Fears Of Drafting Offensive Linemen
March 25th, 2025
“Mark, we’re very different.”
Those who often find themselves thinking about Bucs history, moves and non-moves, will be intrigued by this admission.
The guy running the show before Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht took over, Mark Dominik (2009-2013), wanted no part of drafting offensive linemen.
It wasn’t just that drafts didn’t break Dominik’s way when it came to the O-line. Dominik told Sumer Sports recently that he didn’t feel confident effectively scouting college offensive linemen, so he chose to build his Bucs lines with veterans and in-house players.
Dominik called himself “a big offensive line nerd” but acknowledged scouting offensive line is risky business.
“The problem is when you’re evaluating these [offensive linemen] in college, right, they’re going against 18- or 19-year-old kids or maybe 22-year-old kids, but they’re not going against a 28-year-old defensive linemen who’s been in the league for seven years, who’s a dude,” Dominik said. “And so seeing that and watching that play out makes offensive line a lot harder [to evaluate]. I didn’t draft many offensive linemen. I did what [former Giants assistant GM] Marc Ross talked about, I either kept our own or went and bought them from somewhere else. But I wasn’t going to go, ‘Let’s go risk a pick. Let’s go risk a pick.'”
Dominik drafted one offensive lineman during his time in Tampa, a fifth-round pick that never played in a game.
This isn’t Joe slamming Dominik, just illustrating how much things have changed under Licht, who is an offensive line wizard, a man who salivates over drafting small school linemen.
It’s a tough position to evaluate and Bucs fans have been spoiled by Licht’s prowess.
Back in 2012, Joe loved Dominik’s free agent signing of All-Pro left guard Carl Nicks. The guy was a human armoire and only 27 years old, but a bad toe injury and MRSA ended his career in a hurry.
Somewhat ironically, the first two guards off the board late in the 2012 draft turned out to be studs, David DeCastro and Kevin Zeitler.
March 25th, 2025 at 10:41 am
Well it’s a D draft and we all wanna win now so hopefully no OL are picked early.
We don’t need a bench warmer this season, we need a guy who can be effective on the field with lots of snaps.
If the draft broke wrong for the Bucs though, I wouldn’t be mad about drafting a guy who could potentially start at RT. Love Luke but with the scary concussion and a large $ tag coming next year… building through the trenches remains the proper course.
March 25th, 2025 at 10:41 am
Why draft an offensive lineman when you can sign Anthony Collins lol.
Dominik is a joke. Signing J.J. Wilcox, Gary Gibson, Bruce Carter early in free agency….Facepalm. Worst GM since Gay Culverhouse.
March 25th, 2025 at 10:57 am
I don’t ever remember feeling so good about the roster before the draft. I wouldn’t be upset if we already had our starting 22 in place. Draft for future and depth. Replacements for over 30 crowd, ILB, NT, WR. Add depth in S and CB room. Hope to strike gold in Rd 7 and UDFAs.
March 25th, 2025 at 10:57 am
Not advocating or expecting it…just not discounting the possibility of Zabel at #19 and Bredeson to swing man. If a GM believes in being elite in the trenches for several years, probably tempting.
March 25th, 2025 at 11:04 am
Well, duh. This is the same moron who decided not to draft Cam Jordan because he talked too much in the cafeteria. There’s a reason he’s out of football with a 28-52 record, including notable accomplishments like giving Michael Clayton $25 large to block (“check is in the bank”), running off Michael Bennett, giving up the farm for Darrelle Revis when the Jets we’re going to cut him then paying him $16 large to rehab his knee, and many many more.
The dude is unlistenable on the league’s SXM channel. He babbles and burbles watered down takes while dodging any accountability for any position he might have. What a buffoon.
March 25th, 2025 at 11:22 am
“A mean man who salivates over drafting small school lineman” that is what makes Licht even more impressive. He has done a really good job at talent evaluation at that level. The talent the small school guys go up against is dismal talent, UPS drivers and waiters, so to be able to sort through that is pretty impressive.
March 25th, 2025 at 11:28 am
I go back to the 2019 draft.
That year that Bucs were coming off a season with Donovan Smith and Demar Dotson as our two tackles.
The top tackle in the draft was Jonah Williams of Alabama. All the mock drafts had him going as the 1st tackle.
On these boards – the Joe Bucs fans wanted him over Devin White.
Shout out to DR who said he followed Alabama and said Williams was not worth the 1st round pick.
But what was worse from all the fans on the board – is that Licht did not pick a tackle in the 2nd round — or any of the rounds. The GM trusted his gut that it was a bad draft for OL. By the way – he was correct. Not one OT from that class has even made one pro bowl.
But the dude (Licht) was ready to pounce the next year — probably had someone else with a good grade besides Wirfs – we will never know — but showed he was bold enough to make the pick happen — even giving up an extra 4th to make sure of it.
