Bucs Draft: A Quick Start Jon Gruden once vowed that if he ever got another chance to coach a player as dynamic as Charles Woodson, he would not pass on it. That chance came again Saturday during the first round of the NFL draft. Despite the fact the player came draped in red flags, Gruden couldn't bring himself to break his vow and pass on this chance to coach a potential Woodson clone. The Bucs, as a result, used the 20th pick on cornerback/punt returner Aqib Talib, a Kansas product whose past is so checkered that some teams reportedly dropped him from their draft boards. Testing positive three times for marijuana use and being suspended for two games at the start of the 2006 season will do that. But the Bucs are convinced mistakes of that nature are all in Talib's past. "I trust this kid," said Gruden, whose endorsement didn't ring quite as loudly as that of Kansas coach Mark Mangino, who went so far as to say Talib is the kind of guy you'd want baby-sitting your kids. For now, the Bucs will be baby-sitting Talib, who is expected to help fill the hole left by Brian Kelly's departure. But this 6-foot-1, 195-pound defensive playmaker and punt returner swears he doesn't need any added adult supervision. "That was just one stage that I went through in my life, and I learned a lot from it," Talib said. "I'm a grown man now. I've moved forward from it. All that is behind me." The Bucs sure hope so, because there is little doubt that Talib and second-round selection Dexter Jackson, a wide receiver out of Appalachian State, have the ability to give the Bucs the speed and playmaking ability they were after in this draft. Talib has been described as a real gambler. In college, he won most of his bets, leading the nation in pass breakups with 22 in 2006 - after sitting out two games serving that suspension. His 13 career interceptions rank him second all-time among Kansas defensive backs and third all-time among Big 12 pass defenders. He also can return punts, thus the comparison to Woodson. The likelihood, though, is that the Bucs will look to Jackson to enhance their return game, because he is a little more accomplished in that area than Talib. He also has had a lot more success, averaging 9 yards per punt return and 17.7 yards per kick return during his college career. Returning kicks and punts, though, is just a small part of Jackson's game. He established himself as one of the nation's biggest playmakers, averaging an impressive 16.78 yards per catch, including a whopping 22.9 yards as a senior. "He's got some heat," Gruden said of the heir to Joey Galloway's starting split end job. "He's a quick-strike guy. He can catch balls downfield. He can catch quick screens. He can make one guy miss, find a crease and he's capable of hitting it." Best of all, the Bucs got that, an extra pick in the fifth round this year (158th overall) and another seventh-round pick next year, all for their original second-round pick (No. 52) in a trade with Jacksonville. There was talk of other trades involving the Bucs, including one that had them trading their second-round pick to the Dolphins for defensive end Jason Taylor, but Gruden said the phone remained mostly silent. You get the feeling the Bucs wouldn't have traded their first-round pick anyway, primarily because Talib allows them to do some things defensively that they consider critical. Though the Cover 2 remains their base scheme, the Bucs have been forced to play more Cover 3 and man-to-man pass defense in recent years against teams using three- and four-receiver sets. Those schemes require players to have top-level speed and coverage skills, and that's what Talib has. No one should be surprised if he finds his way into the starting lineup by the opening game. "Last year, we ran more than 1,000 plays; 42 percent of the time we were in nickel defense, which means three wides. That means we have to match up with three corners," Monte Kiffin said. "That's why you really need a really good third corner, because he's one snap away from being a starter, and right now that corner is going to play close to 50 percent of the time." To earn that part-time job, Talib will have to outplay Phillip Buchanon, Eugene Wilson and Sammie Davis. That might not happen right away, but in time the Bucs see Talib working regularly in their secondary. "We didn't take him in the first round to have him chart plays," Gruden said. "I expect him to come in here full-force and compete. He's in a competitive situation, because now we have the ability in the secondary to mix up our coverages and blitz a little bit more. It's just good to have some ball-hawking guys back there who can cover man to man and instinctively play the football when it's in flight." Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune 27 April 2008