Writer
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Best Number One Pick for Every Team in NFL Draft History
The Bucs are Super Bowl champions. In upending the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, Tom Brady in his first season as the starting quarterback in Tampa won his seventh Lombardi Trophy in his 10th attempt. With that said, it becomes the second NFL title for Tampa who in their debut season of 1976 got off to a terrible start losing every game that season and finishing 0-14. But with their very first draft pick for the organization, they hit a home run in drafting the great Lee Roy Selmon. Following that inaugural draft, Tampa did well in finding players that would mold the team into a winner. After Selmon, the Bucs again had the league’s overall #1 pick and this time it was Ricky Bell out of USC. Sadly, both these players passed away too young. Bell from heart failure at just 29 and Selmon at 56 following complications from a stroke.
In their third year of existence, the Bucs found a quarterback that would become a star and his name was Doug Williams. Ray Snell came after that and in 1981 it was the University of Pittsburgh’s Hugh Green. In 1984 Steve Young was drafted but he would become a megastar in San Franciso and win a world title there. Two years later, one of the greatest athletes to play in the NFL ever came aboard and his name was Bo Jackson who would be a big name in baseball with the Kansas City Royals and make his mark in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders leaving his legacy with one big run when he ran over Brian Bosworth on his way to a touchdown in a game with the Seattle Seahawks.
There are several options for Tampa’s best number one pick ever and they probably boil down to Williams, Selmon, or Warren Sapp. While Sapp was a terror on defense, the way Lee Roy Selmon dominated gets him the nod for me.
Honorable Mentions: Vinny Testaverde (1987), Trent Dilfer (1994), Derrick Brooks (1995), Warrick Dunn (1997), Anthony McFarland (1999), Michael Clayton (2004), Aquib Talib (2008), Gerald McCoy (2010), Doug Martin (2012), Mike Evans (2014), Jameis Winston (2015)
comments powered by Disqus
