BUCPOWER.COM Every player, every game and every detail in Buccaneer history THE 20 WORST TRADES IN FRANCHISE HISTORY as featured on this site in 2004 1 1983 -Traded a 1984 1st round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals for QB Jack Thompson Most Buc fans will have already worked out this was going to be top of the list of worst trades. This infamous deal took place in June 1983 after Doug Wiliams had bolted for the USFL. John McKay saw his team in the hands of Jerry Golsteyn (who? exactly). Hence when the Bengals offered former 1st round pick Jack "The Throwin' Samoan" Thompson in return for a first round pick, McKay took the chance to acquire a supposedly-decent QB. After a 2-14 season in 1983, that first round pick became the first overall selection in the 1984 draft. The Bengals traded it for what turned out to be three other high picks and the Patriots selected WR Irving Fryar. Thompson was gone from the field three games into the 1984 season. Click here for his profile 2 1982 -Traded a 1983 1st round pick to the Chicago Bears for a 1982 2nd round pick Of course it would have been all too easy to make this the No.1 selection for worst trade as we have already named Booker Reese as the Worst Player in Buccaneer history. But there is one trade that we think is worse than even this disaster and the gory details on that one follow tomorrow. But for now, the deal that gave the Bucs the chance to draft Reese in 1982 is the runner-up in our countdown. Reese of course played three less-than-distinctive seasons in Tampa and the story of his fall from grace on leaving football can be found on our archive section. For the record, the Bears drafted WR Willie Gault with that first round pick. Click here for his profile 3 1988 -Traded T Ron Heller to the Seattle Seahawks for DE Randy Edwards and a 6th round pick Ray Perkins has the third-highest entry in our countdown too with this classic piece of mismanagement. The story about Perkins and Heller getting in a fight during and after the 1987 game in New Orleans has been well-documented. By May 1988, Perkins wanted Heller off the team even though solid tackles are probably the hardest people to find in the NFL. He traded him to Seattle (who then passed him on to Philadelphia) for Randy Edwards (who never played a down for the team) and a draft pick that became LB Derrick Little (ditto). Heller merely spent the best part of the next decade starting for the Eagles and finally the Dolphins.Click here for his profile 4 1990 -Traded a 1st round pick to the Indianapolis Colts for QB Chris Chandler Another Ray Perkins' special at No.4 in our countdown as we remember the day the Bucs gave up a No.1 pick for the QB who has had more clubs than Jack Nicklaus. Chandler was brought in to provide competition for Vinny as Perkins had realised the mercurial one was never going to lead his team to success. Chandler divided the team in two factions between his supporters and the Vinny-loving brigade and did nothing but cause trouble in the locker room. A year after he arrived, then-coach Richard Williamson cut him in a forlorn attempt to save the 1991 season. At least the Colts blew out on LB Quentin Coryatt with what turned out to be the second overall pick in the 1992 draft. Click here for his profile 5 1988 -Traded a 3rd round pick to the New England Patriots for WR Stephen Starring This one goes down to Ray Perkins as he was the GM as well as the coach in 1988. The Bucs had an emerging receiving corps in Mark Carrier and Bruce Hill who would both have 1,000-yard seasons in the next two years. But Perkins wanted more speed at receiver (a QB who didn't throw 35 interceptions would have been better) so he gave away a 3rd round pick to the Patriots for Stephen Starring. He had a grand total of three receptions as a Buc, one of which came on a Hail Mary pass. With that third round pick, the Patriots took future Pro Bowl tight end, Marv Cook. Click here for his profile 6 1978 -Traded a 1st round pick and TE Bob Moore to the Chicago Bears for DE Wally Chambers Another one from the John McKay days and a deal that remains talked about some 25 years later. Chambers was a former All-Pro and NFL Defensive Player of the Year in Chicago but was so far over the hill by 1978 that Lance Armstrong was seen pedalling past him. He spent two seasons in Tampa playing less and less by the week and eventually retired after the 1979 season from professional football. Bob Moore was an OK tight end but the first round pick