Bucs get QB of the future

[The_Philster]

TAMPA, Fla. (April 27, 2003 9:34 a.m. EDT) - Chris Simms had given up on the NFL draft and turned his television to the NBA playoffs.

The disappointed Texas quarterback watched the end of the New Jersey Nets' overtime loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA playoffs Saturday, and had just started getting into the Philadelphia 76ers-New Orleans Hornets game when he received a call from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the end of the third round.

Simms, son of former New York Giants star Phil Simms, expected to go anywhere between 15th and 25th overall. Instead, he went 97th - and was the sixth player drafted at his position.

He wound up with the Super Bowl champions and a coach - Jon Gruden - that has a reputation for molding successful quarterbacks. Still, he's still determined to prove the league's other 31 teams made a mistake....more (http://www.sportserver.com/football/nfl/general/story/869381p-6069364c.html)

[Paka]

I'm up on the air on the selection of Simms... my first reaction to the pick was :huh:

Feeling more comfortable with it now, though.

He definitely has shortcomings, but there is a lot of potential there, especially under the tutelage of a coach like Gruden. It will be interesting to see how he develops. It is a gamble; we'll see how it pays off. But it is a low-risk gamble, with potentially a very high payback. Could be our future starter at some point, and may make for a decent #2 or #3 this season. Then again, could easily be a total bust too. He is a pretty good pick for end of the 3rd round, and we all know the Bucs take the best player available regardless of position. As evidenced yet again by taking White in the 2nd, though DE was not one of our needs.

With our selection of Simms, most of my :huh: reaction was from the addition of yet another QB. Once again, we know the Bucs philosophy, but when we have so many needs I thought it might be stretching it a bit, especially considering all the QBs we had when we made it (we just got rid of two of 'em though of course).

[The_Philster]

Well, after we picked up a RB that no one at the parties felt we needed, Mike32282 suggested that we were gonna pick up Simms in the third round in Buffalo. He made a prediction at the BFZ party that we were gonna select McGahee just before we did. A couple of us were ready to beat him to a bloody pulp had he been right again. :lol: