Lost At Sea: Forgotten Bucs CBs

When fans think of the Buccaneers, most, if not all, recall the Super Bowl-winning teams of 2002 and 2020. Anytime before that is generally seen as a dark era of Bucs football filled with a lot of losing seasons. Even with that caveat, plenty of players shined with impressive years and stints. Players that are largely forgotten in the minds of fans, apart from the most ardent and hardcore supporters. 

For this series, I wanted to take a look at players who are underrated or not mentioned much when discussing the team’s history. The number of players mentioned in each entry will vary based on position.

The only rules are that they were Bucs between 1976 to 1996 – fitting the prerequisite of rocking the original “Bucco Bruce” uniforms – and are worth remembering. 

Quarterbacks 

Running Backs

Wide Receivers

Tight Ends

Offensive Linemen

Defensive Linemen

Linebackers

Overview: 

The cornerback position is one that has had plenty of star power throughout team history. The headliner of the group is recent Hall of Fame inductee Ronde Barber, but there are plenty of other players who were productive during their time with the Bucs.

In recent years the team has boasted two of them on the roster Carlton Davis and Jamel Dean and they will remain in town for the foreseeable future. Before them, it was Brent Grimes, Darrelle Revis, Aqib Talib, and Brian Kelly who all found varying extents of success from the early 2000s into the 2010s.

But what about the Bucs cornerbacks who patrolled the field before them? The unheralded stars of yesteryear are worth remembering just as much for their playmaking ways.

Forgotten Bucs At CB

1. Mike Washington

An original Buccaneer, Mike Washington was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the third round in 1975 but never played a game for them. He would come over by trade in 1976, defecting to join the burgeoning ship making its initial landfall in Tampa Bay. Washington would call the Bucs his NFL home for all nine seasons of his career, rocking the No. 40 in the days before Mike Alstott.

While he did not record an interception in his first season with the team, he would go on to have seven consecutive multi-interception seasons, starting with five apiece in 1977 and 1978. The 6-2 Washington set his personal best in 1981 with six, and he still ranks fourth in team history with 28 total interceptions.

Washington was also a playmaker when the ball was in his hands, as he had three pick-sixes. Unfortunately, his days of being a turnover creator were cut short in the team’s season opener against the Bears in 1984 when he suffered a severe neck injury that resulted in two ruptured discs.

While he goes largely unmentioned when talking about great defensive Bucs, this compilation of Washington’s highlights does him justice. There are few things more nostalgic than looking at old NFL broadcasts.

2. Ricky Reynolds

It did not take long for another cornerback to emerge after Washington. Derrick “Ricky” Scott Reynolds, not to be confused with Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds, was taken in the second round of the 1987 NFL Draft. He started off his career with a bang, totaling 12 interceptions in his first four seasons. Across seven total years with the team, he had 17 total.

He also contributed in other ways in his 103 starts rocking the “Bucco Bruce” uniforms, breaking up passes, being an apt tackler, and showing a propensity for forcing fumbles. He had 434 total tackles as a Buccaneer, an average of over 60 tackles a season. Per BucPower.com, he also had 118 passes defended, nearly 17 a season and over one a game.

While cornerback is not a position filled with players forcing fumbles, he had eight of them. Looking over the ways Reynolds contributed to the outcome of games, he is forgotten for his ability to affect them with regularity. That alone is worth acknowledgment.

3. Wayne Haddix

While the first two cornerbacks were more known for their consistency, Wayne Haddix was the ultimate one-year wonder. After not being drafted, not starting a game after two seasons with the Giants, and not playing at all in 1989 with an Achilles injury, Haddix went from coming off the street to being a Pro Bowl selection in 1990.

With the Bucs that season, Haddix was a true ballhawk. He had seven interceptions for 231 total yards, returning three of them for touchdowns. Of note, he had two two-interception games and also picked off a Joe Montana pass and returned it 65 yards for a touchdown.

That would pretty much be it for him in the NFL, as he only started four more games with the Bucs before being released and being out of the league after 1991.

But his legacy found another medium for football fans to discover him. When the game Tecmo Super Bowl was released in 1991 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Haddix was rated highly based on his 1990 performance. That led gamers to have plenty of success with him, earning something of a cult following. Instead of his actual highlights on YouTube, there are plenty more video game clips of him in 8-bit form. What a cool way for your name to live on.

4. Donnie Abraham

In a way, choosing Donnie Abraham here is cheating the criteria I set for only picking Bucs that played between 1976-1996. As a rookie in 1996, Abraham just made this list but is well worth discussing. Besides Ronde Barber and John Lynch, Donnie Abraham is the most successful defensive back in team history based on his body of work.

Former Bucs CB Donnie Abraham – Photo by: Getty Images

He ranks second in team history in interceptions and was one of the more underrated cornerbacks during his time in the NFL. He had five interceptions in five of his six seasons as a Buccaneer, and in 1999 paced all cornerbacks with seven interceptions, two touchdowns, and 25 pass deflections. Surprisingly, he was snubbed for the Pro Bowl that season but made it the following year by picking off another seven passes in 2000.

While I am too young to have seen it for myself, I can only imagine what it was like to watch the duo of Abraham and Barber in action. They combined for a total of 16 interceptions (Barber 10, Abraham 6), and Barber’s breakout coincided with Abraham’s consistency. In a case of what could have been, Abraham departed following that year to join the Jets, where he would play for three more seasons.

After finishing his playing career in 2004, Abraham continued his life in football as a high school head coach for three different Florida schools and as a defensive backs coach for the Tampa Bay Storm from 2011-2012. Currently, he serves as the defensive coordinator for the St. Louis Battlehawks in the XFL. Maybe he will return to the Bucs again one day as a coach.