that the Bucs gave up was No.4 overall in the 1979 draft and was used by Chicago to select future All-Pro defensive lineman Dan Hampton. Click here for his profile 7 1985 -Traded LB Hugh Green to the Miami Dolphins for 1st and 2nd round picks After four good seasons with the Bucs, Hugh Green wanted out of Tampa because he could see where Leeman Bennett was taking the team he inherited from John McKay. The Dolphins jumped at the chance to acquire an All-Pro linebacker like Green and offered the seemingly incredible bounty of 1st and 2nd round picks in the 1986 draft. So why is this in our worst 20 trades? Becauase we used those picks on CB Rod "Toast" Jones (the 6th worst Buc of all-time) and LB Jackie Walker who was such a bust, he ended up being a third-string tight end. Then again, this was also the draft that we took Bo Jackson. Click here for his profile 8 1980 -Traded CB Jeris White to the Washington Redskins for WR Danny Buggs and a 4th round pick Another one that John McKay probably wished he had not made at the time. Jeris White was a three-year starter at cornerback and had played in the NFC Championship game against the Rams. But McKay wanted offense and let White go from his No.1 ranked defense to get it. Danny Buggs never played a single down for the Buccaneers and the draft pick was spent on WR Larry Flowers who also never even played for the franchise. White merely went on to win a SuperBowl ring alongside Joe Theisman and John Riggins for the Joe Gibbs-led Redskins. Click here for his profile 9 1987 -Traded G Sean Farrell to the New England Patriots for a 2nd round pick After two years of Leeman Bennett's "coaching" (his word, not ours), and consecutive 2-14 seasons, morale amongst the Buccaneer players was not good. Sean Farrell had started on the offensive line for five years and was one of the Bucs' few real talents but at a local booster club meeting, he simply announced that he wanted out of Tampa Bay and he didn't care to where. Coach Ray Perkins was all too quick to get rid of malcontents on his roster (he soon had a full team of his own) and traded Farrell to the Patriots for a 2nd round pick which looked OK at the time. Then Perkins drafted RB Don Smith who would up in the state prison for drug smuggling. Click here for his profile 10 1978 -Traded DT Dave Pear to the Oakland Raiders for a 2nd and 3rd round pick Dave Pear was the first Buc to ever play in the Pro Bowl having finished his third and best season in 1978 as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer. Then he became an Oakland Raider in return for 2nd and 3rd round picks in the 1979 draft. What makes this such a bad trade in hindsight, are the two selections that the Bucs then made in G Greg Roberts and RB Rick Berns. Neither could be regarded as a good pick and in spite of Pear only playing a season and a half on the West coast with the Raiders, this could have been so much better for the Buccaneers with better draft picks or by not trading him at all. Click here for his profile 11 1978 -Traded C Dan Ryczek to the Los Angeles Rams for a 6th round pick Dan Ryczek was the first center in franchise history and started the first season and a half in the orange and white for John McKay. Having been acquired in the expansion draft, he was one of the original mainstays of the team before handing over the reins to Steve Wilson. At the end of 1977, the Bucs traded Ryczek to the Los Angeles Rams for a 6th round pick. He went on to play every game for the Rams for the next two seasons including the NFC Championship win over the Bucs. The pick acquired was used on WR Elijah Marshall who never played a down for the franchise. Click here for his profile 12 1987 -Traded the rights to Doug Williams to the Redskins for a 5th round pick After the 1982 season, Doug Williams left Tampa Bay after a bitter contract dispute with owner Hugh Culverhose and spent the next three seasons in the USFL. When that league was about to fold, players in the same position as Doug looked to return to the NFL but found their rights held by their original NFL teams. With Steve DeBerg and Steve Young on the roster, the Bucs didn't need Williams back and hence traded his rights to the Redskins. The 5th round pick they got was wasted on a defensive back named Tony Mayes who never played a down for the franchise. Big Doug ended up winning a SuperBowl for the Redskins thanks to the luckiest 15 minutes in NFL history. Click here for his profile 13 1978- Traded a 7th round pick to the