Bucs No. 4 Rookie Class
January 26th, 2025
Surprise stud.
Joe knows Bucs fans are well aware of the 2024 rookie haul had by Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht.
Here’s additional confirmation.
Aaron Schatz, the developer of DVOA and the father of “Football Outsiders” (RIP), recently typed a story for the four-letter breaking down the best rookie classes of 2024.
Schatz had the Bucs at No. 4. He really praised the Bucs rookies, including a guy Schatz believes has fully flown under the radar, nickel corner Tykee Smith.
On defense, the quiet star was third-round pick Tykee Smith. Nominally a safety, Smith was Tampa Bay’s slot cornerback and finished a surprising sixth among qualifying cornerbacks in coverage.
Smith sure looked like he slammed into the rookie wall and the wall won. But boy, did he show promise.
Give Smith a full offseason of NFL conditioning and he should be ready for a 17- (or more) game schedule. Joe really likes what Smith brings to the table.
Schatz had the top three rookie classes as the Rams’, the Commandos’ and the Chargers’.
January 26th, 2025 at 12:09 am
I’m a fan.
I only wish he played in a better scheme.
January 26th, 2025 at 12:27 am
I don’t think smith hit the rookie wall. I think he just got hurt.
January 26th, 2025 at 12:34 am
I was expecting more from that cornerback we got named Braswell. Always dropped into coverage and never covered anyone.
Oh wait – he was a pass rusher in college? Got it. Man I hope we let the long snapper punt next season.
January 26th, 2025 at 1:22 am
In the last 3 drafts – GM Licht has drafted 10 starters.
(Barton, Smith, Bucky, Kancey, Mauch, Diaby, Hall, Goedeke, Otten, McCollum)
Plus White, Kieft, Dennis, Durham and McMillan who have all proven they can play well at the NFL level.
That’s 3.3 starters and 5 good players out of every draft…. drafting in the 20s every year.
Braswell, Klein, Culp, Hayes, Palmer and Ramirez still have some room and time to grow and up those impressive #s even more.
Oh – and then there’s UDFAs Izien, Russell, Merriweather and Miller also…..
Jason Licht and his group are KILLING IT.
There was only 1 way out of cap hell post Brady – if the team had any hopes of maintaining competitiveness (as in 5 straight playoff appearances which no other NFC team has done)….. and that was to draft their way out.
Mission accomplished. Signing Mayfield certainly helped….
1 more year of large ($50M+) cap debt payments to go – and this team STILL has as good a chance as almost any other NFC team to get to the playoffs and make a Super Bowl run in 2025.
And Licht is going to draft/sign 5+ MORE good young players in about 3 months….
January 26th, 2025 at 1:37 am
Thanks for the analysis Pickgrin. Encouraging stuff
January 26th, 2025 at 3:57 am
All these people talk about Bowles scheme being meh but yet we stopped the Lions and Eagles while also playing the Chiefs and others close. All this without #1 + #2 safeties, #1 #2 cb on and off, #2 and at times #3 LB all out on injury. Some of y’all have seemingly no understanding for lack of depth which is not the HC fault. Keep on complaining though. He isn’t going anywhere
January 26th, 2025 at 4:08 am
Aqualung Says:
January 26th, 2025 at 12:34 am
I was expecting more from that cornerback we got named Braswell. Always dropped into coverage and never covered anyone.
Oh wait – he was a pass rusher in college? Got it. Man I hope we let the long snapper punt next season.
=================================
Your referring to what’s known as the J T.S. special. Chef Bowles loves cooking that up. Its essentially a aggressive looking beefy looking sandwich but instead of real meat ts made with compressed spring mushrooms, sun flower kernels, garbanzo bean paste, April peas, and mustard greens served with a side of lentils sautéed with water crest juice and spruce of surprise French field grass and authentic moss from locally sourced swamps.
January 26th, 2025 at 4:10 am
Whoever found Irving and got him in the fourth round earned a big phat raise within the Bucs organization. And whoever gave dean that huge raise a while back, needs to be shown the door imo. As we see some correctly identify talent correctly, and some simply don’t. No knock against dean, but the man is either always hurt, or he’s playing 10 yards off in coverage. And Irving, if the coaches don’t have him riding the pines, he is breaking some sort of record. Perhaps losing Coen, comes with a blessing in disguise.
