Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht got a ton of production from his 2022, 2023 and 2024 draft classes.
And before the 2021 Tampa Bay draft hiccup, Bucs drafts in 2020, 2019 and 2018 were critical to the team’s Super Bowl win.
Licht is on a hell of a roll when it comes to the inexact science known as the NFL Draft. It’s easy to moan about misses or could-haves, but overall Licht is one of the best drafters in the game.
Speaking to Field Talk recently, Licht talked about how he steadily adds to his annual elimination list: the guys he won’t draft.
Licht reiterated that Team Glazer gets a list of undraftables in the hours before a draft, so ownership doesn’t have a meltdown or go on a questioning spree when the Bucs pass on a talented and well-known player
“I, over the years, have taken a lot more players off the board every year, a lot that go in the first round,” Licht said.
“It’s for, ‘this guy doesn’t love football,’ or, you know, this, this, whatever, a myriad of reasons. There’s injuries, too. Our drafts have gotten a lot better over the last few years just because we’ve focused on the right kind of person and kind of resisted the temptation of taking the super-talented guy that we don’t know if he’s the right kind of person.”
Previously, Licht said a dozen or so players could be on his annual list. Joe wonders if an ommitted player could magically re-appear in a given year if he fell, say, to Round 4 of a draft?
Regardless, Joe wonders how much more Licht might bore into his philosophy and eliminate more prospects before the draft bell rings each year. The process sure seems to be working.