His other OL picks have hit at an amazing rate. Cappa has gotten 2 big contracts since leaving here.
Marpet, Jensen, Cappa, Goedeke, Wirfs, Barton, Maugh. Nice.
March 25th, 2025 at 11:29 am
It’ll be interesting to see how Licht does now without Spytek.
And while I do give give our scouts a lot of credit for drafting o-linemen, there seem to be a lot of comments of how often they ‘find diamonds in the rough or hit on late round linemen’. All the successful o-line we’ve drafted have been first and second rounders, with a slightly-above average G in the 3rd.
March 25th, 2025 at 11:42 am
Give him credit for drafting David in the 2nd… negative marks for Barron in the first round of head of Lavonte.
Doug Martin and Gerald McCoy were about as good as it got after that.
This final draft was his best one with David and Martin.
March 25th, 2025 at 11:53 am
Lee Jackson. Gay Culverhouse wasn’t a Bucs GM. She was up there in the Bucs executives in the early 90s but no GM. I’d go with Bruce Allan as the worst since. There’s a long list of sh!t Bucs GMs to choose from so it’s a tough choice.
No excuse for Dominic not having a senior scout who specializes in OL evaluations with so many resources available to him. That’s a disheartening story for us fans to read about the state of affairs back then.
March 25th, 2025 at 11:54 am
He drafted Lavonte David
And Joe called for Lavonte David.
I forgive Dom for everything because he drafted Lavonte David!
March 25th, 2025 at 11:57 am
Hearty Dikerson — Just look at the Offensive Lineman taken near where Licht hit on Offensive lineman and you will see how much better he did than the average GM.
March 25th, 2025 at 12:00 pm
If you don’t have confidence in the ability of you and your scouts to evaluate offensive linemen, what the hell are you doing as a GM?
March 25th, 2025 at 12:16 pm
What he is saying about offensive linemen being hard to evaluate because they are going against kids in college is true about evaluating any position at the college level.
March 25th, 2025 at 12:35 pm
LOL – Every pick of every draft was “risky business” when Dom was doing the selecting……
Dude drafted exactly 3 good players for this team in FIVE years….
McCoy, Lavonte David and Gholston. I guess the Molly Hamster was also ‘good’ for 2 out of 6 seasons….
March 25th, 2025 at 12:39 pm
I feel Licht has the same deficit on the other side of the ball and has used the same tactic to fill the edge rush, which I’m ok with. He has done pretty well at DT but we seem to be unable to evaluate edge. Licht is a great GM, so glad we have him
March 25th, 2025 at 1:23 pm
I spent Dominik’s entire tenure screaming for us to draft OL and DL… I feel like those are positions you can grab every single year in the draft (along with WR and CB).
Football is won and lost in the trenches, but the Pop Star didn’t understand that.
Anyone remember “building the defense from the back” LOL? Just an absurd strategy. So glad those horrible days are over with.
March 25th, 2025 at 1:24 pm
Also you can say the same thing about pretty much every position… they’re all going against other college kids FFS…
March 25th, 2025 at 1:34 pm
Dominik is the “Air Supply” of GMs.
March 25th, 2025 at 1:35 pm
Seth McLaughlin if hes there in the 5th…..(im name dropping joeinmich dont read this)
March 25th, 2025 at 1:40 pm
Yea I don’t get how Dominick didn’t get better scouts then for the oline. We are deff spoiled cause of Jason. Also great teams build from the trenches back. Thank you Jason
March 25th, 2025 at 2:01 pm
We have the best drafting GM when it comes to linemen
March 25th, 2025 at 2:07 pm
Worst Bucs GM was Phil Krueger. No competition there.
March 25th, 2025 at 2:29 pm
OUCH! LOL
March 25th, 2025 at 2:54 pm
When you don’t draft and develop O and D lines, you end up with the Den if Depression and Lost Years.
Dominik was a god-awful GM.
March 25th, 2025 at 3:12 pm
^ yeah, that cb signing he did, cant think of his name but dude got paid…eric or something like that…Mark had some doozies
March 25th, 2025 at 3:19 pm
eric wright, march 2012, uhg….brought up some old posts from then during that search…too funny
March 25th, 2025 at 3:33 pm
Dominik’s record as our GM was 28-52. Not good.
March 25th, 2025 at 6:25 pm
Licht is an offensive lineman savant, so it’s hard to compare anyone to him without them looking like a schmuck.
March 26th, 2025 at 2:42 am
Comparing Dominik to the guys who put my roof on would be about right. Otherwise it is not worth my brain power to think about. Mr Psych tests in the cafeteria should never be mentioned in the same sentence as Licht.
Go Bucs!
March 26th, 2025 at 6:46 pm
Great story Joe. It shows how fortunate we are to have JL, and how spoiled we are.