January 26th, 2025 at 5:05 am
Pickgrin … Great analysis. We have an excellent core of starters, especially on offense. Good enough IMO to rank us in the Top 9-16 tier of the NFL. I think that moving into the top tier this year (offense AND defense) will require not just an excellent draft but also signing several UFAs to fill existing holes AND re-signing several Bucs from last season.
We can make the CAP room to accomplish those latter two by reworking several contracts (just the 6 contracts for Mayfield, Wirfs, Evans, Winfield, Vea & Dean represent well over 50% of our CAP Hit). With a solid draft in addition, I’m convinced that we can make it into that top tier & compete for the Super Bowl this year & next.
January 26th, 2025 at 5:22 am
Don’t forget UDFA Sean Tucker
January 26th, 2025 at 5:38 am
And so begins the long, slow trudge to draft day.
January 26th, 2025 at 7:00 am
This is what I’ve been saying or asking all season, we have or had a lot of great talent on defense who showed promise ( CB, EDGE, and DL ) and seem to be a sure game changer then, they start to regress and fade away. Is it the position coaches or scheme. I don’t think Bowles and Licht would draft someone who didn’t fix their scheme or why were they successful in the beginning? Another tidbit, the Bucs need to add or fire some of their training staff. I know NFL football is a rigorous and tough game but, darn near every player has been injured with hamstrings, pull muscles and so on.
January 26th, 2025 at 7:26 am
Bucs must add a proven edge such as Lawrence, Sweat, or Mack. Having an effective edge rusher is paramount to improving this defense.
January 26th, 2025 at 7:44 am
Bucsfan … Would love to see us add a proven edge, as long as the ‘price’ wasn’t cost-prohibitive (we’ve got a number of other holes to fill). I look at Shaq 2019 performance (19.5 sacks & 51 ‘pressures’) and it’s not that hard to see how he pulled that off. Shaq is an outstanding talent to start with (speed, technigue, etc) but the fact that he got to work with Vea, Suh & JPP surely contributed mightily to his incredible success that year.
Something else that folks overlook about his performance that year is that Shaq blitzed 174 times that year (about 11 blitzes per game on average). He hasn’t come close to blitzing that number of times since 2019. Bucs blitzed a whopping 613 times that season … and ended up with a 7-9 record and #29-ranked defense.
January 26th, 2025 at 7:45 am
A DR sighting!!!
January 26th, 2025 at 7:57 am
I believe he is top of his position for forced fumbles
January 26th, 2025 at 7:59 am
Pickgrin
As usual an excellent post I agree with the others.
“Jason Licht and his group are KILLING IT.”
I’m surprised this class is only ranked 4th! I get giving the Commanders #1 they scored the biggest prize of all, a truly GIFTED young “franchise” QB! Hard to top that.
But the Bucs have scored a “franchise” RB and that’s pretty amazing in itself and unlike Daniels, Bucky didn’t eat up the #2 Overall pick. Imagine if JW had worked out with the #1 pick. Imagine if we did what only a few, not me I was on board with Fameis, said to do, trade down and take the haul for three studs!
Those if just 2 of those 3 worked out what would this team look like today?
Oh well water under the bridge I like the way this team looks today anyway and as D.R. points out there’s every reason for HOPE!
As Andy Dufresne said in his letter to Red in Shawshank…
“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
The best of things! Even our trolls have to concede that Buc fans have every reason to hope!
January 26th, 2025 at 8:05 am
Kudos Jason. Great job. Now, do whatever you can to make Liam Coen (I wish there was a strike-through edit option on this site … I heneber referencying Coen, we should strike-through the ‘e’) the REAL Mr. Irrelevant.
January 26th, 2025 at 8:05 am
@PPM
“seem to be a sure game changer then, they start to regress and fade away. Is it the position coaches or scheme.”
Could be any of those but IMHO it’s YOUTH. Rookies and 2nd year guys need some time to mature. Jon Gruden hated this “learning curve” so much that he erred IMHO to the other side taking “experienced” players who unfortunately had seen their best days. Gruden loved VETS and he’s not the only coach to feel that way. HOF coach George Allen was the same kinda guy. He never had a losing season! Chucky won a SB. So there is some merit in their views.
Personally I like balance and this team is hitting it’s sweet spot for balance from grizzly old Vets like ME and LVD to the kiddie corps led of course by Bucky!!!
January 26th, 2025 at 8:07 am
“I heneber referencying” is Latin for “When we reference”
January 26th, 2025 at 8:33 am
Bucs Guy – I did forget Sean Tucker as a UDFA acquisition…..
