.jpg)
Since the end of the 2008 season, when the front office fired, Head Coach Jon Gruden, the Tampa Bay Bucs have been a team looking to reestablish their identity.
While they were very thin all over their defense, and really need to come out of this draft with at least a starting Cornerback, and really a starting CB and a big run plugging Defensive End, new Head Coach Raheem Morris and new General manger Mark Dominick decided to take this team in a different direction.
Trading up form their 19th position, the Bucs ended up with the 17th pick in the first round and they selected QB Josh Freeman from Kansas State. Freeman was the fourth rated QB in the 2009 draft, and the Bucs made him the third selected.
While this was a move off the radar of most Draft pundits, it does make a certain amount of sense. The Team needs a new direction and had enough veterans on the lineup to allow Freeman to come and develop instead of starting like Matthew Stanford or Mark Sanchez.
Of course after a 0-3 start, added to the facts that the defense ranks 27th against the run and 32 against the pass one may question this team’s move to add a QB with a first round pick.
While Freeman has yet to play much it is somewhat hard to give this pick a grade. At the moment an incomplete grade seems appropriate. He is the back up now, and without doubt he is the QB of the future. However a grade at this point seems kind of silly. He may be one of the main piece of the Bucs of the future, but many other pieces are going to have to be put into place around him.
If the Bucs plan is to build around Freeman, and he proves himself worthy of the 17th overall pick than this pick gets a big grade, but in the present it looks like a draft play of one Matt Millen.
The Buccaneers seemed to do a lot better in the later round adding many bodies for their depleted Defensive line. In the end, though this was an unconventional draft for a team looking to rebuild.
Now a more Complete look at the 2009 Tampa Bay Buccaneers draft:
Round One- 17th overall QB Josh Freeman Kansas State
Round Three- 81st overall DT Roy Miller Texas
Round Four- 117th overall DE Kyle Moore USC
Round Five- 155th overall OT Xavier Fulton Illinois
Round Seven- 217th overall CB EJ Biggers Western Michigan
Round Seven 233rd overall WR Sammie Stroughter Oregon State
Comments