TAMPA, Fla. -- Gerald McCoy broke down as soon as he heard his name called.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected the Oklahoma defensive tackle with the third overall pick in the NFL draft Thursday night, banking on him to fill a hole they've been trying to plug since Warren Sapp last played for the team six years ago.
McCoy wept after being selected, then walked on stage with his arms outstretched to shake Roger Goodell's hand -- but not before embracing the NFL commissioner with a giant bear hug.
Force to be reckoned with
Mike Mayock: Gerald McCoy is the most disruptive force upfront in this draft. The thing I love about him is that he plays a high percentage of snaps. He's not in a rotation; he's used to being on the field. At Oklahoma, they even kicked this kid out to the 5-technique in pass-rushing situations to let him work against tackles.
It was an emotional moment that McCoy wished his mother, who died in 2007 before he played his first college game, could have experienced with him.
"My mother was not here today to witness it. ... That really is what the emotion was," McCoy said by telephone from New York. "Just missing my mother and excited I could make her proud today."
The reaction also touched Bucs coach Raheem Morris, who called McCoy an ideal fit for the Tampa 2 system the team abandoned last season before reverting to the popular scheme when Morris began calling defensive plays late in the season.
"It's a lot of fun to see a guy that excited," Morris said. "You're talking about the cornerstone of what you're going to do on defense. You're talking about a face of your franchise. For him to have that type of emotion, the same type of emotion you expect to bring to the town, is what you're looking for, what you covet."
McCoy, who's 6-foot-4 and 295 pounds, is the first defensive tackle picked in the first round by the Bucs since Anthony McFarland in 1999. McCoy is expected to step right into a unit that has gone downhill since winning the Super Bowl following the 2002 season.
Morris would have been happy to insert McCoy or Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh into the middle of Tampa Bay's line. When Suh was selected second by the Detroit Lions, the second-year coach still felt like a lottery winner.
"He's a perfect fit for what we do," Morris said. "... You need a guy who's going to cause disruption, a guy who makes people game plan around him, a guy who can make everyone else around him better. That's Gerald McCoy."
The Bucs are coming off a 3-13 finish that was the franchise's worst since 1991. Second-year general manager Mark Dominik is determined to rebuild through the draft, going as far as to tie his future to this year's prospects.
"If this draft class doesn't succeed," the GM said last week, "I probably don't either."
Tampa Bay has three of the top 42 picks and 12 overall -- tied with the New England Patriots for the most in the league.
A dominant run stopper in college, McCoy finished his career at Oklahoma with 33 tackles for losses and 14.5 sacks in three seasons. He was one of three Sooners taken in the first four picks in the draft, with quarterback Sam Bradford going No. 1 to the St. Louis Rams and offensive tackle Trent Williams landing with the Washington Redskins at No. 4.
The Bucs ranked last among 32 teams against the run last season, allowing nearly five yards per carry and just over 158 yards per game. They were 27th in scoring defense and tied for 26th in sacks.
Expectations for McCoy are high, and he's eager to fill them.
"They didn't bring me in to not play," he said. "I know that much. ... I'm not going to come in to be on the sideline and just be another rookie who got paid a lot of money. I want to be a great football player."
The Lombardi Award finalist said he met Sapp a few weeks ago and that the former All-Pro tackle who teamed with Derrick Brooks, John Lynch and Ronde Barber as the core of one of the NFL's best defenses from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s wants to help him with the transition to the pros.
"He said he's going to take me under his wing, and he's going to help me out," McCoy said. "He's going to work with me on the field, off the field. I'm going to be his guy."
While Morris talked about the important of the 3-technique tackle to the Tampa 2 scheme and is confident McCoy will develop into a player capable of disrupting opposing offenses, the coach shied away from comparing the top pick to a young Sapp.
"You never compare anybody to Sapp. There are no other Sapps," Morris said. "He's going to come in here and be Gerald McCoy."
The Bucs took a defensive player in the opening round for the third time in the last four years. Dominik and Morris began their rebuilding project last year with the selection of quarterback Josh Freeman, who went 3-6 as a rookie starter.
Barring a trade, the Bucs have two picks in the second round and one in the third when the draft resumes Friday night.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
