Super Bowl champ Bucs pick ex-Gateway OL Robert Hainsey in 3rd round

Gateway graduate Robert Hainsey is going home — to Florida.

Before matriculating to Notre Dame to play offensive tackle, Hainsey transferred from Gateway to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. And, now, he’s moving on to the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who drafted him Friday night in the third round (95th player taken overall).

?️ @jasonrlicht on @rhainsey72 pic.twitter.com/Nj2fCPg6FP

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) May 1, 2021

Hainsey (6-foot-4, 302 pounds) was captain of the Gateway football team as a sophomore in 2016, and, remarkably, the Gators’ best player, according to his coach at the time, Tom Nola.

“Even though he was a lineman,” Nola said. “Usually, that goes to a skill person.”

Hainsey called the move to IMG “the second-best decision I’ve ever made (after choosing Notre Dame).”

Hainsey was part of one of the top offensive lines in college football last season. Linemates Liam Eichenberg and Aaron Banks were drafted in the second round.

Hainsey started 34 games at right tackle for the Irish, although he could move to guard with the Buccaneers. He was a two-time team captain who played in a total of 47 games. As a freshman, he was part of a group that won the Joe Moore Award, which goes to the nation’s best offensive line.

Despite missing five games to a broken ankle, Hainsey was named Notre Dame’s Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2019. Before his injury, he hadn’t allowed a sack in 423 plays.

Joining the Buccaneers, whose starting lineup appears all but set, Hainsey will have time to watch and learn, possibly at several positions.

“We see him as a real versatile guy,” Tampa Bay general manager Jason Licht said. “We’ll see how it goes when we get him in here. It’s not that we don’t think he can play right tackle, but we do think he has a big upside at guard or center, which he also played at the Senior Bowl and kind of caught our attention.

“He’s a captain. He’s a tough guy. He’s very smart. He’s got all the traits that our current group has. I think he’s going to fit in great. Like all of our picks, these guys don’t have to go in right away and play. We have the luxury of developing these guys into their future roles, whether it’s a sixth offensive lineman, a starting guard, a starting right tackle, whatever it is.”