Jason Licht Among Best At Draft
November 19th, 2024
“I don’t want to hear about it, Kaufman! You’re the one who wanted Devin White over Josh Hines-Allen so badly.”
From time to time Joe reads how fans, frustrated with this or that, want to run Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht.
This perplexes Joe.
Does Joe get frustrated Licht won’t stop at anything to find an edge rusher? Yeah. Is Joe bewildered why Licht wouldn’t go get another receiver (like playoff-bound teams such as Kansas City and Buffalo and Pittsburgh did)? Yes.
But, you sometimes have to accept the greater good. After all, Licht built a Super Bowl winner for this town. There aren’t too many guys with his resume panhandling for work on interstate off-ramps.
Judging by a graphic that came across Joe’s Twitter timeline yesterday, running off Licht would likely be a really dumb move. So only four teams since 2014 have drafted a higher percentage of Pro Bowlers than Licht (see graphic below). And 2014 was the same season Licht came to Tampa Bay and took over the draft.
Aside from his drafts, look who Licht also lured to Tampa: Bucco Bruce Arians, Ndamukong Suh, Antonio Brown, Playoff Lenny, foot-rubbing Rob Gronkowski and of course, Tom Brady. Licht also was able to steal Jason Pierre-Paul from the Giants and sign Bucs sacks king Shaq Barrett on the cheap in free agency.
Why would someone want to push a guy like that out the door?
If for whatever reason Licht was shown the door, he wouldn’t make it through his back door before he started getting job offers texted to him.
But yeah, maybe Team Glazer can find the next Bruce Almighty to run the pirate ship.
November 19th, 2024 at 12:23 am
Hey Joe, I agree Licht is great in his role. “Aside from his drafts”… that’s quite a list of players he’s lured to Tampa. But as a Baker Mayfield fan I think you should have added another player to that list. Maybe that slight will give our QB that extra edge he needs going down this final stretch. GO BUCs!!
November 19th, 2024 at 12:29 am
Well said Kenton
November 19th, 2024 at 12:32 am
Jason is the best though. He’s not going anywhere.
November 19th, 2024 at 12:34 am
All the men Joe listed either will be in the Hall of Fame or they helped the Bucs win a Super Bowl. While Mayfield has been a nice signing, he’s yet to get to a Super Bowl.
November 19th, 2024 at 12:54 am
Only a dead snook implies that Jason is the reason the inept head coich / defensive uncoordinator is giving up yards and points like free drugs at a music festival. Or the reason Tom Brady experienced the only losing season of his entire life. Or how in crunch time, failure ensues.
The Glazers have seen GM ineptitude (Mark Dumdumnik). “The rebuild is complete” — a dead snook once said. LOL.
The Glazers know Jason has only had one clean head coaching hire, and that produced Bruce Arians and a Super Bowl.
They know this ain’t it, but “it” is around the corner.
November 19th, 2024 at 1:04 am
Keep adding fuel to that fire Joe. GO BUCS!!
November 19th, 2024 at 3:22 am
So, I feel the need to point out that the Glazers made him a ‘give the head coach whatever he wants’ guy until the year they finally let him have control and he hired Bruce Arians.
Up until then, it was all on the head coaches for the most part.
But I do agree he is a great GM…maybe the best. I didn’t always feel that way, but he won me over years ago.
November 19th, 2024 at 3:27 am
Dave Pear Says:
“The Glazers have seen GM ineptitude (Mark Dumdumnik). “The rebuild is complete”
Don’t forget Rich Mckay who put us so deep in cap issues that he refused to stick around to clean up his own mess. He also traded away multiple high picks. Then went to work for our division rival.
Or Bruce Allen, who signed cheap players for years because of the cap issues, and made many bad signings.
November 19th, 2024 at 3:36 am
We know how….a few misses here and there, but we roll. Debo Williams next please
November 19th, 2024 at 4:01 am
And Kyle Kennard….Debo with our 4th
November 19th, 2024 at 4:27 am
When you spend the majority of those 10 years drafting pretty high, including 1st overall, you better be top 5 at minimum in pro bowlers.
Not impressed with the Arians hire either. He hired him because he promised the Glazers he would fix Jameis. Which shows his lack of understanding about the modern game X and Os wise. The Arians system was already out of vogue when hired. We saw how bad it looked once the Brady magic wore off.
There aren’t many good GMs and Licht isn’t the magical outlier we get swept up into thinking about him when you look at the big picture of his career.
November 19th, 2024 at 4:40 am
Jason has done a good job. Many of the draft picks we got; most of us were overjoyed with them at the time. Reminiscing Jameis as an example. In 2015, we all were excited watching the draft and the first pick of the night is Jameis. He being the first FSU player to be selected first overall. Yes, there were some bad times, but Jason gets it done. And that is the apprehension, if at the end of the season Todd gets let go. Do the Glazers decide to clean house too? So much to think about.
November 19th, 2024 at 5:34 am
Jason light is not the only person who makes decisions about this football team, John Spytech is a brilliant mind and he has just as much input as Jason. If any of you have been paying attention there whole scouting team works as a collective and decision’s are made on draft day, there are some override decisions that get made but not many. The Buccaneers problem is coaching, not our personal it is blatantly obvious. We have been mediocre since Todd Bowles has taken over, we are wasting the talent on this team, and I am personally tired of it. We need a coaching staff that’s going to keep these guys disciplined on defense. Remember Bruce Arians held these guys accountable Todd Bowles does not.
November 19th, 2024 at 6:06 am
Look who’s at the bottom of this list.