Thanks to trades that sent Grant Stuard to the Indianapolis Colts and Shaq Mason to the Houston Texans, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will head into next week's NFL Draft with a trio of sixth-round draft picks. If they hold onto all of those selections, including their own, it will mark the first time the team has ever chosen three times in the sixth round of a single draft.
Three picks would give the Buccaneers a decent shot at landing a contributor in the penultimate round of the draft. As we'll see below, roughly two-thirds of the sixth-round picks the team has made over the past 47 years have seen some regular-season action for the team, including a handful of eventual starters. As we continue our round-by-round journey through the Bucs' draft history, which will take us right up to the first night of the draft on April 27, we look now at that history of sixth-round decision-making.
Here are the picks the Bucs currently own in the 2023 NFL Draft:
· Round One, 19th Overall
· Round Two, 50th Overall
· Round Three, 82nd Overall
· Round Five, 153rd Overall
· Round Five, 175th Overall
· Round Six, 179th Overall
· Round Six, 181st Overall
· Round Six, 196th Overall
· Round Seven, 252nd Overall
When the Buccaneers first joined the league, the draft was 17 rounds long, but it was cut to 12 the next year. It was then shortened to eight rounds in 1993 and then to its current seven-round format in 1994. Below, you will find the full list of every player the Buccaneers have taken in the sixth round in their drafts from 1976 through 2022, followed by some notes about that collection of players. We started this exercise with the seventh round, since that is how the modern NFL Draft is shaped, but we did note some particularly strong picks in the eighth through 17th rounds in our seventh-round analysis.
2022 | Pick No. 218 | Ko Kieft | TE | Minnesota
2020 | Pick No. 194 | Khalil Davis | DT | Nebraska
2019 | Pick No. 208 | Scotty Miller | WR | Bowling Green
2018 | Pick No. 202 | Jack Cichy | LB | Wisconsin
2016 | Pick No. 197 | Danny Vitale | TE | Northwestern
2016 | Pick No. 183 | Devante Bond | LB | Oklahoma
2015 | Pick No. 184 | Kaelin Clay | WR | Utah
2014 | Pick No. 185 | Robert Herron | WR | Wyoming
2013 | Pick No. 189 | Mike James | RB | Miami (FL)
2012 | Pick No. 174 | Keith Tandy | S | West Virginia
2011 | Pick No. 187 | Allen Bradford | RB | USC
2010 | Pick No. 172 | Brent Bowden | P | Virginia Tech
2008 | Pick No. 175 | Geno Hayes | LB | Florida State
2007 | Pick No. 182 | Adam Hayward | LB | Portland State
2006 | Pick No. 202 | T.J. Williams | TE | North Carolina State
2006 | Pick No. 194 | Bruce Gradkowski | QB | Toledo
2005 | Pick No. 178 | Anthony Bryant | DT | Alabama
2004 | Pick No. 181 | Nate Lawrie | TE | Yale
2003 | Pick No. 205 | Torrie Cox | CB | Pittsburgh
2002 | Pick No. 193 | John Stamper | DE | South Carolina
2001 | Pick No. 183 | Ellis Wyms | DE | Mississippi State
2001 | Pick No. 174 | Jameel Cook | FB | Illinois
2000 | Pick No. 193 | David Gibson | S | USC
1999 | Pick No. 195 | Lamarr Glenn | RB | Florida State
1998 | Pick No. 184 | Shevin Smith | S | Florida State
1998 | Pick No. 175 | James Cannida | DT | Nevada
1997 | Pick No. 197 | Nigea Carter | WR | Michigan State
1997 | Pick No. 169 | Al Harris | CB | Texas A&M-Kingsville
1996 | Pick No. 180 | Nilo Silvan | WR | Tennessee
1995 | Pick No. 179 | Wardell Rouse | LB | Clemson
1994 | Pick No. 165 | Bernard Carter | LB | East Carolina
1993 | Pick No. 145 | Chidi Ahanotu | DE | California
1992 | Pick No. 148 | James Malone | LB | UCLA
1991 | Pick No. 147 | Rhett Hall | DT | California
1990 | Pick No. 141 | Derrick Douglas | RB | Louisiana Tech
1989 | Pick No. 154 | Derrick Little | LB | South Carolina
1989 | Pick No. 146 | Chris Mohr | P | Alabama
1988 | Pick No. 163 | Shawn Lee | DT | North Alabama
1987 | Pick No. 143 | Steve Bartalo | RB | Colorado State
1986 | Pick No. 165 | Kevin Walker | S | East Carolina
1984 | Pick No. 142 | Chris Washington | LB | Iowa State
1983 | Pick No. 158 | Ken Kaplan | T | New Hampshire
1983 | Pick No. 148 | Gene Branton | WR | Texas Southern
1982 | Pick No. 158 | Andre Tyler | WR | Stanford
1978 | Pick No. 162 | Elijah Marshall | WR | North Carolina State
1976 | Pick No. 158 | Curtis Jordan | CB | Texas Tech
Notes:
- Of the 46 players the Buccaneers have selected in the sixth round, 34 went on to play at least one game for the team and 19 started at least one contest. Ten of those 34 saw action in more than 50 games as a Buccaneer and two – LB Adam Hayward (2007) and DE Chidi Ahanotu (1993) – surpassed 100 games played for Tampa Bay.