Washington Redskins for WR Frank Grant Another poor McKay trade in a boost to add veteran experience to his young developing Buccaneer team. Frank Grant had spent five seasons with the Redskins and had caught 50 passes in a season in the nation's capital. But in ten games for the Bucs and four starts, he had only eight receptions and was gone before training camp the following season. Click here for his profile 14 1982 -Traded RB Ricky Bell to San Diego for a 4th round pick There is probably more to this 1982 trade than meets the eye. Bell had led the Bucs through to their first playoff appearance in 1979 with a 1,000-yard season but his numbers dropped off the table because of injury after that with less than 600 yards the following year and then just 80 in 1981. The Chargers offered a 4th round pick although Bell only carried the ball twice and had one kick return on the West Coast. The pick that the Bucs acquired was used on RB David Barrett who was injured in his rookie pre-season and never played a down for the franchise in the NFL. Click here for his profile 15 1990 - Traded 2nd and 3rd round picks to San Diego for RB Gary Anderson This one might surprise some people at being in the top 20 of Worst trades, but the Bucs paid an awful lot for a former Bandit back who had lit up Tampa Stadium a few years earlier. Anderson was way past his best when he arrived in Tampa's NFL colours for a 3rd round pick in 1990 and a 2nd rounder the following year. There were odd flashes of the skills that he once showed but all too infrequent to make the trade worthwhile. At least the Chargers' selections of LB Jeff Mills and DT George Thornton were nothing to write home about otherwise this deal could have risen a few more places. Click here for his profile 16 1984 - Traded a 6th round pick to the Denver Broncos for DE Brison Manor Just a week before the Perry Tuttle trade that was No.17 on this countdown, the Bucs struck again by trading a 6th round pick in 1986 for Brison Manor. The latter, more suitably named for a country house in Surrey, had only missed one game in seven seasons in Denver and had the huge career total of five sacks. He added just one more in six games with the Buccaneers, a real waste of a draft pick. The Broncos then traded this to the Giants who selected WR Ron Brown. Click here for his profile 17 1984 - Traded a 1986 7th round pick to the Buffalo Bills for WR Perry Tuttle Although this trade was for a 1986 7th round pick, the actual deal was done in August 1984 and was one of John McKay's last trades as head coach of the Bucs. Tuttle had been a former first round pick of the Bills in 1982 but had been a complete bust in upstate in New York making just 24 catches in two seasons. He played three games in Tampa without catching a pass either and after one reception for the Falcons, disappeared from the NFL for good. Click here for his profile 18 1990 - Traded DL Robert Goff to the New Orleans Saints for a 10th round pick Robert "Pig" Goff was a useful back-up defensive lineman who had been drafted in the 4th round in 1988 by Ray Perkins and had recorded six sacks in his two seasons in Tampa. But he fell into Perkins' air-conditioned doghouse and hence found himself being traded to the Saints for nothing more than a 10th round pick. Which the Bucs then spent on RB Hyland Hickson who never played a down for the franchise. Click here for his profile 19 1977 - Traded a 5th round pick to the Miami Dolphins for LB Ray Nettles During the early years of the franchise, the futility on the field was often matched by some pretty poor personnel decisions off it too. This was one of the best though. In January 1977, John McKay tried to add some experience and depth to his young defense by trading a 5th round pick to Miami for LB Ray Nettles. Not only did Nettles never even play for either franchise, he did not even make it to the 1977 Buccaneer training camp. I think bust is the word John was looking for. 20 1976 - Traded 4th and 5th round picks to the LA Rams for LB Jim Peterson Going into their expansion season, the Buccaners had been royally shafted by the other NFL teams in terms of players made available for the expansion draft. Hence the Bucs found themselves desperately trying to sign potential veteran talent to boost their first team. Some deals came off, this one didn't. Jim Peterson played only three games for the Bucs before being lost for the season through injury and then did not make the 1977 team out of camp. Click here for his profile