Josh Freeman to be ranked No. 1. In the end, primary consideration was given to expectations combined with on-field performance. Off-field behavior was a factor, and players were not punished for injuries.
No. 5— safety Sabby Piscitelli (2007-2010)
Tampa Bay’s second round pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, Sabby The Goat Piscitelli, was perhaps the worst tackling defensive back in Buccaneers history.
While taking an angle to a ball carrier or a receiver on the fly, Sabby The Goat often looked geometrically challenged, or like a typical tailgating drunk Bucs fan trying to get under a deep Nerf ball pass in a stadium parking lot.
Amazingly, after proving nothing and beating out nobody, Sabby The Goat was gifted a starting job in 2009. What ensued led to the following quote from Raheem Morris with a game remaining in the ’09 season:
“It’s tough to do. You’ve got to be in better position to make plays,” Morris said of Sabby The Goat. “You’ve got to do a better job of making plays. That’s what we’ve got to find out this offseason. We’ve got to go back to the board with him and fix him and deal with (him).”
You know you’ve hit rock bottom when your head coach, a defensive backs guru no less, says you’re so bad you need to be “fixed” in the offseason.
Sabby the Goat lost his starting gig that 2010 offseason when the Bucs signed serial loafer Sean Jones (to be fair, Jones didn’t start loafing until 2011).
Sabby The Goat was unhappy and the buzz was he had a physical altercation with Raheem. That talk came from Raheem himself before Sabby The Goat was cut a few weeks later while Tampa Bay made a push for the playoffs.
The interesting thing about Sabby The Goat was his work ethic. The guy took extra work in training camp on his own. He loved the blocking and tackling sled. He was in peak physical condition and he was healthy. He just stunk out loud. Sabby The Goat last played for the Chiefs in 2011, and failed in a comeback attempt with Jacksonville in 2013.
The Countdown: Worst 20 Buccaneers Of The Past 10 Years will run once or twice daily until No. 1 is revealed on Thursday, July 24.
July 20th, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Is this list in order of suck or just random, is #1 the most terribad player in Bucs history?
Also I remember the coach, I think Raheem challenging Sabby to be more physical and the next game he went out and got a concussion on a tackle, dude just can’t win.
Of course the order is the order. -Joe
July 20th, 2014 at 6:44 pm
A prime example of Gruden/Allen’s ability to evaluate college talent (they were decent with FAs). Now Ward, Benn, Schiano? Stoker sucked, but he was/is/will always be hurt. Haynesworth had NO expectations – he had already bombed i Washington.
Can we name Clayton twice because he was so frustrating to watch drop the ball? AND he was rewarded with a big contract for having such awesome “Hands of Stone”. Please Joe. If you can name a player on this list for dropping one pass in the playoffs that cost us the game, all the drops Clayton have are deserving of moving him to #1. LOL
July 20th, 2014 at 7:04 pm
A tie for Spot #6 !
July 20th, 2014 at 7:06 pm
My Bad, #5
July 20th, 2014 at 7:13 pm
I really hope we don’t add McCown to this list next year…sheesh.
July 20th, 2014 at 7:19 pm
Never understood why he was referred to as a “goat.” I mean sure, he wasn’t a great player, but he did make some big plays. Still remember an interception he had where he ran almost the full length of the field and nearly scored AND it was with the game on the line, mind you. That’s the play I remember when I think of Sabby Piscitelli. Imo Sean Jones was a worse player.
July 20th, 2014 at 7:33 pm
We had an offer on the table that year this clown was drafted. We passed we got gaines adams sabby the goat and aaron sears. The Lions got megatron. Fml
July 20th, 2014 at 7:37 pm
Remember when Raheem and Dominic told us all that Sabby would be the next John Lynch? LOL
July 20th, 2014 at 8:02 pm
Hard to believe there are actually 4 more worse than Sabby and Myron…
July 20th, 2014 at 8:14 pm
He should be a little higher LOL
July 20th, 2014 at 8:33 pm
The classic and hilarious picture of the goat lol…
Up next or quite possibly number one, I bet money will be the scaredy cat and horrible WR/KR Dexter Jackson….Mark my words.
July 20th, 2014 at 8:39 pm
@ Harry
“Now Ward, Benn, Schiano? Stoker sucked, but he was/is/will always be hurt.”
Ward and Benn are deserving, Stocker has been hurt a lot but it’s hard to imagine him worse than Sabby, Schiano on this list is just crazy talk. Morris was far worse for the Bucs when you look at the 3 years of wasted drafts and some of the worst blow out losses, disarray, and sloppy football I have ever seen in 2011. Even still he wasn’t as bad a blight as Ward, Benn, Lindell, and (in my opinion anyway) Hayenesworth.
