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Henderson: Bucs should pass on Harvin

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 23, 2009

TAMPA - Jon Gruden and I have rare agreement on one point: Percy Harvin of the University of Florida might be the most electrifying player in this year's draft.

He was as good a college football player as I've ever seen. He can instantly change a game with his speed, and his athletic ability is overwhelming.

Guys like this obviously don't come along too often and it would be so tempting to call his name if he's still on the board when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pick early Saturday evening.

He averaged 11.6 yards every time he touched the ball in his three years at Florida. He can run it and he can catch it. He could even help as a Devin Hester-like kick returner.

"With the ball in his hands, he's downright scary. If he goes to an Astroturf team like Minnesota or New Orleans, look out. He's a big reason they're wearing championship rings in Gainesville," Gruden said the other day on a pre-draft conference call with the NFL Network.

No doubt about it.

Here's some unsolicited advice, though:

Run away, run away.

Don't draft him.

There are warning signs everywhere that make spending anything more than a second-round pick on him way too risky. Since the Bucs don't have a second-round pick, they need to play it safe with the premium pick they do have.

Harvin is anything but safe.

RED FLAG NO. 1: Start with his alleged positive test for marijuana at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, reported by multiple media outlets. That speaks more to his lack of common sense than anything else. With literally millions of dollars on the line and teams watching every move closely, Harvin apparently still lit one up.

That's just stupid.

That doesn't mean he has a major drug problem, but it is how you go from a high draft pick to a draft pick that's just high.

Historians will recall that perhaps the Bucs' greatest draft day steal ever came when Warren Sapp slid down the board because of a failed weed test. It could be tempting to see if history repeats, but there is one important difference.

Sapp had no other questions beyond that test.

Harvin does.

RED FLAG NO. 2: It was reported that Harvin scored 12 out of 50 on the NFL Wonderlic intelligence test. A low score by itself is not a reliable predictor of future success, since Donovan McNabb reportedly scored 14 and Dan Marino 16 when they took it.

Former Dallas linebacker Hollywood Henderson (another Mensa candidate) said of then-Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw, "He couldn't spell cat if you spotted him the 'c' and the 'a.' "

Bradshaw scored 15 on the Wonderlic.

He also won four Super Bowls.

If Harvin had merely scored poorly on the test and had no other issues, he could show a highlight tape from Gainesville and everyone would be grading on the curve.

When you throw in the bad score with poor judgment (see Red Flag No. 1), eyebrows start going up.

RED FLAG NO. 3: Harvin gets hurt.

To me, this is the biggest flag of them all.

He never played a full season at Florida.

He battled hamstring injuries, ankle injuries, migraine headaches.

He was tough enough to play in the national title game against Oklahoma with a broken bone in his foot, but a pro football team investing large amounts of money in a player needs to know he can line up every week.

There's no doubt what he can do when healthy, but there's enough history already to make teams nervous about taking him too soon.

It's the biggest reason why he seems to be falling down the draft board. There's no question he is among the top talents in the draft, and he could wind up being the steal of the day for the team that eventually rolls the dice on him.

But...

RED FLAG NO. 4: The Bucs have so many needs and not enough draft picks to plug them. If they thought Harvin was the one guy who could put them in the Super Bowl, then it might be a good gamble.

But there are already major questions about premium picks from their last two drafts. Gaines Adams needs to prove this year he was worthy of being the No. 4 pick in the 2007 draft (ahead of Adrian Peterson!), and second-round pick Dexter Jackson already has one foot in the Booker Reese Draft Bust Hall of Fame.

Harvin is too big a gamble for the Bucs to consider at this time.

He could be great, but the Bucs can't afford the chance that he won't be. If he's available when their turn comes up Saturday, they need to look the other way.

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