Who gets your vote for....The worst free agent signing in Buccaneer history?

[michael89156]

NFL Free Agency: The worst signing in Buccaneer history?




By Sander Philipse on Feb 12, 8:24a





Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE



If we're talking about the worst signings in Buccaneers history, who do you think of? Perhaps it's Alvin Harper's premium contract in 1995, followed by an instant collapse of his career. Maybe it's running back Derrick Ward, who came to Tampa on a four-year, $17 million contract -- and was then instantly benched in favor of a largely broken down Cadillac Williams. What about Michael Clayton, who signed a five-year, $26 million deal in 2009 and continued to be awful. Or maybe you're thinking of one of the many, many, many aging and useless veterans the Bucs brought in during the Gruden/Bruce Allen regime.

 
One player you're probably not thinking of is receiver Antonio Bryant, though. After all, how can someone signed on a near veteran minimum contract producing a 1,248 yard season be the worst signing in Buccaneer history? Apparently, Mark Dominik and Dennis Hickey thought that's exactly what Bryant would be when he signed with the Bucs in 2008. That's what Doug Williams noted in this interview with JoeBucsFan, and Williams thought that his disagreement with Hickey and Dominik was one of the reasons why Williams wasn't long for the Bucs when Dominik was promoted to general manager. Dominik and Hickey at the time were the Director of Pro Personnel and college scout respectively.
 
We still don't really know why Williams wasn't retained, but he thinks it's because he simply didn't see eye-to-eye with Dennis Hickey and Mark Dominik on a number of subjects. That certainly makes some sense, but you don't want to create a collection of yes-men in your organization, either. But firing one disagreeable person doesn't mean you're doing that, of course.

In any case, what really struck me about this was the idea that Antonio Bryant could somehow, in 2008, have been the worst signing in Tampa Bay history. No one really could have predicted the production he put up, but there was virtually no risk involved with the signing. Had he flopped, they could have cut him while having paid him just some offseason compensation for being there in training camp. The absolute worst case scenario would have been him poisoning the locker room somehow. But how would someone on a cheap contract, coming off a wealth of injuries, entering a locker room led by Derrick Brooks and under constant threat of being cut be that poisonous?
 
With no risk involved, signing Bryant in 2008 was exactly the kind of thing any general manager should look to do: find low-risk, high-reward opportunities. Find the kind of players with potentially large rewards, and little downside. How you could look at Antonio Bryant in 2008 and think that he'd represent a huge risk is beyond me.



http://www.bucsnation.com/2013/2/12/3979766/nfl-free-agency-the-worst-signing-in-buccaneer-history

[The Anti-Java]

Resigning Clayton.

Faine

Bert Emmanuel

[Bucs_Rule]

Alvin Harper was the worst imo.

[Morgan]

Alvin Harper was the worst imo.

he was the first Buc player to come to mind -

Steussie and Garner also comes to mind -

[Dolorous Jason]

Harper was the highest profile and highest paid to be a complete bust for us , so it has to be him.



Derrick Ward needs to be mentioned somewhere in this thead , though.

[BucNtears]

Alvin Harper, such a waste...

[yuccaneers]

Alvin Harper hands down...

[CaptainStagger]

The Garner/Stussie experiment should be mentioned.

[TampaBucks05]

eric wright has been pretty bad, considering the $. clayton was a pretty bad one. byron leftwich was probably the worst though imo.

[BucfanNC12]

I'm sorry but I can't name one:

In recent memory Alvin Harper, Tim Brown, Derrick Ward, Charlie Gardner, Eric Wright, and Albert Haynesworth.

[Booker Reese]

Alvin Harper - bigger share of the cap, and left dead money in his trail. Not only was a bad player, he was arguably the biggest jerk in Buc history.

[Feel Real Good]

Alvin Harper - bigger share of the cap, and left dead money in his trail. Not only was a bad player, he was arguably the biggest jerk in Buc history.

This is how I'd lean. I didn't even watch football when Harper was signed, but as I reconstruct the era, that was right after the birth of modern free agency when player movement and salaries were still pretty minor. The Bucs signing Harper was seen as a signature type move like the Packers signing Reggie White. These days teams sign so many free agents every year you can barely keep track of them. For as bad as the signings of Garner and others were later, each of those players was usually just one of 5-10 free agent moves so none of them sting as badly as when you used to only get 1-2.

[McBarron]

http://youtu.be/EA95pj_6Tjw

[Ms Elam]

So who would be the greatest free agent signing in history? Simeon rice?

[Bucs_Rule]

So who would be the greatest free agent signing in history? Simeon rice?

No, Hardy Nickerson would be.