A dynamic action photograph of Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston during a game against the Arizona Cardinals on November 10, 2019. Winston, wearing the team's white 'color rush' jersey with red and orange accents and a metallic pewter helmet, is captured in motion rolling out of the pocket. They are holding the football with both hands, looking downfield with focus. The background is a vibrant, out-of-focus blur of the stadium crowd in red and white seating. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on Nov. 10, 2019 during a game against the Arizona Cardinals. Credit: Steve Jacobson / Shutterstock

We know what most people offer in terms of football analysis this time of year: Mock drafts.

Locals are all looking at One Buc Place and thinking: Who are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers going to pick when the draft kicks off Thursday night? What are their biggest needs? How fast does that guy from that school run? Why doesn’t my spouse love me anymore?

Let’s have a bit more fun than that.

What are the worst Bucs all-time draft picks? And in what order would they be drafted if you were trying to have the worst Bucs draft ever?

Round 1: Bo Jackson (picked No. 1 overall, 1986)

Ah, Bo. What a wonderful sports folk hero.

Unfortunately, he never played a snap for the Bucs. So in some respects, he sucks for Tampa citizens, but if you read into why he never played for the Bucs, you not only understand but actually sympathize with him.

Back in the 1980s when Bo was drafted first overall by the Bucs, the team, uh, shall we generously say, “misled” Bo about a trip he took being NCAA-sanctioned.

It wasn’t, and because of it Bo was unable to play his senior season of baseball that he so wished to play.

So, Bo decided to go play baseball instead of play for such a nasty group of people that would be so dishonest and gross. And that was pretty darn cool. So maybe this was actually a great pick for the sports world?

Round 2: Roberto Aguayo (Picked 59th overall, 2016)

Much like Bo Jackson, Roberto Aguayo was actually picked in the round he’s being picked here. That trend won’t continue much longer, as it’s hard to justify labeling picks made in the 3rd round or later as truly “bad” since the opportunity cost just isn’t as high (yuck, corporate speak, sorry).

Aguayo is a very special case, and there’s only one other non-first rounder here. But that’s what trading up to draft a kicker in the second round gets you. After a tumultuous rookie season, Aguayo was dramatically cut during a training camp where the Bucs were embarrassingly being shown on the HBO show “Hard Knocks” (back when the program actually showed real shit happening instead of the NFL PR slop it basically is now). So yeah, Aguayo is the second round pick for this draft, and not just because he went to that nauseating school up in Tallahassee.

Round 3: Jameis Winston (picked No. 1 overall, 2015)

Jameis had all sorts of red flags coming into the draft, including off the field issues. But the Bucs decided to ignore those things and go for the upside of the guy with the rocket arm out of Florida State.

Needless to say, it didn’t work out, other than providing the Bucs with the necessary high picks to build a Super Bowl caliber roster for Tom Brady.

He had that magical (horrible?) 30/30 season where he led the league in passing yards and interceptions while throwing for 33 touchdowns. Since then he’s been rebuilding his image as a preacher-like figure who also happens to be a backup quarterback for the New York Giants.

For a first overall pick, that’s a brutal ending, and the only saving grace here is that the guy picked directly after him, Marcus Mariota, has been pretty bad, too.

Round 4: Kyle Trask (picked No. 64 overall, 2021)

Woof. What an absolute disaster of a pick.

Drafting a quarterback in the second round as the reigning Super Bowl champs who also had an incredibly old and expensive roster? Trask had a fun final season at the University of Florida, but boy did he really not work out in the pros. He’s started one game (a fake little garbage matchup where the Bucs rested starters) and is now a free agent after being cut from the Falcons practice squad last season.

The former Gator was never able to break through, and while a second round pick isn’t the biggest waste ever, spending it on a QB when you literally just won the Super Bowl and have Tom Brady as your starter is bonkers. Inexcusable. And if the Bucs hadn’t, who knows if they still lose in dramatic fashion to the Rams in the playoffs in the 2021-2022 season?

Round 5: O.J. Howard (picked No. 19 overall, 2017)

Ah, O.J. Howard. Bucs fans all thought he was going to be the final piece to the puzzle that unlocked Jameis Winston into being an elite quarterback. Wrong, and really wrong.

OJ is no longer in the NFL, which isn’t entirely unheard of for someone drafted in 2017, but he also was out of the league by 2022. Not ideal.

The Howard pick in 2017 was tough for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that there were several Pro Bowl tight ends selected after him, including an all-timer in George Kittle.

T.J. Watt and Garrett Bolles were also notable selections made very soon after Howard was picked at No. 19, and, well, they’re both pretty darn good.

Round 6: Vernon Hargreaves (picked No. 11 overall, 2016)

Poor VH3, he was never able to overcome his lack of size in the NFL. He washed out fairly quickly, which sucks, because the Wharton High School grad was a local guy who had a really solid career at the University of Florida.

Unfortunately things didn’t quite work out in a Bucs uniform, and after bouncing around for a few seasons with the Texans and Bengals, Hargreaves ended up out of the NFL by 2022.

Hargreaves and Howard being the back-to-back busts in the 2016 and 2017 drafts marked a dark era for the Bucs. The following years were much more productive, with Vita Vea and Devin White, key pieces to the 2020 Super Bowl team, coming in the first rounds of the next two drafts.

Round 7: Eric Curry (picked No. 6 overall, 1993)

The past two selections were relatively defensible at the time, but they were both top picks who didn’t sign a second contract with the Bucs and ultimately massive disappointments.

Curry was the sixth overall pick of the 1993 draft, a defensive end coming out of the usually fruitful Alabama Crimson Tide pipeline. He had an OK rookie season, where he managed five sacks, but never managed to match that career total.

Curry is far less of a disappointment than the previous selections (especially Bo Jackson and Aguayo), which are all-time draft day gaffes, but with a team that has as rich of a history of picks just not working out as the Bucs do, you’re going to get some fellas who were more of the garden-variety bust rather than the ultra horrible pick both in hindsight and at the time of the selection.

Picking Curry wasn’t egregious, and he wasn’t the worst player ever, but for a guy to be picked six overall and be off of the team after five unceremonious seasons, it’s a tough look.

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This article appears in Apr. 16 – 22, 2026.