SJ Mock Draft projects Sanchez to Bucs, Maualuga to Denver

Did Sanchez make the right decision to stay or did Pete Carroll have the more realistic view? It all depends on who you talk to and which mock draft you're reading.

The updated Mock at SportsJabber. net projects Mark Sanchez to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It also sends Rey Maualuga to the Jets, and Brian Cushing to the Denver Broncos. Though this mock has Sanchez lower than some, there are others in agreement with Pete Carroll, and the quarterback's name is absent from the first round.

Unlike many mock drafts run by one individual, Sports Jabber has a draft team assembled from all regions of the country. They are the eyes and ears of the nation, and before a prospect is ever postioned on the board, there is an evaluation and group debate. Positions will change several times before April's draft, as we receive results from the NFL Scout Combine and individual Pro-Day workouts. 12 Trojans have been invited to Indianapolis to participate in this year's Combine. Be sure to track the player movement through updates in the draft and Sports Jabber reports.

2009 Sports Jabber Mock Draft (Updated 2/7)

Retro: The Buc stopped there but started here

With the first overall pick in the 1977 NFL draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Ricky Bell. He became a member of a second year expansion team that had yet to win a game, losing all 14 in their first year. It was the shocking pick, considering he went before Tony Dorsett, the 1976 Heisman winner from Pittsburgh. Bell placed second to Dorsett in the Heisman balloting. But it wasn’t surprising, if you consider the Tampa coaching staff. John Mckay was the first head coach in Buccaneers history, and coached Ricky Bell for 3 years at USC, before ever accepting the NFL position. Bell and Mckay would go on to lose another 12 games, before Tampa ever won their first.

As a USC freshman, Ricky Bell played linebacker. He was eventually moved to fullback, spending a year blocking for Anthony Davis. By his junior year, he was a feature back, leading the nation in rushing, with 1,875 yards. In his senior campaign, he established a USC single game rushing record, with 347 yards against Washington State. The Heisman Trophy would have been the icing on the cake, if not for Dorsett's remarkable season performance.

Ricky played 4 seasons with the Bucs, showing his best in 1979, as Tampa achieved their first winning season. He led Tampa to their first franchise playoff victory, by romping over the Philadelphia Eagles for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns, but the Bucs eventually fell to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game.

In 1984, The Trojans lost a member of the family, as the 29 year old Ricky Bell died of cardiac arrest, caused by dermatomyositis, a rare skin and muscle disease. Forever remembered, and forever a Trojan, Ricky Bell was inducted into the college football Hall of Fame in 2004.

Stats

*Heisman Runner up in 1976
*Third on the Heisman ballot in 1975
*347 rushing yards remains the current USC single game record
*Best NFL season-1979 (1,263 yards)
*College Football Hall of Fame (class of 2004)

Off Topic: Sapp providing points in the Gruden debate

From the moment the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Oakland Raiders in Superbowl XXXVII, some friends and I followed with a debate over John Gruden and Tony Dungy. Dungy was fired and replaced with Gruden, which cost the Bucs first and second round picks in ’03 and ’04, along with a cash amount of $8 million. And though the Bucs seemed to immediately profit from the acquisition, I always viewed it as an optical illusion. The question for the debate was simple. Who is the real genius behind the Buccaneers championship team, Dungy or Gruden?

It has always been my opinion that Gruden jumped aboard a fast moving train, riding it to become the NFL’s youngest coach to reach the supreme destination. Others argued that Dungy was a perennial underachiever, and had he remained at the helm, the Bucs would never have a taste of champagne. We see now that they were wrong about Dungy, who has since retooled another NFL franchise, and wears a Superbowl championship ring, just like Gruden. The difference is, his Indianapolis Colts are stabilized, and remain one of the NFL elite, where Gruden’s Superbowl champions took an immediate plunge before working their way back to some respectability in 2007, which I credit to a weak NFC Southern Division.

