Perhaps Gosder Cherilus was meant to be a Tampa Bay Buc.
It was 2008, and Bucs’ coach Jon Gruden told him there was a chance. And Cherilus, who knew Davin Joseph and Jeremy Trueblood, kind of liked the idea. But the Detroit Lions picked Cherilus with the 17th pick, three picks before the Bucs drafted Aqib Talib.
Now, Cherilus is finally here. The Bucs signed him over the weekend to replace DeMar Dotson, who sprained his left MCL in Saturday night’s preseason opener. It paved the way for the team to sign Cherilus, who was released by the Colts a month ago two years after the team made him the highest paid right tackle in the NFL.
“I’ve always wanted to be here in a way,” Cherilus said. “I’m good friends with Joseph [and] Trueblood. We go way back to when Gruden was here. I know they were trying to draft me back then. I had a chance to be here and I told my agent, ‘Hey, I’ve been home for a couple of weeks, I know we’re still going back and forth with a couple of teams.’ I come here and it’s my first time where I have a chance to play for a hot-weather team and play on grass the whole year. I told him, ‘Hey, find a way to get it done,’ and he got it done.
“I’m glad to be here. It’s a young team, a great team, an up-and-coming team, you can tell – hard workers and great coaches so I’m excited to be a part of this.”
Cherilus remembers Gruden telling him that the Bucs would draft him if he was still on the board.
“I remember I spoke to Coach Gruden.” Cherilus said. “He brought me in for a visit and he said, ‘Hey, we understand there’s a small chance you might…” – they had pick 20 at the time – “…you might not be around when we get to pick but I can promise you one thing.’ They were like the safety net: ‘If you’re still there, guaranteed we’ll grab you.’ I was kind of selfishly hoping I was still kind of there, in a way, but you know how it goes. It wasn’t my decision, it wasn’t Coach Gruden’s, so I was glad to get drafted where I got drafted. I went to Detroit, everything worked out fine. And I’m still here, so it’s still working out fine.”
Cherilus knows his role. He is here is to protect quarterback Jameis Winston. For a Buc offensive lineman, the job starts there.
“When I came here I spoke to Coach [Lovie] Smith and the O-Line Coach [George Warhop] and it starts with the quarterback,” Cherilus said. “Especially when you’re an O-Lineman it’s good to know who you’re blocking for and everything, knowing there’s a young guy and can come here and help out. I don’t know how yet, but if it’s just by me doing what I’m supposed to do, then why not?”
The Bucs and Lions weren’t the only teams working on Cherilus. So were Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears.
“I remember when he came out of Boston College,” Smith said. “Did a lot of work on him then. I really liked him. After he went to the Lions and playing against him twice a year – tough, physical football player, good guy. We drafted one of his teammates on our team in Chicago, so we know quite a bit about him.”
Smith wouldn’t guarantee Cherilus a starting job, but he left no doubt that they brought Cherilus into town to be an asset.
“That’s up for grabs,” Smith said, “but you don’t bring a player in like that unless you plan on him helping you out in some kind of way fairly soon. Again, after one practice we’ll kind of see, but we wouldn’t bring him in unless we thought he could help us this year.”
