Big Move of April 29th

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selecting Da'Quan Bowers 51st overall (2nd round) in the NFL draft. This might not seem like a big move and I bet a lot of people are wondering why I would give someone taken 51st overall big move status. I can assure you though that this is a huge move for the Bucs and the fact he dropped out of the top 50 in the draft is still a shocker. I'll give you a little background on Bowers and you'll see why this is an absolute steal for the Bucs.

Bowers was the top high school prospect in 2008 according to ESPN and given the label as the best high school prospect in the five year period between 2005-2009 by Rivals.com (this is the number one source for high school football players). Before he even entered college he was already labelled as the next Reggie White or Bruce Smith. There have been lots of players to be hyped up like this in the past such (Marcus Dupree comes to mind, see ESPN 30 for 30 documentary 'the best running back that never was', just incredible) but Bowers stepped up to these labels right from the get go when he enrolled at Clemson. In his first season Bowers started six games for Clemson, which is pretty impressive for a freshman at this position and only 18 years of age. He accumulated 37 tackles and one sack in that season. The following year in 2009 he continued to improve by making 58 tackles and 3 sacks despite missing several games due to injury and had an incredible performance in the ACC championship game with 11 tackles. 11 tackles is a dominant performance from any position but coming from a defensive end is just ridiculous since they generally only rush the quarterback or control the edge of the line allowing linebackers to make the majority of tackles. Bowers work in 2009 was enough to garner first round attention in that year's draft but he was ineligible having only played two years in college. No matter, he would have his best season in 2010 by absolutely dominating on the line for the Tigers, starting all games, recording 74 tackles (26 for loss) and recording 15.5 sacks. Bowers' incredible performance in 2010 would earn him unanimous first team all American status from the NCAA, All ACC defensive player of the year and the Brian Nagurski trophy, which is an award that has been given out since 1993 to the best defensive player in college football. Past winners include Warren Sapp, Champ Bailey, Charles Woodson, Terrell Suggs, Elvis Dumervil, Brian Orakpo and Ndamakung Suh just to name a few. Speaking of Ndamakung Suh, in his final season he recorded 84 tackles, 12 sacks and 23 for loss, which are numbers comparable to Bowers. Suh is a defensive tackle though so maybe this is an unfair comparison but you get the point. Bowers is a unique talent.

With nothing more to prove at Clemson Bowers opted to enter the NFL draft as a 21 year old junior. He was widely considered to be a top 5 pick and many experts and NFL executives had him slotted as the number one overall selection ahead of star Stanford qb Andrew Luck (Luck later decided to remain in school for his senior season).  However, Bowers required surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee after the college season and questions about the long term health of his knee began to surface. The most concerning rumour was that he had a degenerative condition in his right knee, which would likely lead to a very short NFL career. Bowers denied these claims and so did several medical examiners but his stock would start to plummet and the once top 5 draft pick was only projected to be selected in the mid first round.

This past Thursday at the NFL draft Bowers went unselected in the first ten picks and analysts continued to speculate on who would be willing to take a chance on him. The first 20 picks then went by without Bowers’ name being called, which only ramped up the amount of times his name would be dropped on the air by the likes of Mel Kiper and Jon Gruden. With teams such as the Colts, Eagles, Saints and Steelers in need of a pass rusher left to pick it seemed Bowers was a lock to get selected and would be a steal by any team to jump on him. Unbelievably, this did not happen and Bowers slid into the second round where he surely would be taken in the first few slots. Buffalo possessed the second pick on day two and seemed like an obvious candidate to take Bowers and pair him with third overall pick DT Marcell Dareus.  There is a reason why the Bills have not made the playoffs in ten years though and they reminded us of that on Friday by bypassing Bowers for cornerback Aaron Williams of Texas. However, the Bills wouldn’t be the only team left looking stupid by skipping Bowers and he would eventually slide all the way to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the19^th pick of the second round (51^st overall).

As I've already harped on, this is an absolute steal for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If Bowers were taken beyond the 15th pick I would have called it a steal. I fully understand that it's a risk to draft a player with questionable knees, especially with the word 'degenerative' mentioned. But you have to take a shot on a talent like Bowers because dominant defensive ends are rare to find and can completely change a game or team. I have not heard of any team or doctor to definitively identify Bowers' knee as a degenerative problem but I do concede there might be more of an issue than Bowers is revealing given his huge slide in the draft. However, medical treatments continue to advance and injuries have become easier to manage. After all, wasn't Drew Brees finished after his major shoulder surgery at the end of the 2005 season? Or how about Willis McGahee who had one of the most gruesome injuries I've ever seen in college? Almost everyone said he wouldn't have a long NFL career. Bowers is only 21 and if the Bucs manage his injury properly (possibly even sitting him out one season) I think he has the potential to become a greater player than Gerald McCoy (last year's 3rd overall pick) or Adrian Clayborn who the Bucs took in this year's first round. Now that is a scary thought! If you're a Bucs fan you've got a lot to be happy about today as they are the clear winner of the 2011 draft thus far.