The Sports Xchange

In their four-decade history, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers experienced just one stretch in which they appeared to know what they were doing on draft day. They might reverse history with Jameis Winston, but choosing him first overall Thursday does make one wonder.

This time, the Bucs clearly were warned.

At times, Winston was a fantastic talent as the Florida State quarterback despite throwing too many interceptions. However, his history of poor first-half play in many games raised on-field issues, and his history of poor decisions and actions off the field raised many other red flags.

The Bucs, obviously, think those issues are overstated.

They had an entire offseason to make that decision.

Those issues are not overstated, though, especially in an era when the NFL is rocked by significant off-field issues and is responding with discipline much more severe than in the past. Or do you believe the penalties for Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy were all one-off cases?

Winston may be the next great quarterback in the league. Or he may be the next Ryan Leaf. Pellet gun incidents. Rape allegations. Stealing food. Jumping up on a table and screaming sexually charged epithets. Those are just the highlights. Yeah, that is the kind of man you want as the face of your franchise.

It will be an interesting marriage. In Lovie Smith, Winston finds himself with perhaps the nicest man among the NFL coaching fraternity as his boss. You have to wonder if perhaps Smith may be too nice to control Winston.

Smith, of course, is well familiar with the Bucs’ draft history. He joined the team as an assistant coach in 1996, just one year after Tampa Bay’s best-ever draft, one which brought Hall of Famers Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks to the Bucs and enabled Tony Dungy to start the run that eventually led to the team’s only Super Bowl title.

Unfortunately for Tampa Bay fans, the team’s draft history more often was littered with names like Keith McCants, Charles McRae, Eric Curry and Trent Dilfer.

Then, of course, there was the famous 1986 choice of Bo Jackson with the first overall pick. Jackson never signed with Tampa Bay. And, even more telling to the team’s history, was the choice of defensive end Booker Reese in the second round of the 1982 draft.

Students of draft history will recall that the Bucs wanted to select Reese in the first round, but their man at the draft in New York had problems hearing on the phone from Tampa and instead selected guard Sean Farrell.

If the story ended there, it would have been good fortune for the Bucs, because Farrell went on to an 11-year career that included an All-Pro selection with Tampa Bay.

Nothing ever is simple with the Bucs, however. They still wanted Reese, so they traded their first-round pick in 1983 to get him in the second round in 1982. Reese lasted parts of five NFL seasons, appeared in 35 games, and made two sacks.

And, one added note about this wretched history. In 1983, the Bucs lost their quarterback, Doug Williams, in a contract dispute. But if they hadn’t given up their first-round draft choice for Reese, they could have replaced him in the draft … with Dan Marino.

So, will Jameis Winston be like Sapp/Brooks? Or is he going to be in the Reese/McCants/McRae category?

Further, history tells us that when quarterbacks are chosen No. 1 and 2 in the draft, as happened with Winston and Marcus Mariota, one of them is likely to fail.

Since the NFL draft merged with the American Football League in 1967, this was the sixth time quarterbacks went 1-2. Only once, when Jim Plunkett and Archie Manning were chosen in 1971, did both have careers worthy of their draft status.

And this time? That is why the draft is so captivating. There are no guarantees. Either way.

Ira Miller is an award-winning sportswriter who has covered the National Football League for more than four decades and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. He is a national columnist for The Sports Xchange.