“It’d Be Hard To Resist”
April 11th, 2024
Jamel Dean
Joe hopes Jamel Dean wasn’t watching Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht’s annual pre-draft news conference today.
Dean will earn big money this year — after not earning his big money last season.
Dean was a disappointment as a starting cornerback in 2023 and Joe believes the Bucs’ patience with him might not last another season.
Former No. 1 cornerback Carlton Davis was traded to the Lions last month and the Bucs are poised to roll with third-year man Zyon McCollum to replace him. Sometimes overmatched undrafted second-year player Christian Izien is the returning nickel back and the Bucs added young veteran corner Bryce Hall, among others.
Still, Licht was very clear today that he’d be happy to draft a corner. And there was a firm and decisive tone in his voice.
“If there’s a great corner that’s sitting there and he’s staring us in the face and he’s clearly a better player than what we have at other positions, it’d be hard to resist,” Licht said.
Yeah, that was a classic general manager answer before the draft — somewhat meaningless fluff. Regardless, Joe is focused on how Licht said it. The answer seemed very genuine, and Joe says that as someone who has studied Licht for 10-plus years.
April 11th, 2024 at 1:22 pm
I wish there was an HBO Series on the Jason Licht Bucs war rooms over the year with extensive behind the scenes footage lol. I’ll definitely buy a book if they ever write it
April 11th, 2024 at 1:22 pm
over the years*
April 11th, 2024 at 1:22 pm
It’s a need, but we have much bigger need. We could have revis and deion back there and it would not matter f the qb has all day
OL, EDGE early and often
April 11th, 2024 at 1:31 pm
center plz
April 11th, 2024 at 1:43 pm
Did a mock again because I’m a psycho and addicted to this alternate reality BS lol. It’s also just familiarizing me with the draft class.
R1 #21 – Jared Verse DE – traded a future #2 plus a 3rd to go up to #21
R3 – #89 – Mike Sainristill CB – traded back out of R2 because the Titans offered me pick #106 a future #1 and I didn’t love anyone enough at 57.
R4 – #106 – Tanor Bortolini OC
R4 – #125 – Jaylen Wright RB (suprised he was available. Ray Davis & Audric Esteme also were available)
R5 – # 146 – Jaylan Ford LB
I stopped there because I don’t recognize any names anymore. But that’d be quite a haul. And we’d have two #1’s next year with the Titans projected to be not so great most likely.
April 11th, 2024 at 1:44 pm
Exactly this. You don’t force a pick with needs. Especially in the first round. That’s how you end up drafting the Logan Hall’s of the world. BPA always in the early rounds. The goal of the draft is to get as many good players as you can. CB may not seem like a need but Dean might be gone next year, Zyon would be in a contract year in 2025, and Hall is on a 1 year deal. With Dean’s injury history it’s important to have good depth. Good teams always draft ahead of upcoming needs and get players in the hopper ready to step in when you move on from a player like Dean.
April 11th, 2024 at 1:58 pm
I have no doubt Dean will be out again this season for a significant time. I am also sure Licht has the same feeling and that they have seen all they need to see from Dean and are looking for his replacement. They won’t make the same mistake they did with Davis and over pay just to unload for a bag of beans.
April 11th, 2024 at 2:04 pm
Goes to show its BPA to an extent
April 11th, 2024 at 2:39 pm
Lord C
You really get into it! Well done. I do not know college players well enough to critique the individuals except for Verse, he certainly fills a need, I like the positions selected.
April 11th, 2024 at 3:52 pm
Licht has long established that the Bucs, and myself, believe DBs are just as likely to be good in rounds 2 and 3 as round One…
Never draft a db in round one if you believe in math.
Unless it’s Deon Sanders lol.
Otherwise you end up with safeties from Alabama.
April 11th, 2024 at 4:31 pm
Kool Aid is starting to grow on me of the other positions of need aren’t available
April 11th, 2024 at 4:42 pm
This draft seems deep at DB, OL, and WR. You can expect the Bucs to grab one or more of each position group.
