Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Top 10 worst free agency signings in team history

Number 1: Alvin Harper – WR (1995-1996)

The original cautionary tale when it comes to overpaying for a career number two receiver to be your number one. Alvin Harper was a very good player on back-to-back Super Bowl champion teams with the Dallas Cowboys. It seemed like once a game he would make a circus catch with defenders draped all over him late in games. He had two huge catches in the Cowboys NFC Championship wins over the 49ers in 1992 and 1993.

That said, it was incredibly obvious that Michael Irvin was Batman and Harper was Robin, Irvin’s Simon to Harper’s Garfunkel, Harper always being the bridesmaid and never the bride. You get the idea. Despite that Harper still wanted to prove he was a number one receiver, as any competitor would.

The Buccaneers, still in their decade-plus long period of futility (granted at the tail-end but nobody knew that yet) decided to sign Harper to a four-year deal worth $10.6 million, which was a huge deal in the early years of free agency. In his four years in Dallas, Harper caught 124 balls for 2,486 yards and 18 touchdowns. In Tampa, he caught 65 for 922 yards and only three touchdowns. Harper would only play 25 games, being hampered by injuries and inconsistency. He would be cut after the 1996 season and would remain the constant reminder for teams willing to take a chance on a career number-two receiver, that you better look at every aspect of his game and make sure it’ll translate.

For what it’s worth, the Cowboys won the Super Bowl again anyway in their first season without Harper in 1995 while Harper was busy having part of his finger accidentally cut off by a Buccaneers team doctor removing tape. We think that’s a perfect note to end this list on.

Fortunately, the Buccaneers have struck gold in free agency lately, and have lead to them currently sitting atop the NFL mountain, we’ll get into their better signings at a later time, but for now, let’s just reminisce on how far we’ve come.