July 20th, 2014 at 8:55 pm
I remember when he got cut. It was after the Baltimore game in the 2010 season. He gave up a TD that game and we lost on the road. I guess that was the last straw. God he was bad…
July 20th, 2014 at 9:01 pm
I always liked Sabby. He was a good kid with a lot of heart but just couldn’t play worth a crap. I would Josh Freeman and Aqib Talib at the top of this list, along with Darrelle Revis.
July 20th, 2014 at 9:03 pm
Funny sabby ran into a int lol after he got tackled he got up and looked shocked lol… I remember that TD he gave up against BAL lol that was like an end of a half drive that ultimately list the game for us
July 20th, 2014 at 9:03 pm
Lost the game
July 20th, 2014 at 9:12 pm
Tried to find the int video, but its nowhere to be found. I swear it actually happened though and it wasn’t just a dream lol. Idk just reading all of your comments, he seems a lot worse then what I remember of him. Guess I’ve blocked most of that stuff out, cause this is all news to me lol.
July 20th, 2014 at 9:34 pm
My friend played safety with him at Oregon State. He said in college, all he did was go on the internet and read about himself. He said he would look at safety rankings and get furious about the people in front of him. Sabby certainly wasn’t the most liked guy on the team either (speaking about Oregon State of course). And of course, my friend told me that he was the worst tackler he had ever played with. Sabby should feel very fortunate to only land at #5, because there’s a huge case that could be made for him being #1.
July 20th, 2014 at 9:38 pm
@Andrew1,
I remember him winning a game for us back in 2010 with an INT, but it was a tipped ball that you or I could have caught with one hand and our eyes closed. It literally fell into his hands. I believe the one you are talking about happened in the preseason if I’m not mistaken, but I do remember it. And the only reason you didn’t notice him was probably because he was either miles away from the ball, or he flew in at such a bad angle he was off the screen in a split second. No, he was absolutely horrible in every. Two good plays cannot make up for that.
July 20th, 2014 at 9:48 pm
“The Situation.”
July 20th, 2014 at 10:02 pm
@Toes,
I hear you. But this last year with Schiano to me was as bad if not worse than Morris’ last year (when he supposedly got in a fight with Talib in London). Further, Morris went 10-6 the one year (who knows how the heck he did that?!). And, although I put it on Freeman, I think Schiano helped push the buttons that started Free’s demise/meltdown. It was such a crazy year. No, I would vote for Schiano over Morris for this list (maybe just bc his crap was more recent).
July 20th, 2014 at 10:08 pm
@Toes,
btw, I was not suggesting that either Stoker or Haynesworth should be on this list. The fact that Stoker was hurt all the time and the Haynesworth did not come with expectation were my reasons why they should NOT be on the list per Joes rules.
July 20th, 2014 at 10:10 pm
Sabby took the worst angles on tackles he would just dive lol I’d b like welp this is gunna b a long gain
July 21st, 2014 at 6:17 am
The two memories I have of Sabby: 1. Losing to Baltimore on a play that was perfectly defensed, except Sabby was out of position and 2. Some idiot caller going on a certain idiot ex-Cane’s radio show to claim that Sabby only got cut because Raheem didn’t want any white players on the team.
I’m sure the guy who did the latter probably comments on here.
July 21st, 2014 at 8:07 am
Bingo! Shabby Missedatackle!
July 21st, 2014 at 8:10 am
No. 1 has to be Mike Glennon
July 21st, 2014 at 9:34 am
Guesses at the rest of the list: Derrick Ward, Luke Stocker, Alan Zeimatis, Josh Freeman.
July 21st, 2014 at 11:14 am
This is a travesty. Sabby should be a lock for top two on this list. Never did the phrase “Looks like Tarzan, but plays like Jane”, make more sense.
July 21st, 2014 at 1:47 pm
berserker Says:
July 21st, 2014 at 8:10 am
No. 1 has to be Mike Glennon
Oh he’s top 5 for sure according to Joe….I know its coming…smdh
July 22nd, 2014 at 1:30 pm
andrew 1…. i remember what play you are referring to.. but what you seem to not remember, is that pass play, was thrown at the guy ronde barber was covering… ronde being ronde, broke up the pass, and it fell into sabby’s lap… you can’t call a guy good for getting lucky on one play.. and yes, he ran it back about 80 yards… good for him… problem is, again, the ball was deflected to him.. he did not make that play… all credit goes to ronde, and then to sabby for running as long as he did. sabby made alot of our corners look real bad because he was the worse we’ve ever seen at backside support and coverage/tackling angles… when it comes to the cover 2… you better be on point with your angles… every….single….time