“I’m The Biggest Jason Licht Fan”
May 28th, 2023
History shines a flattering light on Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht even if a minority sect of cynical Bucs fans bark that Licht saved a sinking career by hiring his buddy Bucco Bruce Arians and lucking his way into signing Tom Brady.
Yeah, some people espouse that kind of nonsense.
Obviously, Licht struggled prior to Arians coaching a game in Tampa and Brady putting on a Bucs uniform. But Licht also had loaded up on an undeniably impressive array of talent on both sides of the ball.
One man in Licht’s corner is former Bucs guard Ali Marpet. While delivering commentary on The Beer Money Podcast, Marpet sang the praises of Licht and noted something Joe had not heard previously.
Per Marpet, many NFL teams graded him before the draft as a fifth-round pick.
He also relayed a story about how the Buffalo Bills worked him out as a tight end and felt good about him there. Marpet said he ran routes for Buffalo’s offensive coordinator, tight ends coach and offensive line coach for about half an hour.
“I did O-line stuff for like five minutes and then ran routes for like 30 minutes. Honestly, I caught everything. I think I was slow as heck, but I caught everything,” Marpet said. “In my head, I was like, ‘This would be the coolest thing ever. Let’s go to Buffalo. I can cut weight.”
Ironically, the Bills, based just 90 minutes from Marpet’s Division III Hobart College program, drafted a different guard in Round 3 of the 2015 NFL Draft — 20 picks after Marpet.
“I’m the biggest Jason Licht fan,” Marpet said. “I think he’s amazing, and obviously I’m biased. But I feel incredibly fortunate that he took a chance on me, and he’s not afraid to take those chances and stand by what he believes. And I think he’s a terrific talent evaluator. For at least my situation, like I know there were teams that had fifth-round grades. It’s not Madden. It’s not like there’s a rating. Talent evaluation is a really complicated piece, the psychology behind it, the development of it. And I think that’s something [where] Jason has done a terrific job.”
Everything surrounding the Bucs’ selection of Marpet, a key Super Bowl cog, is a gold star on Licht’s résumé.
May 28th, 2023 at 12:40 pm
BL does a good job.
May 28th, 2023 at 12:53 pm
Jason is a keeper. Thank you, Mr. Licht.
May 28th, 2023 at 12:57 pm
I am a huge Jason Licht fan!
dude brings talent to the team!
and got us one SB so far.
hopefully Bucs can keep Spytek
also but he will be a GM in the
not to distant future.
May 28th, 2023 at 1:10 pm
I’m going to stick to my last grade I gave our GM – B… He has had a few pretty horrible drafts and some huge idiotic misses (Roberto Aguayo) but he has also had some very productive drafts and huge hits (Marpet, Godwin, Evans, Wirfs).
His free agent signings have been pretty solid until last season – Jones and Hicks where bad moves. But Suh, JPP, Barrett and Brady were all great moves…
A “B” grade means that Jason Licht is a good GM but still has improvements to make.
May 28th, 2023 at 1:15 pm
My number one prediction is that the Bucs will be a good ATS bet week in and week out. The national media loved us when Brady was here and now is hating our team.
As this Joe says, there is still a lot of talent on this team.
May 28th, 2023 at 1:23 pm
Brady bailed them out. Without Brady, they will be exposed.
May 28th, 2023 at 1:36 pm
The Bucs won a SB should have repeated if not for a bone headed defensive call and then Brady went through a tragedy and didn’t look the same and we sucked.
Brady sucked.
Now he is gone and we are magically gonna suck after the best draft this team has had in a decade.
Please, let them think we are gonna suck and look past us.
May 28th, 2023 at 1:38 pm
We just drafted two more punters in the second and third round.
May 28th, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Marpet was a great Buccaneer!
May 28th, 2023 at 2:45 pm
Marine. Did you forget about Via, Winfield, Davis Bunting, Dean, White, White, Edwards, Whitehead and Trask?
May 28th, 2023 at 2:47 pm
Remember,,Brady called them & brought Gronk . without Brady/Gronk -no SB rings , & BA would not be in Ring of Honor .
before august 1st ; we had lost 3 of 5 OL guys. Licht chose to only replace one with a proven vet. knowing we couldn’t run the ball , teams put lot of pressure on Brady who everyone in the world knew was not a mobile QB.
