Bengals defensive end Wallace Gilberry has 8.5 sacks in 19 games with the team over the last two years and he had 14 sacks with the Chiefs from 2009-2011, but the Buccaneers couldn’t find a spot for him on their defensive line last season.
Gilberry went to camp with the Buccaneers last summer and wound up getting cut after the first week of the season. He might not have been in Tampa very long, but it was long enough for him to tell Paul Dehner of the Cincinnati Enquirer that it was like “a high school program” and he went even further while talking to the Bengals website about Tampa coach Greg Schiano.
“When I was in Tampa, it was frustrating. The whole situation. From the time I got there until the time I left,” Gilberry said. “They released me twice. They cut me on the field at practice after the final cuts. I was on the field, ready to practice in pads and everything. Schiano came on the field and got me. ‘Hey, we got to release you. I flew home to Alabama and they called me the next morning. ‘We made a mistake. We want to bring you back.’ They signed me back. I made the opening day roster. My contract was guaranteed [as a vested veteran] and then they cut me again after week one. Schiano’s a joke, as you can see.”
The history of the NFL is littered with stories of players far more accomplished than Gilberry, Cris Carter and Johnny Unitas to name two, who couldn’t catch on with one team before going on to success elsewhere. While it seems odd that the Bucs couldn’t find space for a player who has proven to be a productive player on two other teams, it’s hard to argue that things haven’t worked out to Gilberry’s benefit in the long run.