All These Rumors, I Can’t Take It No More

This is the time of year when draft rumors flow as freely as Pacman Jones's cash (and bullets) in a Vegas strip club. The top ten teams talk up players they don't want to stratospheric levels and play down the ones they're really interested in to try and throw each other off track, none of it really making any difference wwhen the final decisions are made. Still, when I read this little tidbit, a little piece of me died.

There was speculation that the Bucs had already offered Oakland all four of their picks in the first three rounds (Nos. 4, 35, 64 and 68 overall) to move up.

Since it is admittedly speculation from Yahoo! Sports and not even a real rumor, I don't put a lot of credence in it. But the fact that it is prefaced by a Bruce Allen saying he has been in some kind of talks with Al Davis makes me a little edgy.

Needless to say, this is a bad idea. And I don't mean bad like drafting Marquise Walker bad. I mean bad like getting your face caught in a thresher bad. Remember how Mike Ditka traded away an entire draft class (plus some) to get Ricky Williams in 1999? Of course, at the time Williams was heralded as one-in-a-lifetime prospect (there's one every couple years,) so how could he not make the trade, right? Williams was pretty good for the Saints, but he wasn't worth a first round pick let alone an every round pick. The Saints went 3-13 that season, Ditka was fired, and Williams was a Dolphin by 2002. The Saints could have revolutionized their defense with their 1999 draft by taking Jevon Kearse, Joey Porter, Dan Nguyen, Roosevelt Colvin and Dexter Jackson, all of whom were available in their rounds when the Saints would have picked. And yes, I know the Saints wouldn't have hit on all their selections, but you can't tell me they wouldn't have gotten more value out of at least one or two of those picks than they got out of Williams.

The second and third rounds are where all the best values are. In 1996 the Bucs took Regan Upshaw and Marcus Jones in the first round (not bad) and Mike Alstott in the second (awesome). In 1998 the Bucs took Jacquez Green in the first round (below average) and Brian Kelly in the second (excellent). In 2001 the Bucs took Kenyatta Walker first (sorry) and Dwight Smith in the second (wish they still had him). Ronde Barber, Donnie Abraham and John Lynch were all third round selections. The list probably goes on but this is all I can pull off the top of my head and it's too much of an effort to open another browser window (I'm very lazy, you see.)

My point is that Calvin Johnson may be anywhere from the next Jerry Rice to the next Charles Rogers. We don't know and those other first day picks could really net some great players at the many positions of need the Bucs have. The chances are far greater that Tampa Bay's two second rounders will have more of an impact than whoever they select in the first. If any trade like this goes through, Bruce Allen and Jon Gruden sign their own pink slips.

PS - Upon further review, this is most likely the same rumor Matt Price spoke about in his comment on yesterday's entry. Thanks for the tip.

PPS - Don't let anyone tell you that you can't work a Timex Social Club lyric into a blog entry.