- Ahanotu, a high sixth-round pick in 1993, was originally listed as a defensive tackle during the draft process but spent most of his long Buccaneer career playing left defensive end. Among the 46 players the Buccaneers have drafted in the sixth-round, he is the leader in both games played (121) and starts (109). Ahanotu is tied with Ring of Honor members Lee Roy Selmon and Jimmie Giles at 21st on the franchise's all-time games played list. He ranks seventh in team history with 34.5 career sacks. Ahanotu had the franchise tag applied to him in 1999.
- After Ahanotu, the sixth-round pick with the most starts for Tampa Bay is LB Chris Washington, a 1984 selection who went on to open 52 of the 76 games in which he played for the Buccaneers. Another linebacker, 2008 selection Geno Hayes, is next with 42 starts among his 56 games played.
- Two of the Bucs' sixth-round picks, DE Ellis Wyms and FB Jameel Cook (both selected in the 2001 draft), played for the team in Super Bowl XXXVII at the end of the 2002 season. Wyms notched one of the Bucs' five sacks of QB Rich Gannon. S David Gibson was on the roster to begin the 2002 campaign but was later traded to the Indianapolis Colts during the season.
- WR Scotty Miller (2019) was the only player drafted by the Bucs in the sixth round to play in Super Bowl LV after the 2020 season. DT Khalil Davis (2020) was on the roster but inactive for the game. LB Jack Cichy (2018) was on injured reserve at the time. Miller turned in one of the biggest plays of the Bucs' four-game postseason run to the title in 2020, catching a 39-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady just before time expired in the first half of the NFC Championship Game in Green Bay. Miller, who recently signed with the Falcons as an unrestricted free agent, played in 50 games with eight starts for Tampa Bay, recording 74 catches for 924 yards and four touchdowns.
- Chris Mohr, one of only two punters the Buccaneers have drafted in the sixth round, played just a single season in Tampa after being drafted in the sixth round in 1989, but went on to a 15-year NFL career that saw him play in 239 regular-season games plus three Super Bowls with the Buffalo Bills.
- CB Al Harris, a sixth-round pick in 1997, landed on injured reserve as a rookie and then failed to make the active roster in 1998. He too went on to a very long NFL career, playing 14 seasons, primarily for the Eagles and Packers, making two Pro Bowls and winning a Super Bowl with Green Bay. In a 2003 Wild Card game, he returned an interception 52 yards for a touchdown in overtime, creating the first playoff game ever won by an overtime defensive score.
- S Keith Tandy, a sixth-round choice out of West Virginia in 2012, is currently a defensive/special teams assistant on the Buccaneers' coaching staff. He also played six of his seven NFL seasons for Tampa Bay, appearing in 84 games with 15 starts. In 2016, he recorded four interceptions despite starting only five games.
- Toledo's Bruce Gradkowski is the only quarterback the Buccaneers have ever drafted in the sixth round. He started 11 games as a rookie in 2006, finishing with a 3-8 record. He went on to play eight seasons in the NFL, also getting starts in Cleveland and Oakland.
- The Bucs' most recent sixth-round pick was Minnesota tight end, part of last year's draft class. Kieft played in all 17 games as a rookie and made 12 starts and primarily serving as a blocker on offense. He also carved out a big role on special teams, leading the team with 11 kick-coverage tackles.
- The most common position the Buccaneers have targeted in the sixth round is linebacker, with a total of nine selections. Wide receiver is next, with eight picks. The Bucs have never used a sixth-round pick on a kicker.
- The college that has produced the most sixth-round picks in Buccaneer history is Florida State, with three (FB Lamarr Glenn, LB Geno Hayes and S Shevin Smith). Tampa Bay has made two sixth-round picks each from Alabama, California, East Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina and USC.