DR – “We can make the CAP room….by reworking several contracts”
I hope we do very little of that. Can kicking to buy current year cap space is exactly what got the Bucs into ‘cap hell’ in the first place…. ($18.8M for Godwin. $17.4M for Shaq, $11.8M for Ryan Jensen, $2.6M for Nelson and $1.4M for Gaines are all debts that have to be paid this year with nothing in return – that’s $52M or 20% of allotted cap space that we DONT HAVE to spend this year). Gotta get out of that negative spending cycle somehow – ‘reworking contracts’ just digs the team deeper into a financial hole in future years.
January 26th, 2025 at 9:38 am
DR (Defense definitely Rules!) and Pickgrin, good to see both of you back. Pickgrin, $18.8M for CG14 is reasonable for a guy with his talent. It’s not his fault the Ravens decided to play dirty and target him! Licht has been hitting it outta the ball park since he signed Cam Brate with the UDFAs. He and Bowles will be concentrating on Defense. That’s a given. Now, also a punter, too. Someone sniffed out Camarda; they can do it again.
January 26th, 2025 at 11:14 am
Thanks Pickgrin. What you wrote shouldn’t be news to most fans. If you have followed the Bucs closely for even the last 5 years you know Licht and co have been doing a great job and saying the roster lacks talent is absurd.
If all those young guys getting starter snaps weren’t talented we wouldn’t have stayed on top of the division and been in the playoffs the last 2 years.
It also helps that we have SB winning vets and a coach that players like maintaining that winning culture.
The issue with what Ryan says up there is… yeah 14 outta 20 weeks Bowles scheme is great or at least gets the job done. Maybe if he could focus on that and not HC duties the scheme would be great 18 of 20 weeks. His defense is constantly getting shredded (injuries I will give you, but we already established talent is not the issue) and game management decisions are constantly botched.
The team suffers for him wearing 2 hats, give one up and watch things immediately improve. McDermott gave up DC duties and Buffalo has had their best season in awhile, missing top S and LBs for most of the year.
January 26th, 2025 at 11:46 am
Pickgrin … ‘I hope we do very little of that. Can kicking to buy current year cap space is exactly what got the Bucs into ‘cap hell’ in the first place.’
While I agree with you about minimizing ‘can kicking’, we’ve got a LOT of things to fix right now to be Super Bowl contenders in 2025, and we can’t do that strictly via the draft. According to Spotrac, looks like we’ve got 61 players signed as of now, and $24.0 mil in Top-51 CAP space. with 22 UFAs. My guess is that the Bucs will try to re-sign about 11 or 12 of those. Almost surely won’t be able to do that for $24 mil.
And that’s before we even start talking about signing veteran free agents to fill several critical holes in our roster (probably 1-2 LBs, 1 CB, 1 Edge for starters). Gonna be difficult to do that without restructuring several of those Top-6 contracts.
January 26th, 2025 at 12:11 pm
Drunkinybor Says:
January 26th, 2025 at 4:08 am
____________________________
Your referring to what’s known as the J T.S. special. Chef Bowles loves cooking that up. Its essentially a aggressive looking beefy looking sandwich but instead of real meat ts made with compressed spring mushrooms, sun flower kernels, garbanzo bean paste, April peas, and mustard greens served with a side of lentils sautéed with water crest juice and spruce of surprise French field grass and authentic moss from locally sourced swamps.
______________________________________
Outstanding! Of course my screen is now a coffee stain and the room is soiled by the loud guffawing. Thank you for bringing the humor to the thread. It is sorely needed to brighten up the pablum.
I’m hoping for a chef that puts real roast beef on the plate when I order roast beef. Cheers.
January 26th, 2025 at 12:51 pm
We’re going to do it again this year too if the draft Gods smile on us:
Emmanwori Safety/LB hybrid
Shavon Revel CB
Kennard will be gone, so Skattebo RB
Debo Williams LB 4th or 5th and a Guard 4th or 5th.
…still working on it
January 26th, 2025 at 1:26 pm
Would love to see Skattebo. Alstott’s Ghost and we already have a new Dunn.
January 26th, 2025 at 6:49 pm
Licht is celebrated around the league as one of the best but our defense has fallen into one of the worst in the league even though a lot of draft capital has gone into the D.
The d line and LBs are awful. Some of the worst in the NFL.
It will be an interesting off-season.
January 26th, 2025 at 8:05 pm
The DL starters are very good. 20 sacks. One more DL and a good LBer and a good corner and they’ll be good.