An Ugly Flashback
April 5th, 2015
A drunk in a bar couldn’t have picked a worse draft than what the Bucs did in 2007, highlighted by DE Gaines Adams.
With the draft less than four weeks away, it is hard to think about anything else. Especially when the Bucs are hurting more for a quarterback than any team in the NFL — and the best one, Jameis Winston, is there for the taking.
Veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton decided to take a look at drafts past and pointed to several gruesome, gruesome items, one in particular Joe remembers all too week, via Shelton’s site GarySheltonSports.com.
2007: Lesson 32. Make sure the guy has a resumé. The Bucs couldn’t wait to cut Simeon Rice after signing No. 1 pick Gaines Adams, who really hadn’t played a lot of football. Adams wasn’t close enough to call a quarterback most Sundays. The Bucs also drafted Tanard Jackson, who really, really liked marijuana. He though Cheech and Chong movies were documentaries.
Well, it was much worse than that. The Bucs had two second round draft picks. They used those to select guard Arron Sears and the notorious safety, Sabby the Goat, who the Bucs somehow thought would be the next John Lynch because, like Lynch, he was a rich white kid who played in the then-PAC 10.
Sears, of course, came down with a mental health disease and to the best of Joe’s knowledge, is institutionalized. There is no way to blame this on Chucky. It was a depressing act of God.
In the third round, the Bucs picked linebacker Quincy Black and the only other player of note in that draft was a sixth-round pick, linebacker Adam Hayward. Literally the lone thing Joe remembers that clown going wilding on the sideline on his position coach, Bryan Cox. Some career highlight.
This ought to be a lesson for the trade down crowd, or those upset the Bucs tanked the second half of the Saints game to capture the Chase of Jameis.
Quick, name the all-important victory late in the 2006 season that prevented the Bucs from selecting either Calvin Johnson or Joe Thomas? Because of one meaningless, forgettable win, the Bucs missed out on a potential Hall of Famer (yeah, Thomas is that good and Johnson is a lock).
April 5th, 2015 at 8:04 am
Man. How bad was sabbi? think he is in wrestling now. Wwe or wwf
April 5th, 2015 at 8:11 am
God, Sabby sucked. The drafting for this team has been horrible. Let’s hope they do better this year.
April 5th, 2015 at 8:21 am
“Especially when the Bucs are hurting more for a quarterback than any team in the NFL”
Sorry Joe but the Bills, Jets, Titans, Texans, Browns, Eagles, Redskins and Rams would disagree. Your point on the 2007 draft is far tougher to argue
April 5th, 2015 at 8:23 am
“Quick, name the all-important victory late in the 2007 season that prevented the Bucs from selecting either Calvin Johnson or Joe Thomas? Because of one meaningless, forgettable win, the Bucs missed out on a potential Hall of Famer (yeah, Thomas is that good and Johnson is a lock).”
—————-
Wow. Nailed it. Meaningless wins in NOV/DEC have killed this team recently.
Not this year. Its time for JAMEIS.
April 5th, 2015 at 8:26 am
Just read the whole piece, man what a stomach-turning stroll through our Bucs draft history….
I love the people on here that always say ” leave it to the professionals”..McKay, Dominic, and Allen – re-read the list of choices in those years – not very professional at all – just sickening actually…
Prior to them and back to JMcKay, it was Hugh’s ATM
Oh the joy of being a Bucs Fan
Maybe JL is the the savior!
April 5th, 2015 at 8:26 am
Dominick’s drafts make me miss Bruce Allen’s drafts! I was looking for other Bucs news on some other websites, most were looking into the 6 drafts of the Bucs and they were killing the Pop-star!
April 5th, 2015 at 8:29 am
Bruce Allen’s bad drafting got worse as his tenure progressed. My favorite was the next year in 2008 – passing on Desean Jackson to draft WR Dexter Jackson in the 2nd round. Dude was cut and out of the league forever after only 1 year he was so bad.
“Luckily” the Rock Star GM was on deck to come in and save the day with his brilliant talent evaluation decisions. (sarcasm font).
April 5th, 2015 at 8:32 am
What difference does Sabby’s skin color make, Joe.
I notice you didn’t attach black to Tanard Jackson.
Seems like very racist statement to make and I’m not kidding.
I guess the whole point of this story is to take some heat off the Dummy’s picks.
It doesn’t. Everyone knows Bruce Allen and Chucky were horrible at the draft, but The Dummy was given a couple years graces period to give his players time to develop.
Now that none have, he’s feeling the wrath like the past GM.
Everyone with a rational thought in their brain knows by now that the Bucs drafts have sucked for the past dozen years.
Of course you still have deep thinkers like Tmaxcon and a few others who hate all things Lovie.
April 5th, 2015 at 8:48 am
Bruce Allen never had a draft. Chucky was calling every shot my man. Kinda like lovie now but I think licht has some say in draft. Just not really FA
April 5th, 2015 at 8:56 am
Although I hope it doesn’t happen, I can’t help but imagine bucs fans reaction if they do trade down from number 1 on draft day. It will be an all out RIOT!!!
Hope they draft him and let him and Glennon compete
April 5th, 2015 at 9:04 am
@drdneast – I’m confused. Why do you think this article was trying to deflect the misses that Dominik had with his drafts? The article discussed a specific year where the Bucs missed badly with their picks. He discussed Sheltons article which starts out; 2007: Lesson 32.
