“We Were Never Tempted”
April 30th, 2015
Bucs general manager Jason Licht and coach Lovie Smith watch NFL Network as Bucs history is being made with the selection of quarterback Jameis Winston tonight, from the War Room at One Buc Palace. Photo courtesy of Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Shortly after making Bucs history Thursday night, when he pulled the lever on Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston as the franchise signal-caller, general manager Jason Licht met with the local fourth estate and strongly hinted that Winston was his target for months.
The selection was Winston’s to lose.
Instead, Winston charmed and won over the entire Bucs organization through the vetting period.
“As a football player? A long time ago,” Licht sighed with a smile when asked when he began to target Winston. “You have to let the process play out, with all players. You have to make sure with all players that you are selecting, you check all the boxes. We checked a lot of boxes with Jameis. It’s been quite some time. We wanted to make sure everyone in the building was on board, including coaches, scouts. We all came together on this as a consensus.
“If he wasn’t a good guy, we wouldn’t have used the first pick on him.”
On the possibility of trading the pick, Licht said, without specifics, “We had interest up until the last few minutes. We were never tempted. We wanted to take the full time. You can never not take a phone call. It is kind of interesting to hear what some of the offers were. We didn’t want to close the door on it. We wanted to take [Winston]. That was the plan. I don’t even want to put a price tag on it. he is a franchise quarterback we are thrilled to have.”
April 30th, 2015 at 10:13 pm
Jameis and Glennon are a good 1-2 punch.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:19 pm
That Lovie Smith just doesn’t care about offense…….and he would never go with a rookie QB.
He sure had a gleam in his eyes when he talked about Jameis tonight.
Was especially glad to hear him dispell the mentoring nonsense.
Great gutsy call Bucs. So glad you ignored the haters.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:19 pm
YES!!!
April 30th, 2015 at 10:21 pm
Erik here it is… the white jersey…how do you want to do this?
http://shop.buccaneers.com/catalog/product/?fcID=144052
April 30th, 2015 at 10:22 pm
Come on Donovan smith
April 30th, 2015 at 10:24 pm
@87 I’ll be shocked if you get that jersey. I ordered mine an hour ago.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:26 pm
It should be an authentic jersey. Not screen printed-cheap bastard
April 30th, 2015 at 10:30 pm
Buc1987 Says:
April 30th, 2015 at 10:21 pm
Erik here it is… the white jersey…how do you want to do this?
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Naw. He meant one of those jersey’s you get at Walmart for 16 bucks.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:32 pm
All the knock down drag out arguments and it appears they never had the slightest doubt they were taking Jameis…..
April 30th, 2015 at 10:35 pm
is there anyone out there thinking that we’re going to move up and grab somebody may be a great offensive lineman or D end.I’m really hoping we move up and get randy Gregory he will be a stud with the whole team on lookout for Winston already now just and Gregory to the lookout list he is top 10 talent if we do this we will have a knockout drafts.Tampaaaaaaaa
April 30th, 2015 at 10:35 pm
I knew it was Jameis for 4 months.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:36 pm
Gotta say, this is pretty cool to see. Glad L&L didn’t find a way to screw this up, now go get some O-line!!
http://www.buccaneers.com/videos/videos/Bucs-First-Phone-Call-with-Winston/fc2a7d03-681c-4a87-b4bf-28b1326f4334
April 30th, 2015 at 10:39 pm
Nice. Dj Humpheries next. Then Tre Jackson. Then WR Tre Mcbride. Our offense will be a force.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:42 pm
Lol at how quiet it is with all the Mariota nut huggers off in hiding
April 30th, 2015 at 10:44 pm
Damnt.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:44 pm
great job on your convictions, 87. you get a jersey!
April 30th, 2015 at 10:46 pm
I wanted Marcus Mariota but more than anything I’m a bucks fan and will now thats a Jameis Winstonwill put that Jersey on I have his back 100 percent.Tampaaaaa
April 30th, 2015 at 10:48 pm
we better hope Carolina doesn’t pick Randy Gregory they already have a scary defense with them they will be like to see Hawks are better
April 30th, 2015 at 10:49 pm
Hopefully Jameis can keep his nose clean. I still think MM is the safer pick but I will pull for JW because I’ve really got no choice. Go Bucs!
April 30th, 2015 at 10:55 pm
I don’t think that saying the BUCS were going to pick Winston is a big deal, though. Everyone said that he was their pick. Most of the people who said they should pick MM really believed that Winston would be the pick. He’s a Buc now. He’s got to be great or we are in serious trouble.
April 30th, 2015 at 11:11 pm
@87
He said to email your address to his website. He wants to pay up.
April 30th, 2015 at 11:24 pm
They’ve been planning on drafting Winston for at least the last 5 months. November may be “when football starts” most seasons – but last year, November is when the ‘Finish Winless for Winston’ plan was implemented. (and executed to perfection I might add).
Thank You Lovie for doing what was best for this franchise. That had to be very hard to do. And a tip of the hat to Josh McCown for the important role he played as well. You are a good soldier Josh. Good luck in Cleveland.
April 30th, 2015 at 11:40 pm
It’s nice to now be a part of this fan base for the long haul. They did the right thing tonight
May 1st, 2015 at 1:19 am
I couldn’t be happier. This is an epochal moment in the history of the Buccaneers.
May 1st, 2015 at 10:26 am
OK. So now we got this so called” savior” of our program. Putting all his transgressions aside we are stuck with him. Me personally I pay dearly for my season tics so I don’t mind saying that I am not so happy. But I’ll keep paying and bleeding until I die. Sincerely I hope this “nice guy” produces. Or 3-5 years from now we will be having this discussion again without Lovie or Licht. I hope I am wrong but I think Mariotta will still be throwing while this guy is coaching football at Bessemer HS ala Josh Freeman. They have to puts some other pieces into place over the next few days or this whole thing will be a joke just like the current uniforms. Maybe it is time to reinvent the reinvented. Loose the clown suits and go back to the uniforms of the glory days. Simple and distinctive they may bring back the mentality of the Brooks/Lynch/Allstott days. Look like clowns play like clowns. Time to change the mindset and bring in this era right.