Ronde Was Almost Cut As A Rookie

Tim Ruskell, former personnel guy for the Bucs, reviewed some of his favorite draft picks. One of them was Ronde Barber, who was notoriously bad as a rookie. But I didn't know how bad until I read this.

CB Ronde Barber, Buccaneers, third round, 1997: "(General manager) Jerry Angelo and I kind of stood alone in wanting Ronde Barber, because of his size and the speed. Even the coaches said, 'What are you doing? That's not really what we're looking for here.' And it got worse. Because he went to (training) camp and he was the worst player I ever saw. It was bad. It was to the point where we took a guy in the third round we were thinking about letting go -- which is the ultimate embarrassment for a personnel guy. To Ronde Barber's credit, he just kept fighting ... and he's never stopped since."

And now he's among the best Buccaneers of all time and even gets mentioned from time to time in Hall of Fame discussions. That's why I get annoyed when people throw even lower round draft picks around like they're worthless. You just never know who is going to pan out.