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| Clayton drops one of many |
Now if you want to believe that the Glazers would give up two 1st rounders, two 2nd rounders and $8 mil and not guarantee Jon that he'd have more control over the decision making and personnel, then you are naive. Jon had so much control that a power struggle behind the scenes, between he and Rich McKay ensued. Rich McKay had his faults, but he did help construct a SuperBowl winning roster that Gruden had the luxury of riding it's coattails to a victory in his first season. After Rich McKay was allowed to leave before his contract expired, Jon Gruden hand picked his own GM Bruce Allen. Hand picked GM by his coach? That is absurd, but just more evidence as to how much decision making power laid in Jon's hands.
So lets take a look back at Gruden's mighty drafting prowess dating back to his first season. Bolded players will represent players still on the Buccaneers roster that were drafted by the Gruden regime. The number in parenthesis represents the number of selections that year.
2002(8)
Marquise Walker
Travis Stephens
Jermaine Phillips
John Stamper
Tim Wansley
Tracey Wistrom
Aaron Lockett
Zack Quaccia
2003(6)
Dewayne White
Chris Simms
Lance Nimmo
Austin King
Sean Mahan
Torrie Cox
2004(8)
Michael Clayton
Marquise Cooper
Will Allen
Jeb Terry
Nate Lawrie
Mark Jones
Casey Cramer
Lenny Williams
2005(12)
Carnell Williams
Barrett Ruud
Alex Smith
Chris Colmer
Dan Buenning
Donte Nicholson
Larry Brackins
Anthony Bryant
Rick Razzano
Paris Warren
Hamza Abdullah
J.R. Russell
2006(10)
Davin Joseph
Jeremy Trueblood
Maurice Stovall
Alan Zemaitis
Julian Jenkins
Bruce Gradkowski
T.J. Williams
Justin Phinisee
Charles Bennett
Tim Massaquoi
2007(9)
Gaines Adams
Arron Sears
Sabby Piscitelli
Quincy Black
Tanard Jackson
Adam Hayward
Chris Henman
Marcus Hamilton
Kenneth Darby
2008(7)
Aqib Talib
Dexter Jackson
Jeremy Zuttah
Dre Moore
Josh Johnson
Geno Hayes
Cory Boyd
Of a total sixty(60) draft selections between 2002 and 2008, thirteen(13) remain and contribute to this team. That is a whopping 21% success rate. Of those thirteen players still remaining, only five were 1st or 2nd round selections. Gruden had eleven 1st or 2nd round selections between 2002 and 2008, so that is less than 50% success on the selections that are supposed to be the foundation of your franchise.
Some fans want to blame Raheem Morris or the Glazers for being cheap as a result for the team's current status as bottom feeder. When in reality, whether the Glazers are cheap or not, whether they are in financial trouble or not, who were they supposed to spend their money on? Had Gruden had any type of success at drafting and talent evaluation, this roster would be littered with players playing under their more lucrative second contracts, thus increasing the payroll. As it stands now, there really was no one to spend their money on. Gruden left the cupboard bare, and Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik were left to restock it.
Go Buccs!!!
ABuccsFan/JJC
Posts
I agree with this assessment overall, but I still feel the draft is a crapshoot by and large. Dungy had his poor selections as well, aided by McKay's GM prowess. I would contend that we could blame Gruden, Dungy, and McKay a reasonably equal amount. Frankly, the cornerstone of the Bucs' glory years between 1997 and 2002 could very largely attributed to Sam Wyche. It was Wyche that was involved with the drafting of "The Big Three", Lynch, Sapp, and Brooks. I would further contend that one would be hard-pressed to find a more blockbuster 1-2 punch in the draft than Wyche had with the selection of Sapp/Brooks in 1995.
ReplyDeleteWhen Dungy departed, it was time. When Gruden departed, it was time.
In all fairness to Dom and Rah, the jury is still out. But one would have to be pretty naive, as you mentioned, to think this franchise was not moving back toward respectability and beyond.
We can only pray to ever have a draft again like Wyche back in 1995.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your assessment that the draft is a crap shoot. It is a crap shoot for everyone. No one is going to hit 100% of the time. However, just like baseball, the best batters get 3 hits out of every 10 at bats. 30% would seem like a small number. Same goes with drafting. While everyone will have their busts, the more successful teams have a higher percentage, and Gruden's percentage was bad. If you had to judge on a curve giving a higher piece of the pie to the success rate of high draft picks, it would be equally as bad with all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd round busts under Gruden.
I have been traveling for work the past 2 weeks and have not gotten to see much of the preseason. That said, there are three offensive players I've seen that I find intriguing...MW19, Benn, and Huggins. All three seem to be potential big-time playmakers. If JF5 can stay healthy, the Bucs may REALLY be onto something offensively.
ReplyDeleteI see around 6 or 7 wins this year, which would be expected given the SOS...but a little luck and a few right bounces of the ball, we MIGHT get 8-9.
Good read, and good points ABF.
ReplyDelete