Winning With Jason Licht: The Turning Point Signing (Part I)
February 24th, 2025
A colleague of Bucs GM Jason Licht talks about a culture-changing decision.
The NFL Scouting Combine kicks off tomorrow. The silly season of the offseason officially ramps up with team executives plotting, scheming, angling, misdirecting and investigating for the defining moves ahead.
So Joe thinks this is a great time to roll out a multi-part series on Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht.
Joe’s talked to a lot of people about Licht with a focus on Licht’s defining moves that turned the Bucs into a Super Bowl champ and a lasting contender that’s since won four consecutive division titles.
Joe asked new Raiders general manager John Spytek, the former Bucs assistant GM, to share what he thinks was the Bucs’ most critical free agent move of the Licht regime not named “Tom Brady.”
Licht set out to assess well-known failures, overhaul the team mentality and step out of a norm, Spytek said. The result was a slightly surprising move on the offensive line in March of 2018.
“No. 1, Ryan Jensen,” Spytek said with conviction. “When we were looking at what we wanted to get accomplished there — and it kind of like fit right with when we were really trying to organizationally and from a scouting standpoint trying to really self-assess, be really self-aware about why had failed.
“The free agent signings, the draft picks, everyone was aware of the names that didn’t pan out. What were we missing? We were looking for somebody that was kind an enforcer. Somebody that had been through some sh*t in their life, but from a life standpoint and a football standpoint, and came from a great organization. Ryan Jensen fit that.
“We made a decision there, that had not been something we typically do, dive in and pay the top of the market. We made him the highest paid center. And here’s a guy, ‘Is he a guard? Is he a center? What is he?’
“I think that was the start of kind of the re-branding of the Bucs and who we became, which was this hard-nosed tough, we’re-not-going-to-take-sh*t-from-anybody signing.
“I thought without a doubt, while he was here and he was healthy, he was the best center in the NFL.”
Spytek went on to say being the highest paid center meant something to Jensen and it wasn’t about the giant paycheck. Jensen was the right guy from the neck up. He was driven by that confidence shown by Licht, and by fulfilling what Licht and the staff wanted from him.
Tomorrow, Joe will dive into another “re-branding” move by Licht, one born from an in-house method at One Buc Palace and unique foresight.
February 24th, 2025 at 8:26 pm
Good post. I’m looking forward to the next one.
February 24th, 2025 at 8:38 pm
Interesting choice by Spytek, but I can see why. Ryan came to us in 2018 and we struggled offensively & defensively … to a 5-11 record. We had a decent nucleus of an OLine (Jensen, Marpet, D Smith), but also had some weaknesses (Benenoch, Dotson). 2018 was also the year we traded for JPP, and he made a difference on the defensive side (12.5 sacks).
Those 2 signings pale however in comparison to what JL pulled off in 2019: signing Bruce Arians & company to coach the Bucs. We improved the offense that year (with Cappa), but it was the defensive improvement that was massive and set the stage for 2020: Vea, Suh, White, Shaq, Dean, SMB, Edwards all coached by Todd Bowles. Defense finished a lowly #29 in Points Allowed, but a large part of that was because of the incredible number of turnovers by our offense. And it all set the stage for 2020 & 2021 when the Bucs ruled.
February 24th, 2025 at 8:38 pm
Interesting. I clicked this link assuming Shaq or Tommy was the answer. Jensen was great during his time here.
February 24th, 2025 at 8:41 pm
So tomorrow is the start of the illegal tampering period. Hope the Bucs are working with agents on a few deals for edge rushers….
February 24th, 2025 at 9:05 pm
This tracks. Jensen was the first domino in getting tougher in the trenches on the offensive side, finished off by the Wirfs steal pre SB.
The they set out to do the same on D with JPP and Suh, Barrett a cheap cherry on top.
They have had the blueprint since, building through the front lines and the Eagles just proved again why that will always be tough to beat. You don’t need a Mahomes or Prime Adrian Peterson or a Revis Island to win if you got the best people movers on both lines.
February 24th, 2025 at 9:40 pm
Licht is the best gm this team has seen, but to be totally honest he did trade the rights of Josh Allen to buffalo for vita vea and draft picks. Which can be debated but I’ll save it because some might say I’m splitting hairs. We do luv our big teddy bear nose tackle.
February 24th, 2025 at 9:50 pm
Good post Joe.
This goes back to a reply I put on one of your posts last week.
The Bucs need some attitude and aggressiveness and nastiness on defense.
That is why they should get someone like a Maxx Crosby or Garrett or somebody like that.
That is what the Bucs got with Suh and JPP.
Bucs have a lot of good players on defense but nobody that is an enforcer or somebody that leads with fear factor.
That is the kind of free agents the Bucs hopefully sign this offseason
February 24th, 2025 at 10:19 pm
BTW Joe, what we pulled off in 2019 set the tone for our defensive improvement (Suh, Shaq, Vea, D White, Dean, SMB, Edwards, etc) just like 2020 set the tone for our offensive improvement (Brady, Gronk, Wirfs, Fournette, Brown, etc).
I’m really hoping that 2025 replicates what we accomplished in 2019 in terms of ‘reinventing ourselves’ defensively. Bucs got a LOT tougher on defense in 2019, even while we were learning a whole different scheme. We need to add similar pieces this year IMO.
o Veteran edge
o Beastly DT/NT to rotate in with Vea
o Fast MLB who can also pressure the QB
o Starter quality CB
o Starter quality Safety
o Improved depth in all position groups
If we can get those guys, there’s no reason our defense can’t return to the Top-10. And assuming that our offense stays in the Top-10, we’d be in the running to win the whole enchilada.
February 24th, 2025 at 10:25 pm
Great post Joe!
Looking forward to the next one. Now your cooking!
February 24th, 2025 at 11:23 pm
Buc4evr
We are already in the illegal tampering period. It started right after the Super Bowl.
February 24th, 2025 at 11:36 pm
Leave it to beaver to read this and find a critique of the guy Spytek (who might know a little) named as the turning point hire. SMH.
Rhett Bomar.
February 25th, 2025 at 12:04 am
So, Jensen was the first domino. I have a list of potential 2nd through 78th moves ready to cut and paste, can’t wait for part II.
February 25th, 2025 at 12:11 am
Good read. Thank u.
February 25th, 2025 at 5:22 am
We’re blessed to have Jason and crew. Definitely the best gm of this franchise.
February 25th, 2025 at 7:31 am
We miss Jensen badly, We need a enforcer like that on both sides of the ball. I will always look at Logan Hall as the guy that took Jensen out and made him retire.
February 25th, 2025 at 8:07 am
Great post, Joe! Liked Jensen. Too bad he had gotten hurt.
February 25th, 2025 at 9:37 am
I think that Jihaad Campbell could be the guy to do for the defense what Jensen did for the offense (like JPP and Suh in the past.
February 25th, 2025 at 10:22 am
NICE ARTICLE …
It went so well they doubled down and brought in two more bad asses: Suh and JPP. They punted soft AF: McCoy, and America’s Clown: Winston.
This wasn’t just Licht. This was also Arians.
February 25th, 2025 at 12:27 pm
Loved Big Red, he brought it every play, every game.