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FAB 4. It’s Been A Wild(cat) Ride In Tampa Bay
The year 2020 marks my 25th season covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for you, the loyal PewterReport.com reader. As I begin this milestone season, I’m going to spend the next 25 weeks telling some never-before-told Bucs stories and recalling some of my most memorable moments in my professional journey.
Some things come full circle in life, and that recently happened to me as I moved my 19-year old daughter, Ellie, to Manhattan, Kansas – home to Kansas State University. She’ll work full-time this year to establish residency in Kansas in order to get in-state tuition rates for the fall semester in 2021 at K-State, which is the school I graduated from in 1995.
Scott and Ellie Reynolds flashing the “WC” Wildcat sign
How this ties to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is due to the fact that two former Wildcat players I knew from having covered the football team for Wildcat Weekly, and also as an intern in the K-State Sports Information Department, cornerback Rogerick Green and linebacker Elijah Alexander, were drafted by the Bucs in 1992. That prompted me to get a subscription to Buccaneer Magazine so I could follow their careers in Tampa Bay.
Who knew that I would be working for Buccaneer Magazine upon graduating from K-State three years later? Who knew I would turn this into a 25-year career covering the Bucs?
Alexander and Green didn’t do much in Tampa Bay, as they were mainly reserves and special teamers, and the Bucs have only drafted a handful of Wildcats since then. But the K-Staters that Tampa Bay has drafted have some unique, interesting stories that I’d like to share with you. Let’s start with the best Wildcat the Bucs ever drafted.
K Martin Gramatica – 1999 – Round 3
While the selection of kicker Roberto Aguayo in the second round of the 2016 draft was a debacle, the drafting of a kicker in Gramatica in the third round in 1999 was a tremendous pick. Nicknamed “Automatica” at K-State, Gramatica, who hailed from Belle Glade, Fla. by way of Argentina, was an All-American and a Lou Groza Award winner in Manhattan.
He also had the distinction of kicking the longest field goal without a tee at the FBS Division I level, a 65-yarder he drilled against Northern Illinois during his senior year. That record still stands today over two decades later. Gramatica’s wild celebrations after field goals endeared him to both Wildcats and Buccaneers fans alike.
Gramatica connected on 76.5 percent of his field goals in his six years in Tampa Bay, hitting 84.4 percent of his kicks as a rookie, and then making the Pro Bowl the following year while nailing 82.4 percent of his field goals, including a career-long 55-yarder. In 2002, Gramatica helped the Bucs win Super Bowl XXXVII, but groin injuries took toll the next season as misses became more frequent. Gramatica’s final season in Tampa Bay came in 2005 and his NFL career was over shortly thereafter.
WR Darnell McDonald – 1999 – Round 7
McDonald was a teammate of Gramatica during the 1998 season, in which K-State had achieved a No. 1 ranking in the polls for the first time in school history. The Wildcats finished the season undefeated thanks to McDonald’s game-winning touchdown catch to beat Nebraska, which was the first victory over the Cornhuskers by the Wildcats since 1969.
The 6-foot-3, 202-pound McDonald was a big, physical receiver with very pedestrian speed. He was a long shot to make the roster, and didn’t help himself by having a massive ego, which rubbed the Bucs veterans the wrong way. In fact, when middle linebacker and team captain Hardy Nickerson read McDonald’s comments about him from a story I wrote in Buccaneer Magazine (McDonald said he thought Nickerson looked tougher on TV than he was in person), he and some defensive teammates grabbed the rookie receiver and tied McDonald to one of the goal posts after practice with medical tape.
McDonald had nine catches for 96 yards and a touchdown as a rookie reserve, but he was released the next year following a road rage incident that brought felony charges against the Bucs receiver. McDonald wasn’t going to make the team in 2000 anyway.
WR Aaron Lockett – 2002 – 7th Round
The Bucs turned to the seventh round again for another K-State wide receiver in Jon Gruden’s first year in Tampa Bay. Lockett was the cousin of Kevin Lockett, who was K-State’s all-time leading receiver before his son, Tyler Lockett, broke those records in 2014. Aaron Lockett was nicknamed “The Rocket” by Gruden, who loved his 4.31 speed and the big-play ability he showed at Kansas State.
Lockett played alongside McDonald and Gramatica for a couple of years at K-State and produced the longest reception in school history, a 98-yard touchdown on a pass from quarterback Michael Bishop, who was the Heisman Trophy runner-up to Ricky Williams in 1998.
But the Bucs had a crowded receiver room in 2002 with the additions of Keenan McCardell and Joe Jurevicius, and some unfortunate bobbles of punts in the preseason caused Lockett not to win the return specialist job and stick on the roster. At 5-foot-8, 155 pounds, Lockett just wasn’t big enough to play in the NFL, as he didn’t have the size to run down and cover kicks and punts on special teams, in addition to returning them.
QB Josh Freeman – 2009 – 1st Round
I’ve got quite a story about Freeman that I’ll share with you in the Fab 4 section of next week’s SR’s Fab 5, so stay tuned for that. Freeman was the only Wildcat to be drafted in the first round by the Buccaneers, and it wasn’t a great selection. I’ll admit that I was kind of excited to see another Wildcat in Tampa Bay, but after watching Freeman go 0-for-3 in each of his three seasons against K-State’s arch rivals, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, I had my reservations about him as a pro prospect.
Freeman had all the physical tools – the size, the athleticism and the arm strength – to be a star in the NFL. But he didn’t have the work ethic needed to master the quarterback position at the NFL level. Freeman did lead a fourth quarter comeback against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers for his first NFL win during his rookie season after he supplanted Byron Leftwich as the team’s starter by midseason. And Freeman’s Bucs went 10-6 in 2010 before the wheels fell off the wagon the next year. A 4-12 finish after a 4-1 start led to Raheem Morris’ departure following the 2011 season.
I wrote about Morris’ time at K-State as a defensive coordinator in 2006 and my visit to Manhattan to see Morris, Freeman and the Wildcats beat No. 4 Texas late in the season in a previous SR’s Fab 5. Morris’ familiarity with Freeman was a big reason Tampa Bay drafted him in the first round in 2009, and when Morris was fired, Freeman’s career began a sad, downward spiral.
Some longtime PewterReport.com readers would suggest that I may have campaigned for too many Wildcats in the NFL Draft over the years, but that’s not really the case. There have been plenty of years where I specifically haven’t wanted the Bucs to add any players from my alma mater because they weren’t very good.
But the two names that come to mind that I did want to see in Tampa Bay were wide receiver and return specialist Tyler Lockett in 2015, and offensive lineman Dalton Risner in 2019. The Bucs liked both players, but opted for guard Ali Marpet in the second round in 2015, and cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting over Riser last year in the second round.
Lockett has gone on to become a Pro Bowl wide receiver in Seattle, and Risner earned a starting guard job in Denver as a rookie.
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Stay tuned for another Bucs story from yesteryear in next week’s SR’s Fab 5. And if you missed my previous Bucs memories from the past 24 years of covering the team, click on the links below.
Bucs Pewter Nation Podcast Episode 203: Happy Times As Bucs Camp Begins
Bucs 2020 Training Camp Preview: Defensive Line/Outside Linebackers