Looking at the 2002 season, you’ll either see “Gruden the Great” or “Gruden the Bust”, depending on which team your focus is on. Looking at his Bucs, he resembles greatness, leading them to glory. But looking at the team left behind, the Oakland Raiders, you’ll see a bust, because Bill Callahan was able to step in as their first year coach and drive them into that championship game, something Gruden never accomplished in silver and black.

It’s easy to form opinions as a fan, blogger, or member of the media, but how much weight does the opinion of a player hold? I would say it holds more weight than all others. In a recent question and answers session with the San Francisco Chronicle, newly retired Raider and former Buccaneer, Warren Sapp, touched on this very debate. When asked who is most deserving of the credit for Tampa Bay’s Superbowl victory, Dungy or Gruden, Sapp responded with:

"I always say this: The damn cake was already in the oven. It was just a matter of when it came out. All Jon had to do was put the icing on it."

His answer appears more supportive of my theory, and I’ll gladly take the points. Icing the cake is the easiest part of the process, where it’s more time consuming and requires more skill to gather the ingredients, estimate the correct portions, and determine the temperature for baking. Dungy baked another cake in Indy, but this time he iced it himself. On the other hand, Gruden doesn’t appear to be a baker, and his product continues to collapse in the middle.

Beginning with 2002, the records of the two coaches reflect as follows:

Gruden’s Bucs

2002- 12-4*
2003- 7-9
2004- 5-11
2005- 11-5
2006- 4-12
2007- 9-7

Total- 48-48

Dungy’s Colts

2002- 10-6
2003- 12-4
2004- 12-4
2005- 14-2
2006- 12-4*
2007- 13-3

Totals- 73-23
*Superbowl championship year

It’s no contest. And if I were a Tampa Bay fan, I’d be begging for Dungy’s return. Both coaches only have one championship ring, but keep in mind that Dungy ran into a playoff wrecking ball named the Patriots 3 times, managing to defeat them just once. It was also that Patriots wrecking ball that kept Gruden's best Raiders team from reaching the Superbowl. And seeing that Gruden once worked as a part time caddy for the PGA’s John Daly, he was already prepared to celebrate another’s victories, when he did nothing but hold the bag.

If It Looks Like A Rat...

Anytime I see photos of Carmella DeCesare, a few things come to mind. I’ll exclude my personal desires, for the sake of this piece, and touch on the memory of a then 49ers receiver, Terrell Owens, and his questioning of the sexual preference of quarterback Jeff Garcia. To put it not so nicely, T.O called Jeff gay.

A Quarterback/Receiver feud is neither new nor uncommon, but T.O took it to another level in his Playboy Magazine interview, when he made references to Garcia’s lifestyle (never seeing him with girls) and the way he carried himself. To quote Owens’ exact words, “Like my boy tells me: if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it’s a rat.”

Of course, there was a quick fallout to the statements, and one day later, Owens has clean up duty and says he didn’t know if Garcia was gay or not. Although his “misinterpretation” claim brought his saga to an end, it only marked the beginning for Jeff Garcia. Gay and Lesbian groups quickly came to Garcia’s defense and made him their poster boy, to which he wasn’t happy. He spent months defending his sexuality, and those groups spent months hammering away at T.O’s homophobic claim of keeping a distance from gay players, and plastering Garcia’s face as the victim.

The quarterback and receiver pair recently hooked up for another touchdown in last month’s Pro Bowl. But this time it wasn’t the single Jeff Garcia, who is never seen with girls, but the newlywed Garcia, who is married to Carmella DeCesare. Garcia married the former wrestler turned playmate last year, and anyone that’s seen her umm…”spread” in Playboy, knows she’s 100% woman. Unless this is one of those marriages of convenience, I would say Garcia has more than cleared his name. And if it is a marriage of convenience, I could only wish things could be as convenient for myself.

Since the marriage, I don’t believe the 2004 war of words between old 49ers has been revisited. It’s mostly all but forgotten, until I come across one of her photographs (or maybe 3 or 4). Who knows what Jeff’s bride would say about those old accusations, but the teary eyed Carmella would probably tune in with something like this:

“Y’all leave Jeff Garcia alone. That’s my soul mate. That’s my quarterback".