May 28th, 2023 at 2:47 pm
Licht is a fantastic evaluator. My only issue with him as that he doesn’t trust his draft board and wait for the players that he likes. He often trades up for players that i am 100% certain would be there when we draft. People say, “Big deal. He gave up a 5th to move up a few spots.” It is a big deal because when Licht is your GM, that 5th rounder could be a stud.
Trust your draft board, Jason. That DB from K-State would have been there in round 7. Aguayo would have been there in round 3 or 4. No need to trade up for most of these players.
May 28th, 2023 at 2:52 pm
captivajim Says:
May 28th, 2023 at 2:47 pm
Remember,,Brady called them & brought Gronk . without Brady/Gronk -no SB rings , & BA would not be in Ring of Honor
__________
Sorry to be the one to have to tell you. We could have won the Super Bowl in 2020 with 10 other QBs not named Brady. We merely needed a competent QB. Brady proved to be mlre than mortal as he didn’t remember what down it was against Chicago, got shutout by the Saints, or threw three picks in the NFC championship against the Packers. Then the defense totally won the Super Bowl against the Chiefs. Nine points! How many sacks and pressures did Brady have on Mahomes that day? I’m thinking ZERO.
May 28th, 2023 at 3:04 pm
Marpet was an all-pro level player for years, but like some other Bucs got completely overlooked because he played in Tampa. Thanks to Brady for giving a ‘rub’ to Marpet and making it known how good he was. Shame he retired so early, should have had a long career, but those ukulele players are flakey.
May 28th, 2023 at 3:19 pm
People who bash him for getting us the best trophy in the NFL are just miserable wankers. Cry cry cry baby’s. I speak for a lot of us that the real fans live JL. Glad he’s our GM.
May 28th, 2023 at 4:15 pm
Keep in mind Jason was picking in the top 12 for seemingly every draft leading into Brady. That helps build a team. We’ll see how it goes from here before the final grades are handed.
Funny how everyone forgets about AB. The guys a wingnut, but it was a different offense with him in there.
May 28th, 2023 at 5:16 pm
If you don’t appreciate Licht, you’re an idiot. He hired Arians and he didn’t kidnap TB12. He went and got him. Bucs won a SB. Shooting for 3rd division title in a row. I’ve been a diehard fan since 1976. Bucs being good comes around about as often as Halley’s comet. Enjoy it while you can.
May 28th, 2023 at 5:28 pm
I have thought about this for a while regarding the extremely low expectations for the Bucs regarding 2024. They think Brady meant everything for this franchise. They think losing the GOAT is surely going to cause a massive drop off. Compared to the 2020 and 2021 I would agree. 2022 was a different story. His heart wasn’t in it and he played like a petrified rookie most of the year. Throwing balls in the dirt too early because he didn’t want to take a hit. They have a Brady bias and are ignoring the fact that he wasn’t very good at all last year.
May 28th, 2023 at 5:54 pm
Who hired BA?
Who signed the greatest free agent in Sports history?
J Licht did.
No matter what is said about Jason, if he does not hire BA, and also fumbles the Brady signing, then there would have been no 2nd Lombardi in the Trophy Case at 1 Buc Palace.
He has earned his place in Buccaneer lore.
As for the nasty now and now, well he gets a another chance to prove his worth again.
May 28th, 2023 at 6:05 pm
This year will finalize my opinion of Jason Licht.
May 28th, 2023 at 6:07 pm
Brady had a lot going on off the field last year…anyone would have cracked.
Then, on top of that, the injuries to the offense piled up.
His heart wasn’t in it because his heart was with family matters.
Brandon Says:
“Sorry to be the one to have to tell you. We could have won the Super Bowl in 2020 with 10 other QBs not named Brady”
That is totally wrong. You forget the culture issues. The work ethic. We would NOT have even been in the superbowl without Tom Brady.
.
ShakeandBaker Says:
His heart wasn’t in it and he played like a petrified rookie most of the year. Throwing balls in the dirt too early because he didn’t want to take a hit. They have a Brady bias and are ignoring the fact that he wasn’t very good at all last year”
Not even.
