© Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Which Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL Draft Class is Best in Franchise History?
NFL.com recently set out to evaluate each franchise's best NFL Draft class ever, and the winning class for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was a no-brainer.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had some hits and misses in the NFL Draft like any franchise, but the highlights are certainly impressive.
All-time Buccaneers leaders like quarterback Jameis Winston, running back James Wilder, receiver Mike Evans, kicker Martin Gramatica, and linebacker Derrick Brooks are all players who started their careers with the franchise and carved out significant places within it, even if things didn't always end as well as we all hoped they would.
But one Tampa Bay NFL Draft class stands out above them all, and it honestly isn't going to be much of a surprise which one it is.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers legends Warren Sapp (left) and Derrick Brooks (right).
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
"If you're a Bucs fan, you probably saw this one coming," says NFL.com as they ranked all 32 franchise's best draft classes in team history choosing the Bucs' 1995 class as the best the organization has ever seen. "Tampa drafted two Hall of Fame defenders in '95 who may be the best two players in team history. It can't get better than that, right?"
Defensive tackle Warren Sapp didn't look too happy to be starting his career with the Buccaneers when he was taken with the 12th overall pick of the 1995 NFL Draft coming out of Miami (FL), but his smile became something fans of the team got to know very well during his nine years with the franchise.
In that stretch, Sapp made it to seven Pro Bowls, four First-Team All-Pro rosters, won the 1999 Defensive Player of the Year Award, and helped Tampa Bay win its first Super Bowl to cap off the 2002 NFL Season.
He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
Unlike Sapp, linebacker Derrick Brooks spent his entire 14 year career with the Bucs and made it to 11 Pro Bowls including one in his final season in 2008. He was also named to five First-Team All-Pro rosters and currently ranks sixth all-time in the league in tackles.
Brooks' Defensive Player of the Year Award came three years after Sapp's and that campaign was highlighted by the linebacker sealing his team's Super Bowl win with a pick-six against the Oakland Raiders.
He became a Pro Football Hall of Fame member in 2014.
The rest of the 1995 Buccaneers draft class has just three career starts and consists of names most fans of the franchise won't recognize by now. But nailing those two first-round picks set the franchise on a championship course and forever cemented Brooks and Sapp as two of the best to ever do it, and certainly two of the best — if not the two best — Bucs to ever put on the pads.
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