FAB 3. GLENNON BOOSTS BUCCANEERS’ 2013 DRAFT GRADE
If you really want to evaluate a team’s draft class, wait four years. After four years the busts will be out of town, and perhaps out of football, while the studs will be getting high-priced contract extensions. Four years gives players time to develop and compete for starting roles, and allows for players to possibly overcome an early injury in their career.

Four years ago, former general manager Mark Dominik and former head coach Greg Schiano were about to preside over what would be their final draft in Tampa Bay. At a quick glance, the final results of the Bucs’ 2013 draft are lackluster. Dominik traded away Tampa Bay’s first-round pick, the 13th overall selection, for Pro Bowl cornerback Darrelle Revis, who was coming off a torn ACL that cost him most of the 2012 season with the New York Jets.

Former Bucs head coach Greg Schiano and ex-Bucs CB Darrelle Revis – Photo by: Cliff Welch/pR

At the time, the Revis trade could be justified – even paying him $16 million per season because the Bucs had no cap issues at the time. Although he wasn’t as ideal of a fit in Schiano’s scheme as the team had hoped, Revis played well in 2013 and made the Pro Bowl despite some rather pedestrian numbers – 11 pass breakups, two interceptions, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one sack.

Yet Revis didn’t help the Bucs in the win column as Tampa Bay slumped to 4-12 after a 7-9 finish in Schiano’s first season in 2012. The Bucs started the season 0-8, including a season-opening loss at New York against Revis’ former team.

In hindsight, the Bucs wasted a first-round pick renting Revis as he was cut by new general manager Jason Licht and head coach Lovie Smith, who needed the salary cap room to remake the team in their image. Having $16 million wrapped up in one player didn’t make sense to Licht and Smith.

Unfortunately, the money they saved by parting ways with the 28-year old Revis was wasted on free agents like quarterback Josh McCown, left tackle Anthony Collins and defensive end Michael Johnson – all of whom only lasted a year in Tampa Bay themselves. Alterraun Verner, who was coming off a Pro Bowl season in Tennessee, took over Revis’ spot on the depth chart at cornerback. Verner wasn’t as good as Revis and was benched after two seasons prior to being released last week.

So who would the Bucs have selected with the 13th overall pick had the Revis trade not happened? The Jets wound up selecting Missouri defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson, who would have gotten consideration from the Bucs, too.

Safety Eric Reid, who was drafted by San Francisco at 18, was an option, as were Washington cornerback Desmond Trufant, who went to Atlanta at 22, and Florida State cornerback Xavier Rhodes, who went to Minnesota at 25. Do you really want to know whom Dominik would have drafted in the first round in 2013?

Grab a barf bag.

Former Bucs head coach Greg Schiano and ex-GM Mark Dominik – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The player that Dominik, Schiano and director of player personnel Dennis Hickey all wanted was Notre Dame tight end Tyler Eifert, who ended up going to the Cincinnati Bengals with the 21st overall pick.

Yes, the Bucs could have had a Pro Bowl tight end in 2013.

The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Eifert, who won the John Mackey Award in 2012 as the nation’s top tight end, ran a 4.65 in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. After missing almost all of the 2014 season due to an injury after a promising rookie season, Eifert made the Pro Bowl in 2015 after catching 52 passes for 615 yards and scoring 13 touchdowns. Despite missing half of the 2016 season due to injury, Eifert still caught 29 passes for 394 yards and five touchdowns, while averaging 13.6 yards per catch.

While Tim Wright, an undrafted free agent, produced 54 catches for 571 yards and five touchdowns in 2013, imagine the numbers a more talented tight end like Eifert could have produced? Wright was traded to New England the following season.

Years later, Licht would find an Eifert-type player in tight end Cameron Brate as an undrafted free agent, but instead of having nothing to show for the Revis trade, the Bucs could have had a Pro Bowler in Eifert instead.

Tampa Bay used its second-round pick on cornerback Johnthan Banks, who showed some promise early in his career as a starter in Schiano’s system, but wasn’t deemed to be a fit in Smith’s. Banks is a ballhawk with seven career interceptions after picking off 16 passes at Mississippi State, but lacks ideal speed and quickness to ultimately be successful in the NFL.

Drafting Banks ultimately ended up being a bad move as the team traded him to Detroit last November for a seventh-round pick. He was cut a month and a half later and signed by Chicago. Being on three teams in one year is not a good sign. Instead, it’s an indication that a player’s NFL career is coming to a quick close.

Yet Tampa Bay’s 2013 draft isn’t the total bust that you might think it is.

Bucs QB Mike Glennon – Photo by: Getty Images

Where the 2013 draft has some real life for the Bucs – and for Dominik and Schiano’s reputation – is the next three picks. It’s not often that third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks wind up saving a draft, but that’s what has happened.

Quarterback Mike Glennon, who was drafted in the third round when Freeman’s issues really began to surface behind the scenes, prompting Dominik and Schiano to draft an insurance policy at the position in case the 2009 first-round pick imploded during his contract year, which is exactly what happened. Freeman wound up getting benched and Glennon started 13 games as a rookie and laid the foundation for a contract extension offer from the Bucs worth $8 million, which would make him the highest paid backup quarterback in the NFL.

In his four-year career with Tampa Bay, Glennon has thrown for 4,100 yards with 30 touchdowns and 15 interceptions – a favorable 2:1 TD-to-INT ratio. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound signal caller threw 19 touchdowns and nine interceptions in leading the Bucs to four victories as a rookie. Glennon saw action in six games in 2014, subbing for the injured Josh McCown and throwing 10 touchdowns and six interceptions. Glennon also led the Bucs to a come-from-behind road win at Pittsburgh.

After not seeing any action in 2015 as Jameis Winston took all the snaps during his rookie campaign, Glennon completed 10-of-11 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown against Atlanta this season in mop-up duty during Tampa Bay’s 43-28 loss on Thursday Night Football.

Glennon will likely receive a contract in excess of $8 million per year in free agency along with the opportunity to start. Chicago and the New York Jets are among the most interested teams, and so is Pittsburgh as a backup role, according to Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole. Should Glennon depart, the Bucs could receive a compensatory draft pick as high as the third round in 2018.

After Glennon, the Bucs drafted two defensive linemen in the fourth round, defensive tackle Akeem Spence and defensive end Will Gholston. Spence should receive a decent contract from Tampa Bay or elsewhere in the $2 million per year range, which is quite good considering that he’s 25 years old and hasn’t emerged as a starter yet.

Bucs DE William Gholston – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Aside from Glennon, Gholston will also command a big contract, and the Bucs are working diligently with his agent to get a deal done before the start of free agency. Gholston’s agent started too high for Tampa Bay’s liking, and a deal in the $5 million to $6 million per year range seems likely.

The Bucs drafted defensive end Steven Means in the fifth round and running back Mike James in the seventh. Means lasted just a year and a half in Tampa Bay before latching on with Philadelphia last season after a year out of football.

James had limited success in Tampa Bay as a rookie in 2013 but has spent a good deal of his time with the Bucs as the third-string running back or on the practice squad. James finished the 2016 season on Detroit’s practice squad and he signed a future contract with the Lions for 2017.

While the Bucs have nothing to show for their early round picks, Glennon emerging as a stellar backup quarterback for Tampa Bay, or a starting-caliber QB elsewhere, has greatly helped the reputation of the team’s 2013 draft class, as has the development of Gholston, and Spence to a lesser degree.

If a team still has about half of its draft picks in meaningful roles four years later that’s generally a good draft. The 2013 draft might not be considered a very good one, but it’s not nearly as bad as you might think.