Cook’s Selections 1-5

1. QB Jameis Winston
2. WR Mike Evans
3. SS John Lynch
4. FB Mike Alstott
5. TE Jimmie Giles

Cook’s Reaction – Rounds 1-5
In a quarterback driven league, getting the right guy to be the captain of your ship is crucial. Is Jameis Winston the best player in team history? Of course not. Not even close. However, he is the best quarterback the franchise has ever had, and the first one that most fans would feel comfortable building a team around. I pulled the trigger on this controversial move and won’t look back.

Bucs QB Jameis Winston

And before anyone says I am just an FSU homer, that is simply not the case. If I was, I would have selected the best Nole-turned-Buc ever in Derrick Brooks. The fact is, in 2017, you better have a quarterback. We can say defense wins championships, and that’s not completely false, but how many points did the Patriots score last Super Bowl to win – 34 was it? And how many when they beat the Seahawks – 28? You better be able to score points as the league has changed the rules to favor the offense. Winston was the right choice.

With that said, there was short debate in my mind. Reynolds likes to point to Brooks as the greatest Bucs player ever, and he is Top 3. But give me Warren Sapp first all day, and then Lee Roy Selmon ahead of the former Noles standout. Both of those players were considered, and kudos to Scott Reynolds and Trevor Sikkema for taking those two ahead of me on my second pick.

If you are going to draft a quarterback No. 1 overall, you better give him some weapons, and that is what I did with my next pick, drafting a wide receiver in Mike Evans. While he still has a ways to go to break all the Bucs’ franchise records, Evans, who entering his fourth season is already, like Winston, the best player at his position in franchise history. Evans is a future Hall of Famer if he stays healthy. He’s not only the best receiver the Bucs have ever had, he is knocking on the door to being the best receiver in the entire NFL, barely trailing Julio Jones in my opinion. Three seasons. Three 1,000 seasons. If he stays healthy and plays another 10 years we will be watching his daughter enshrine him in Canton one day.

Bucs SS John Lynch & DT Warren Sapp – Photo by: Getty Images

With my next pick I strayed slightly from my offensive mindset, and decided to go defense and take another of my favorites in safety John Lynch. Reynolds and Sikkema went on a defensive run with in the first three rounds, so I needed to at least make a mark defensively, and after Brooks, Selmon, Sapp and defensive end Simeon Rice were picked I took the hard hitting former Stanford Cardinal. Five Pro Bowls, a Super Bowl Ring and his name forever gracing the walls of Raymond James Stadium, Lynch was the right choice.

After taking Lynch I went back to my offensive gameplan, nabbing fan favorite Mike Alstott, or Mark Alstott as Jon Gruden called him, then followed it up with the best tight end in team history with the selection of Jimmie Giles. Wow, imagine Winston with Giles in a real-life scenario. They would easily be the best tight end and quarterback duo in the league. And don’t tell me Alstott isn’t the type of player that wouldn’t make Winston lose his mind and pump him up after one of Alstott’s patented bowling ball 25-yard, make-a-cornerback-have-nightmare types of runs. With 58 rushing touchdowns, six Pro Bowls and a lot pain dished out to defensive players over his career, putting Alstott behind Winston, with Giles at tight end and Evans at wide receiver, I already have a dream offense in the works.

Click to the next page to see what Sikkema thought of his Day 1 draft haul.