And then you call him a racist! I remember when they drafted Sabby the Great. Everyone said he might be the next John Lynch. They didn’t mention other black safeties, only Lynch.
What a thankless job the Joes have. Guys on here are constantly waiting to bash them.
April 5th, 2015 at 9:10 am
Thank you oh Thank you for writing this article. Every year I hear morons say a win is a win even if it’s meaningless.
Well as you have illustrated. Sometimes a win can actually be a loss.
Pick Jameis. No more discussion.
April 5th, 2015 at 9:12 am
I recall this was draft that EVERYONE wanted us to draft a pass rusher; except Gru.
After realizing the cost of trading up for Calvin Johnson was to high. He set his sites on Adrian Peterson, because he thought it would be a great idea to team him with Caddy and make his version of a ROCKET backfield.
It was Monte who wanted to draft Gaines Adams. He even sought the opinion of Rod Marinelli on the matter-and if I remember Marinelli gave him the thumbs up.
April 5th, 2015 at 9:19 am
Rich white kid? Say poor black kid and see the race card thrown
April 5th, 2015 at 9:19 am
R.I.P. Gaines Adams
April 5th, 2015 at 9:21 am
Looking back
For those of you that blasted me (onTBO) for suggesting we draft Patrick Willis. Even though we had Barrett Ruud. Cheers 2 you.
April 5th, 2015 at 9:21 am
The warning signs on Adams were all too apparent. It wasn’t until his 6th season out of high school that he actually dominated, he took 4 seasons out to win a starting spot in college. He was a grown man playing against boys in college. Those Gruden drafts were notoriously bad.
April 5th, 2015 at 9:25 am
for the record while Gaines Adams was a terrible draft pick, His short time with the Bucs he was more productive than Adrian Clayborn!!!
April 5th, 2015 at 9:26 am
I think our loss in 2006 screwed up the 2007 draft – a win in Cleveland. I was thinking that during our last game this past year.
April 5th, 2015 at 9:29 am
The other Adam Heyward memory I have…..After warm ups at RayJay, he and GMC would kneel down at midfield and do some three-minute like prayer when no one else was on the field. Always seemed like a weak way to get an ovation, but that’s what they would get as they trotted off the field when done praying. Then it dawned on me, that WAS the only way Heyward would ever get an ovation!
April 5th, 2015 at 9:49 am
Good article joe
April 5th, 2015 at 10:22 am
Well this is great precursor to Easter
April 5th, 2015 at 10:33 am
Bucs could have packaged those wasted 2nd round picks with the Adams pick to land Megatron. DET needed a pass rusher that year not a WR.
I’ll never forget the Calvin Johnson signature that I had for years on a board I used to post on. The first of many disappointing drafts where the Bucs draft a bust when the guy I wanted turns out to be a stud.
April 5th, 2015 at 11:06 am
Well if I remember correctly we beat Cleveland week 16 to go 4-11 and ultimately 4-12. Oakland at 2-14 picked Jamarcus and then Detroit picked Megatron. If we would’ve just lost to Cleveland week 16 it should have been us drafting Joe Thomas third overall and Cleveland would pick fourth, although im sure they would have picked a better fit for their then 3-4 defense.
Anyway, alot of those rookies, Tanard, Sears even Adams and undrafted Donald Penn helped immensely thst year, but faded into the raheem era. Barrett Ruud developed and was ready after two years backing up Quarles. Jeff Garcia was the icing on the cake. That whole 2007 season was fun. I would love 9-7 and 5-1 against the NFC SOUTH right now.
April 5th, 2015 at 12:03 pm
Chris Conte = Sabby’s long lost brother.
April 5th, 2015 at 2:16 pm
I mean come on. 0-6 against the lowly NFC south? As bad as the Saintd, Falcons and Carolina are, they are still far superior to us right noe. We have alot to prove.
Atlanta is paper thin. Other than Matt Ryan, White and Jones, the whole roster is below average. We have to beat them next year. Unless Dan Quinn is good enough to make Atlanta a legitamate threat again (which the national media seems to beleieve?) I dont see them as a threat.
New Orleans is thin defensively and lost ALOT of fire power on offense, but as long as they got Drew Brees, they will be a challenge.
Carolina won the division last year with alot of power in both trenches and can really beat the spit out of opponents. However they lack skilled players such as receivers and cornerbacks. If Benjamin contiues to develop and Cam stays healthy, they could be dangerous.
Now how about us? Where do we stand? Well we got a pretty good defense but until we develop a consistent pass rush, we will be no mire than good. On offense, if we get good quarter back play, the entire unit will improve even the line. If our quarterback can makr good use of all of our playmakers then we should be a threat to put up points every drive. Which could turn out to be our biggest strength (Jameis throwing to Evans and Vjax)
So we arent as far away as many think. As long as we get a good quarterback not named Mccown. Some position need to be addressed but what team dosent have weak spots
April 5th, 2015 at 3:20 pm
The worst part about that draft is we picked Gaines over Adrian Peterson. ..
April 5th, 2015 at 7:28 pm
After drafting Gaines Adams I distinctly remember Gruden saying that “Gaines was going to lead the league in effort”. I thought that was a diluted response. Little doubt it was Monte’s pick.
April 5th, 2015 at 11:07 pm
Thanks 77.