Mock Draft: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay is now on the clock now with the 20th Pick in the draft.
The top two team needs for Tampa Bay appear to be CB and WR to take the reins from aging
stars Joey Galloway and Ronde Barber. Although WR seems to be the bigger position of need
considering the age (Ike Hilliard) or lack of production (Michael Clayton) from others counted
on at that position and the recent unstellar addition of Antonio Bryant, a guy who wasn't
even in the league last year. This pick is going in a different direction and not for the
reason you might think.
Let's go through a brief Buccaneer draft history. The year was 1995, and the Bucs were
coming off another 10 loss season. They had a few of those back in the 80's and early
to mid 90's. If you may recall, there was a star player that had a slight first round fall
in that draft (maybe it was not so slight considering many believed he was one of
the top three players in the draft).
His name: Warren Sapp. Reason for the fall: A drug no one should confuse with performance enhancement. That is when the stars aligned and he fell to Tampa Bay at #12. They followed that with another first rounder by the name of Derrick Brooks. Both have a much better chance at a recent HOF induction than the jacket wearing buffoon in Cincinnati. This draft very well could have been the most important part of a complete franchise turn around that culminated in a 2002 Super Bowl Championship.
So you may be wondering what does this have to do with the 2008 draft. Well, simple. Recently, two potential first round prospects got in a little trouble for the same non-performance enhancing drug (unless you are a competitive eater) that Mr. Sapp did 13 short years ago. They are CB Aqib Talib and WR Mario Manningham. What do you know, they play the two positions the Buccaneers are targeting with this draft. So not only will they meet one of their draft needs, they may be able to mark the beginning of another Super Bowl run the same way it happened 13 years ago with the 2008 NFL draft version of Snoop Dogg.
Now, the Bucs could meet their bigger need with Manningham, but it seems like a reach at this point in the draft. So, the pick is CB Aqib Talib, Kansas. Besides, his name is slightly cooler than Mario Manningham.
Pick #20: Aqib Talib, CB Kansas
The Redskins are now on the clock with the 21st pick in the draft.
