By admin 
Drafting is an inexact science. Even the best of the best miss for any number of reasons-injuries, poor scheme fit, off-the-field issues, lack of development, and so on. With the 2026 NFL Draft now in the rearview mirror, things should be quiet on the personnel side until training camps open in July.
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With that in mind, it seems like the perfect time to go back over the last 10 drafts to identify picks which didn’t pan out for each of the 32 clubs. Before we begin, let’s set the ground rules: We’re starting with the 2016 draft, so no players from the 2026 draft are eligible.
Now that we’ve established the parameters, here are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ five worst draft picks of the past decade:
Dishonorable Mentions
- S Justin Evans (50th Overall, 2017)
- CB M.J. Stewart (53rd Overall, 2018)
- RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn (76th Overall, 2020)
- DE Logan Hall (33rd Overall, 2022)
- LB Chris Braswell (57th Overall, 2024)
5) DE Noah Spence, 39th Overall (2016)
Tampa Bay’s 2016 draft class was, in a word, abysmal. That includes Spence, though he gave reason for hope early on, recording 5.5 sacks as a rookie. Unfortunately, he’d manage just one more during the following two seasons and was released in August 2019. Meanwhile, four of the next five defensive linemen selected remained active in the NFL in 2025.
4) CB Vernon Hargreaves III, 11th Overall (2016)
The Bucs opened that brutal 2016 draft by selecting Hargreaves, who, like Spence, did some decent things in his first year. Injuries hampered him the following two years, though, including a shoulder injury that ended his 2018 season after one game. The team compounded its mistake and picked up his fifth-year option for 2020. He never made it, instead getting benched for a lack of hustle midway through 2019 and cut two days later.
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3) QB Kyle Trask, 64th Overall (2021)
It’s easy to follow Tampa Bay’s logic. With Tom Brady near the end of his career, they picked Trask to develop behind the future Hall of Famer. While he did spend four years with the club, he rarely played, and when Brady retired, the team signed Baker Mayfield. Trask would lose the backup competition to Teddy Bridgewater in 2025 and was subsequently released.
2) TE O.J. Howard, 19th Overall (2017)
Howard was the first tight end selected in 2017, but he never lived up to the hype. Injuries played a role to be sure as he finished three of his first four seasons on Injured Reserve, including a torn Achilles in 2020 when the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl. He wasn’t the same after that, managing just 24 receptions in 2021 and 2022 combined, which marked the end of his NFL career. The other two 2017 first-round tight ends (Evan Engram and David Njoku) have racked up much better career numbers and remain on NFL rosters.
1) PK Roberto Aguayo, 59th Overall (2016)
Yet another 2016 draftee, Aguayo was the worst of the lot. He was the first kicker selected in the second round in over a decade, a bold move for a team that had finished the previous season in last place, and he struggled from the start. Aguayo would convert just 22 of his 31 field-goal attempts (an NFL-worst 71%), leading to the Bucs signing Nick Folk during the offseason. Folk won the job, and Aguayo was released early in training camp. He’d never play in the NFL again.
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Related: The Seattle Seahawks’ 5 Worst Draft Picks in the Last 10 Years
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This story was originally published July 20, 2026 at 6:00 AM.