There were reasons for throwing low. Ask someone with football knowledge. And to be fair, he was hot a LOT because of the horrible OL play.
Was he good last year? In the end, no. But…if the OL had been healthy and Marpet had not retired, it would have been a different story.
Everything Piled up last year. It wasn’t all Brady’s fault. The only reasons not to want him this year are cap and roster. He’s still better than most.
May 28th, 2023 at 6:10 pm
Letsbucinggo Says:
May 28th, 2023 at 6:05 pm
“This year will finalize my opinion of Jason Licht”
That’s a curious thing to say.
We’re in a rebuilding year with cap issues that, thanks to Licht, are only going to set us back one year.
This year is almost guaranteed to be bad…most rebuilding years are.
So I’m curious why you would judge him by this year.
May 28th, 2023 at 7:06 pm
If I were to rate Jason Licht, he would be between a C+ and a B-
Pulling Arians out of a Hat really saved his butt here in Tampa.
If people remember, he was sort of on the hot seat here.
Not only did Arians prove to be a great coach, him and his gang greatly improved Jason Licht’s drafts.
Licht did not “go out and get Brady”. Brady decided to leave the Patriots, certain he could play for the 49ers, his home town team. Only when the 49ers did not want him did he consider coming here to Tampa.
Jason Licht got lucky, he got a gift.
To his credit, he made sure he signed him!
Yes, Licht made a great pick with Ali Marpet, but what about JTS and Logan Hall ?
Let’s all hope they come around this year ?
May 28th, 2023 at 7:42 pm
@ AtlBuc
I didn’t want to write several paragraphs I was just hitting the highlights…
But all the players you listed have been solid players so far.
Some will argue that Trask and White (#5 overall pick) have been pretty lackluster picks…
But like I said – Overall I believe Jason Licht has done a good job.
I give him a solid “B” grade over his entire GM career.
May 28th, 2023 at 10:56 pm
Licht is definitely a top 5 GM in the NFL. I would give him an A- overall. He would have had an A if it weren’t for the Aguayo pick. That was pretty embarrassing and hard to forget
May 29th, 2023 at 1:34 am
Just remember, for all the Roberto bashing, he never missed a kicked that mattered. Same thing can’t be said about Nick Folk or Matt Gay.
May 29th, 2023 at 9:24 am
For all of you bashing him regarding the Aguayo pick. The Bucs had problems with making field goals before that. JL saw the problem, JL also saw the most accurate kicker in NCAA history, and aggressively addressed it. It didn’t work out. But, it was that type of thinking that built a talented roster, attracted Tom Brady, and won a Super Bowl.
JL Rocks!!!!
May 29th, 2023 at 10:00 am
He’s got a good team around him. Spytych should be a G.M. himself soon.
May 29th, 2023 at 10:43 am
dls5492 Says:
“For all of you bashing him regarding the Aguayo pick. The Bucs had problems with making field goals before that. JL saw the problem, JL also saw the most accurate kicker in NCAA history…”
.
.
If I’m not mistaken, Aguayo’s college numbers were historic, but also trending down every year he was at FSU. Kind of a red flag, to me, for a high round pick. He was getting flaky before he even got here.
May 29th, 2023 at 11:10 am
Roberto Aguayo!
May 29th, 2023 at 1:56 pm
I find it questionable that he has hired Bowles. However I also understand that he was roped into Arian’s succession blueprint and is attempting to be loyal.
May 30th, 2023 at 3:38 am
Wow can you imagine a LB or Safety trying to tackle Marpet. I would pay good money just to watch him catch one pas over the middle. That would be awsome!
For all the Licht bashers.
Worth noting that he inherited a mess and Lovie Smith from Dominik.
Any of these guys you would rather have?
W L % Ch Playoffs
2014-2021 Jason Licht 58 71 .471 1 7
2009-2013 Mark Dominik 28 52 .350 0
2004-2008 Bruce Allen 38 42 .475 2
1992-2003 Rich McKay 96 96 .500 1 5
1978-1991 Phil Krueger 69 146 .321 3
1976-1977 John McKay 2 26 .071 0