April 11th, 2024 at 6:06 pm
Christian Izien’s 2023 season should have showed us all that even undrafted players can become starters even in their rookie season. Izien was clearly a Todd Bowles type of player, even though he’s not big (5’8″ & 197 lbs), not fast, but he is a smart, instinctive player who obviously learns quickly & well. Coming from Rutgers, Greg Schiano probably felt the same way about him.
Player selection is obviously important, but player development is even more important IMO. Seems like lots of guys with excellent talent get mediocre coaching early in their careers and never really maximize their talent. Personally I think that teams who constantly change coaches do a big disservice to many of their players. Baker Mayfield is a prime example of that IMO; he had close to 10,000 different OCs prior to getting to us (OK, probably closer to 9,000 but I was just rounding up).
April 11th, 2024 at 9:18 pm
DR. Great point. Developing the talent is HUGE. Mike smith and lovie days we literally couldn’t develop anyone. Didn’t matter who we picked besides ME13 lol. I like how Bowles staff has developed DBs.
April 11th, 2024 at 9:55 pm
There’s many draft strategies, but if a team were to always pick the literally best player available, they’d never be wrong. The problem is, hindsight is 20/20 and doesn’t work in reverse. Ask 10 people who’s the bpa at any point in the draft and you still may get 10 different answers- and none of them might actually pick the best player. That being said, if you draft someone good with every pick, you’ll never go wrong either- so maybe the best strategy is just to avoid draft busts. Again its easier said than done, but I do get the feeling our GM and FO is learning from experience.
April 11th, 2024 at 11:32 pm
Why would you spend a top pick on a corner just to watch them standing around in Bowles new zone defense? I doubt they take someone high – instead they’ll likely take some very quick guys like Zyon later in the draft and hope they can use their speed to cover areas.
April 12th, 2024 at 2:33 am
The only answer I’d give to the above question is: they’re beyond elite playing zone and get tons of INTs. We haven’t had many INTs lately from the CBs… if somebody akin to Joe Haden part 2 is in the draft this year, I could see that in round 1. Otherwise…
April 12th, 2024 at 3:11 am
My draft strategy has evolved this off season. I started the process with either Edge or OL as the pick at 26 but as I was mock drafting I noticed that the draft engine was evolving as well. I used to be able to get Barton or Powers Johnson and or Verse or Latu at 26. Now it’s very rare that any of them is available at 26. Consistently Chop Robinson or Darius Robinson are available along with Cool Aid. This scenario is when my view began to change and I said ok we have a great need for our front 3 or 4 to get pressure on the QB consistently so we don’t have to run certain predictable blitz packages putting a further strain on our DB’s to hold contain for long periods which is nearly impossible. So why not another great DT like Johnny Newton or Byron Murphy, this would give us Vita Kancey and either Newton or Murphy as our front 3. What a line that would be with Hall and Gaines rotating in. Newton and or Murphy has been consistently available at 26. This allowed me to draft either Beebe or Haines to fill LG, both Frazier and Van Pran are also their at C at 57 and Kneeland and Trice and Booker at Edge have been their at 89 or 93. This trend looks very promising to me, what do you guys think and have you noticed your draft engines adapting like mine has to the after combine and free agency periods.
April 12th, 2024 at 9:27 am
Lord Cornelius that’s a Draft Day movie draft for sure but I’d prefer not trading (unless trading down) and a lot less drama.
No one knows which pick will be a bust so more picks = more chances to hit on a starter
April 12th, 2024 at 11:20 pm
Licht made it clear he loves drafting guys who play in the trenches. Obviously they have to improve the O-line (probably center). If there is a competent D-tackle in the latter rounds I can see that as well. Don’t be surprised if we draft at least one wide receiver and with the new kickoff rules it may be someone who is a good returner. As for cornerback, if one is there they may take him. But, they are not going to reach for the cornerback position.