1982 DraftBy Patrick Mondout
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers spent most of the Awesome80s selecting a great
player who refused to play for them (Bo Jackson in '86), a future Hall of
Fame quarterback who they traded away (Steve Young), and players who
turned out to be huge busts (Ron Holmes in '85). But all teams make
mistakes. What they did in 1982, however, was inexcusable.
The Buccaneers were fixated with Bethune-Cookman defensive end Booker
Reese and waited patiently as he fell to their position at #17 overall.
Inexplicably, the Bucs representatives in New York sent a card to the
podium with Penn State offensive lineman Sean Farrell's name on it! That
was bad enough, but they were about to compound their mistake.
Other teams had serious reservations about Reese and he continued to
slip into the second round. That should have raised red flags in the Tampa
war room. Instead, they made a trade to get the Bears second round pick
and took Reese at #32 overall. The price for this second rounder? The Bucs
1983 first round pick! That pick was #6
overall - a slot where Jim Kelly and Dan Marino were still available a
year later.
In retrospect, there were some really bad picks. Number one and two
overall were busts Kenneth Sims and Johnie Cooks. Art Schlichter was
supposed to be the Colts next franchise quarterback. Had he been, the
Colts would not have been in a position to draft John Elway in 1983.
Instead, Schlichter had a gambling problem that led him to be suspended
for the 1983 season by the NFL.*
The Seahawks, drafting number six overall, took second-team All
American DE Jeff Bryant of Clemson. Most observers called it a reach and
believed they could have drafted him in the second round. He was far from
a bust, however, and played 13 seasons before retiring.
USC's Marcus Allen, a pass-catching, pass-throwing, good blocking, and
great running Heisman Trophy winner not only fell to Al Davis at #10
overall, he was the third Pac-10 running back taken! The Vikings took
Stanford's diminutive Darrin Nelson at number 7 and the Falcon took Sun
Devil Gerald Riggs at number 9. Riggs, at least, was solid rushing for
over 1700 yards in 1985 and 8,188 for his career. Nelson never achieved a
1000 yard season.
Why did they pass on this future Hall of Famer? A possible clue comes
courtesy of Pro Football Weekly's Joel Buchsbaum, who wrote in 1982
that Allen, "doesn't power through tackles quite as well as you'd
like." Next to Walter Payton, there is no running back in the history
of the game who I'd rather have in the game at the one yard line.**
Below is the first round of the 1982 NFL draft. We also have the
entire 12 round draft.
1 - Pick acquired from the Washington
Redskins
2 - Pick acquired from the Minnesota Vikings
3 - Pick acquired from the Pittsburgh Steelers
4 - Pick acquired from the Houston Oilers
5 - Pick acquired from the Buffalo Bills
6 - Pick acquired from the Oakland Raiders
* The NFL became aware of his problem after bookies threatened him while
trying to collect more than $150,000 in gambling debts. Schlichter's
gambling-related legal problems extended well into the 21st century:
Schlichter is serving a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in
January of 2001 to forging securities, money laundering and unauthorized
use of credit cards to pay gambling debts. His lawyer was suspended by the
Indiana Supreme Court for 90 days in early 2003 for giving Schlichter a
cell phone which was used to place more bets from prison!
** I don't want to be accused of being
unfair Buchsbaum - a world-class football analyst who passed away at age
48 in 2002. So let me just acknowledge that, among other gems, he did call
Dimitrius Underwood the riskiest pick of the first round shortly after the
1999 draft and could tell you - on demand and without notes - about
virtually any college senior in the country. This example was used simply
to illustrate how wrong even the best analysts can be about a player.
*** New Orleans relinquished their 1st
round pick after taking Dave Wilson in the Supplemental Draft in 1981. He
does not officially count as a 1982 draft choice, but he is placed where
the Saints would have drafted to show the effect of drafting him.
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