Now Hitting for the Detroit Lions, Phillip Buchanon

When your career starts out as a Florida all-state high school player and moves on to the University of Miami as an All-American, the road to stardom in the NFL can sometimes be an easy one. Phillip Buchanon was a member of a team some say was the greatest of all time. In 2001 Phillip played on a 12-0 national championship Hurricanes team in which sixteen of its players were drafted in the first round of the next three NFL drafts. Buchanon was also one of those first round picks.

In the 2002 NFL draft the Oakland Raiders took Buchanon with their 17th pick in the first round. Seemingly he had hit the jackpot. In his first year with the Raiders they went to the super bowl. It was a super drubbing against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but hey, how can you look down at reaching the pinnacle game of its sport in your first year in the league?

From there it went from bad to worse. It has to eat at a player who for all his life knew nothing other than winning and playing in the big game. Enter the 2003 Raiders. Dysfunction, distraction, and just plain ole dissed. Buchanon’s trip from the penthouse to the basement had begun. His next two years spent in a wonderful city on a team equivalent to football purgatory. And just when he thought it could get no worse, he was traded to the Houston Texans, an expansion team.

During Buchanon’s two years in Houston he played in fewer games, and was eventually waived. It got better. The day after he was waived by Houston the Buccaneers picked him up. He got healthy and he played. Not a lot, but when you're waived mid season because of injury or not, contemplation is on the menu.

Six years after becoming a first round pick Buchanon is once again a starter. He had his best year ever and it looks like there is no way Tampa will let him test the free agent market, especially with Ronde Barber coming down the stretch. Apparently for Phillip it is once again time for dysfunction. The head coach of the Buccaneers is fired, Monte Kiffin the defensive coordinator ran off to the University of Tennessee to coach with his son, and the defensive backs coach is now the head coach. You say what dysfunction right? It appeared as if it couldn’t look any better for Buchanon with his defensive back coach now being the head man. As Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend.

Buchanon doesn’t end up getting a decent offer from Tampa and the next thing you know with the help of his agent Drew Rosenhaus, he will fight for a starting job with the Detroit Lions. It sounds terrible doesn’t it? Not to me it doesn’t. Even though the Lions went 0-16, I expect a seriously motivated group there this year. You say it can’t happen? If you don’t believe, think way back to a couple of months ago. That was the Miami Dolphins I saw in the playoffs after going 1-15 the year before.

Phillip Buchanon isn’t going to have it easy, but what fun would it be if you didn’t have to work hard to get what you wanted? No matter what, Buchanon has and will put in the effort needed. He has fought hard to show the league he can be a premier player in it. As far as having it rough on a team not expected to do well, is there anybody reading this who bet on the Arizona Cardinals to be in the super bowl at the beginning of last year? I don’t think so.

Even though he has a full plate with working out, a new contract, and the move to Detroit, Phillip still had time for a little conversation.

DW: You were on one of the best college football teams of all time. At the time you were at the U, a lot of people said the Hurricanes were better than the Dolphins. That National Championship team had 16 of its players selected in the first round over several drafts. Be it college or pro, was that the best team you have ever played on???

Phillip Buchanon: Yes as a team hands down it was probably the best that I’ve played on. We had so many dedicated players that were hungry and wanted to win. It was fun.

DW: So as one of those first round draft choices, you were picked by the Oakland Raiders. It’s your first year in the league and you’re in the Super Bowl, even though you lost, did you think the winning would ever stop? Because most players in the NFL never play in a Super bowl and in your first year you’re there. Did you think your career would take the turn that it did?

Phillip Buchanon: Most definitely not. Things were looking good over there and then all of a sudden a lot of things went on between management and players that got really crazy. We didn’t have true leaders out there. We had a couple of hall of fame players, but no true leaders.

DW: How did you guys go from one year being a super bowl team to the total opposite just a year later? Was management really that big of a problem?

Phillip Buchanon: At the time it was. It was really bad. The biggest problem was losing Rich Gannon though. Once Rich went down our offense was done and it took a pretty big toll on us. Rich Gannon was the key for us and at the time one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Once he got hurt and Tyrone Wheatley got hurt everything went down hill after that.

DW: How did you like living in Oakland?

Phillip Buchanon: It’s a different vibe from the bay area to Florida which I’m use to, but I loved everything about Oakland, especially the fans. The only thing I didn’t like was the football because we were losing and that was depressing.

DW: You got traded to the Houston Texans and should’ve played more once you got there, but didn’t because of injuries. What happened with that?

Phillip Buchanon: I don’t know, but during that part of my career I had to battle a bunch of injuries and things didn’t work out the way I had planned it. At the time Houston had a lot of young guys without much direction.

DW: Did you ask for Oakland to trade you or was that a total surprise to you?

Phillip Buchanon: I asked for the trade, I was ready to get out of there. In Houston I spent a lot of my time getting healthy there and unfortunately it just didn’t work out for me.

DW: So you leave Houston for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This year I thought you shined there. I was very surprised to see they were willing to let you test the free agent market, especially with Ronde Barber on the downside of his career now. Why do you think the Buccaneers let you get away?

Phillip Buchanon: To be honest with you I have no idea. Raheem Morris and I had an excellent working relationship. From what I understand, they are intending to run the same defensive schemes we use to run when I was at the University of Miami where I had a great deal of success. I guess they wanted to go in another direction. It is a business.

DW: What was your experience like learning from Monte Kiffin?

Phillip Buchanon: He was definitely good. I learned more about defense in Tampa under coach Kiffin than I did in all my time in Texas and Oakland. This was a great stop for me, and regardless of the situation I wish Tampa the very best of luck, but don’t get me wrong I really really really wanted to play in Tampa, but sometimes things just don’t work out that way.

DW: What makes Kiffin such a good coach, is it his schemes, is it the way he motivates his players? Why is it that Tampa no matter what always had a great defense under him?

Phillip Buchanon: It’s because he understands the game of football, he always puts his players in the best situations and other teams that I’ve been on just tell you to go out there and play man to man, or play cover three with no direction, just play football, just do what you do. Kiffin is able to break the game down and slow it down for you, and he plays to win. There was a lot of pride in what we did. In Houston the game wasn’t the same. You got plenty of information, but the attitude was more just get out there and play. It was the same way in Oakland. In Tampa it was more this is why we do this and this is why we don’t do that and it made sense.

DW: Are you saying Kiffin took a more hands on approach as a defensive coordinator?

Phillip Buchanon: I can honestly say that the coordinators in Oakland and Houston were hands on too, but they just didn’t understand the game the way Kiffin did.

DW: You signed with the Detroit Lions, a team that went 0-16. Last year the Miami Dolphins after going 1-15 the year before made the playoffs. Do you think it’s possible for the Lions to do the same?

Phillip Buchanon: Now a days in the NFL anything is possible. I am just going to go there and contribute as much as I can, be a good team player like I have always been and do my part.

DW: Have you heard if you are going to start or not?

Phillip Buchanon: There are whispers, but I’m going to go up there and do what I do which is work hard, continue to study my film, get the guys to work hard and hopefully reach our goal of getting to the playoffs.

DW: The new coach of the Lions Jim Schwartz is the former defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans, what direction do you see him taking the team in…

Phillip Buchanon: The only direction we can go is up because we are on the bottom now.

DW: What is it that you want people to know about Phillip Buchanon that they don’t know?

Phillip Buchanon: I want people who don’t know me not to judge me off of Miami swagger. I’m just a low key hard working humble guy and a lot of people don’t know that.

DW: Thanks for the time Phillip.

Phillip Buchanon: Thank you

(tvsportsdaily.com)