Last year, just days before the real thing, Buccaneers.com provided a run-down of what the latest mock drafts were predicting they would do at #5 overall.  That close to the draft, and that high up in the first round, a real consensus had developed.  Nineteen of the 20 experts had tabbed the Bucs to take LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne.

Of course, Mark Dominik and Greg Schiano threw everyone a curve ball, trading down two spots and then selecting Alabama safety Mark Barron.

Last year’s pick seemed like a sure thing.  This time around, it really is.

The Bucs, of course, have already spent their 2013 first-round pick, sending it to the Jets on Sunday to acquire All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis.  Buccaneers.com could survey 100 mock drafts this year (and believe me, there are that many out there) but the only consensus would be that Tampa Bay isn’t picking in the first round.  Obviously, there will be no “Taking Stock of the Mocks” story on Buccaneers.com this time.

Fortunately for us, however, some industrious mock drafters go beyond Round One, even if the chances of actually hitting on predictions grows increasingly minute as the picks proceed. Continue reading →

Doug Martin was one half of the Buccaneers first round prizes coming out of the 2012 NFL Draft. And with the primetime first round of the 2013 NFL Draft quickly approaching, we think it only fitting to let the Dougernaut take the stage and take your questions.

That is why, on Tuesday, April 23, from 1-1:30 PM, Doug Martin will be taking over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Twitter handle, @TBBuccaneers.

This event is your chance to ask Doug Martin (@DougMartin22) your pressing questions about his experiences from the 2012 NFL Draft and his phenomenal rookie season. Doug will also be giving away some special autographed memorabilia to some of the best Tweets that hit his inbox.

From 1-1:30 PM, send the Dougernaut your questions by tweeting at @TBBuccaneers, using the hashtag #itsabucslife to ensure your comment can be seen.

And as if that isn’t enough to get you fully excited to learn the 2013 Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie class, don’t forget to join us on Thursday, April 25, to watch the primetime first round at Raymond James Stadium for the Official Draft Party!

The Buccaneers are throwing the 2013 Official Draft Party presented by Miller Lite on Thursday, April 25, at Raymond James Stadium. And as if watching the primetime first round of the NFL Draft with thousands of Bucs fans on the home turf of your favorite team wasn’t enough, you now have the chance to upgrade your experience and share it with thousands of Bucs fans worldwide!

Click here to enter to become the Bucs Life First Mate. Follow the link and simply send us your Twitter handle, your best fan picture and explain what the Bucs Life means to you in 120 characters or less.

The winner will get the VIP treatment at the Official Draft Party and the Buccaneers will showcase your tweets and photos through Bucs social media. Entries will be accepted until Monday, April 22. Enter today to live the Bucs Life in style at the Official Draft Party presented by Miller Lite.

A year ago, Super Bowl XXXVII MVP Dexter Jackson was the one who led the world know that his former team had just drafted Nebraska linebacker Lavonte David.  Jackson had the privilege of calling what appears to be a very successful pick; David looks like a star in the making after a huge rookie season.

Maybe Warren Sapp can do his former Super Bowl teammate one better.  A brand new Hall-of-Famer calling the name of a future Canton-mate?  It’s far-fetched – 77 NFL drafts and 267 Hall-of-Famers so far doesn’t make for good odds – but it could happen.

The possibility at least exists because this year it is Sapp, the 1999 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who will take the Buccaneers’ card to the podium in the second round of the draft.  The former Buc great will be in New York next Friday night for the second evening of the three-day draft along with 31 other former NFL stars, one for each team.  Each former player will announce his former team’s second-round pick, unless that team does not have a selection in the round.  Those players will instead announce their teams’ picks in the third round, which will also take place Friday night. Continue reading →

Last week, we noted that a growing number of NFL Draft analysts had begun to believe the Buccaneers would take West Virginia wide receiver Tavon Austin with the 13th overall pick.  At first, that was a radical departure from group-think, as most of the mock drafters through January, February and early March had paired the Bucs with a cornerback or a linebacker.

Obviously, compiling a mock draft is just making a series of guesses, hopefully bolstered by as much research, roster analysis and inside information one can gather, so there’s no way to really know if the Bucs would be interested in Austin in the first round.  If they did make that pick, however, that would be a departure from the norm of another sort – it would mark the highest the Buccaneers had ever drafted a wide receiver (if only by a slim margin).  Currently, Michael Clayton, the 15th overall pick in 2004, holds that distinction, just barely over Reidel Anthony, the 16th pick in 1997.

What would make that Austin pick particularly interesting is that it would actually be the second year in a row, and the fourth time in the last six years, that the Bucs have used their highest pick ever on a specific position. Continue reading →

Over the last decade or so, over on Buccaneers.com, we’ve frequently engaged in a little NFL Draft research project at this time of the year.  Taking the spot at which the Buccaneers are slated to pick in the first round, we’ve looked back at the history of that specific draft spot to see how the league as a whole has fared with that pick over the years.

A few Aprils ago, for instance, we noted that the third overall pick had yielded such players as Matt Ryan, Joe Thomas, Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Gerard Warren, Simeon Rice, Barry Sanders, Cortez Kennedy, Ray Childress, Carl Banks, Curt Warner, Freeman McNeil and Anthony Munoz during the previous two decades.  (And Vince Young, Joey Harrington, Akili Smith, Andre Wadsworth, Heath Shuler, Bruce Pickens, Alonzo Highsmith and Jack Thompson, FYI.)  The Bucs ended up with DT Gerald McCoy, who just made his first Pro Bowl this past season.  In 2006, we looked at pick #23 and dubbed it the Ozzie Newsome Pick in honor of the eventual Hall of Famer that Cleveland grabbed their in 1978.  And so on.

Well, the Bucs are scheduled to pick 13th in the first round this year, but you won’t find that corresponding article on Buccaneers.com this time around.  The current sentiment is that it doesn’t really offer much predictive value, for several reasons.  Continue reading →

After the Twenty Questions Draft Contest went live on Buccaneers.com on Friday, I asked my colleague, Andrew Norton, to take a stab at an entry, including explanations for his picks.  Don’t worry – he’s not eligible to win.  However, if you find any of his reasoning compelling, you may want to include it in your thought process when you fill out your own entry.

Here are Andrew’s predictions:

1. Who will the Buccaneers draft with their first overall pick?

Sheldon Richardson. I don’t think they’ll be comfortable reaching on a corner at 13^th overall with Dee Milliner off the board. Richardson as a shifty DT makes a great fit and will help keep the Bucs atop the NFL’s rushing defenses. Continue reading →

Daniel Jeremiah may have started a trend.

As far as I can tell, the former NFL scout turned draft analyst for the NFL Network and NFL.com was the first mock drafter to match the Buccaneers up with West Virginia wide receiver Tavon Austin.  Jeremiah had Austin coming off the board at #13, Tampa Bay’s pick, in his March 20 update, which is still the one displaying on NFL.com’s oft-updated collection of mocks.

(Note: You will find Austin’s name pop up right here in the Captain’s Blog three weeks before that, in our Point/Counterpoint right after the Combine.)

Now some rather prominent NFL and draft analysts are following Jeremiah’s lead.  Continue reading →