With the 2025 NFL Draft now less than a month away, now is the time when teams narrow in the draft boards they have spent the past year compiling. Bucs general manager Jason Licht recently alluded to the strategy the team has where they come up with pools of players they believe will be in the range where they pick each round.
All of that could flip on a dime based on how the draft goes, with the front office having to account for many different scenarios unfolding. We spent Thursday’s Pewter Report Podcast going over some of these scenarios involving the team trading up and down.
Should Licht’s pool of players be barren when they are on the clock at No. 19, could Tampa Bay follow a recent blueprint that yielded successful results?
The Bucs Turned 2022 First-Round Pick Into Three Key Contributors
Bucs DT Logan Hall – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
It was not that long ago when the Bucs moved down in the draft to acquire additional capital that turned into future starters. Armed with pick No. 27 in the 2022 NFL Draft, they traded it to the Jaguars for pick Nos. 33, 106, and 180.
Tampa Bay used the 33rd pick to select defensive lineman Logan Hall, who played in 16 games (10 starts) last season and recorded a career-high 5.5 sacks. While one could argue the team missed the chance to take inside linebacker Devin Lloyd (27th), defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (28th), or defensive end George Karlaftis III (30th), Hall has not been a bust and could continue his development into a long-term starter next season as he enters his contract year.
This is where things get interesting.
With two extra picks, Jason Licht traded pick No. 180 to move up in the second round from No. 60 to No. 57 in order to select right tackle Luke Goedeke. Leapfrogging a few teams to ensure Goedeke would wear red and pewter has paid off as he has become an above-average offensive tackle. Those are hard to find, but they trusted their evaluation on him and used one of the picks they acquired to secure him.
Bucs TE Cade Otton – Photo by: USA Today
The 106th pick would go on to turn into tight end Cade Otton. After splitting starting snaps with Cameron Brate during his rookie year, Otton has solidified himself as the team’s starting tight end across the past two years. He still needs to show more week-to-week consistency to justify a long-term deal, but it was not a wasted fourth-round pick by any stretch.
Rather, the Bucs wound up trading a late first-round pick and turned it into the first pick of the second round, a fourth-round pick, and a sixth-round pick. While the team could have stayed and picked Hall or a different defensive player, the capital was used to add Goedeke and Otton into the mix.
The Bucs Could Trade No. 19 To Add Defensive Depth
When looking at the 2025 NFL Draft, it is not viewed as highly as in recent years. There will not be six quarterbacks taken in the top 12 like there were last year. Instead, after the first couple of picks, the well of blue-chip prospects begins to run dry. It takes two to tango when it comes to having a team wanting to move up, but for the right player it could happen.
Bucs GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
“Always looking,” Licht said about moving up and down the draft. “Both scenarios we do a little project, it takes us about week to do. It’s an Excel sheet that would blow your mind of all the different scenarios depending on what player is there or what group of players are there. ‘How far you would move back, who are those players, who would you move up for and how far would you move up?’
“I’m not sure that’s there right now, but it certainly is appealing to me to possibly, if there’s a group of let’s say five players that we really like that are there when we’re picking, to move back and secure some extra picks. That doesn’t seem to work out very often, it’s usually you have a group of five players and there’s only one left when you pick so just take them [laughs].”
Should top pass rushers Mike Green and Donovan Ezeiruaku, inside linebacker Jihaad Campbell, and safety Malaki Starks all be taken before Tampa Bay is on the clock, Jason Licht might see a trade down as a way to add someone in the team’s next pool of prospects while adding more draft picks. Only having six picks this year and plenty of defensive needs to address, this is something the team will surely explore.
For the case of hypotheticals, if Licht were to trade pick No. 19 and move down to the 24-27 range, that could net an extra third-rounder and a seventh-rounder. Doing that would allow the team to still land a first-round talent while also bringing another Day 2 player into the fold.
Based on the positional value of the inside linebacker class, drafting one on Day 2 is usually the best course of action anyway. When it comes to cornerbacks, the Bucs have only drafted one in the first round since 2014, with the pick of Vernon Hargreaves III in 2016 proving to be a bust. Extra draft capital is a way to double dip at the position, and it would be a good idea to with Jamel Dean’s injury history making it a good idea to shore up depth behind him. The Bucs drafted cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting in the second round in 2019 and then selected Dean in the third round the same year.
A trade back could be the best way to bolster the defense and extract the most value out of this year’s draft class. It worked in 2022 and has the chance to again.
