Bucs Draft Board A State Secret
February 19th, 2015
Now it’s time for Leslie Frazier and others to dive in
Few eyeballs have seen the Buccaneers’ 2015 draft board.
Back in December, general manager Jason Licht announced his scouting staff gathered for intense meetings, set their draft board and little change was expected after that.
Yesterday in Indianapolis, Licht offered more detail of how the Bucs are approaching fine tuning their board. Speaking on SiriusXM NFL Radio with Rich Gannon and Bruce Murray, Licht explained that Bucs coaches have been forbidden from seeing the scouting staff’s draft rankings.
Coaches, he said, will get names of various prospects and then will study film and give their assessments unbiased by rankings.
Licht raved about “two rounds of meetings” and “extensive background work” by his scouting staff, and said now the coaches’ input comes into play.
“We already had our board set, then I need to get the coaches up to speed with these guys,” Licht said. “We don’t want them to see our rank right now, because we are collectively going to redo the board and make some tweaks, but I want them to know who the top players are, and let them start focusing on those top players.”
Joe wonders how the Tampa Bay scouts’ evaluation of a middle linebacker, for example, will compare to the picks from the eyeballs of Bucs icon and linebackers coach Hardy Nickerson, and seasoned defensive minds of Lovie Smith and Leslie Frazier.
The Bucs didn’t draft a defensive player last year, so Joe can’t even hazard much of a guess.
February 19th, 2015 at 9:21 am
Like the plan…..coaches look at prospects “unbiased”…..that is the best way to get feedback….
If Joe were HC….he would say “Winston is my number one choice….what’s yours?”
February 19th, 2015 at 9:33 am
Great point, I would think some of these coaches, if they were worth a hoot, would at least be able to recognize talent.
I can do it with golf, they should be able to do it with football.
February 19th, 2015 at 9:45 am
I won a stuffed animal this weekend at the fair where they had balloons all on a wall and you had to hit one with a dart.
I suspect their board is something like that with player names on the balloons.
February 19th, 2015 at 9:49 am
Robert 9 lol, your recent posts have been cracking me up, love it.
February 19th, 2015 at 9:53 am
Maybe there’s a scenario where we draft Leonard Williams and still get Winston?
Why are people so convinced that Winston is going to be drafted so high? What if he has a fall like Manziel or Bridgewater did last year?
February 19th, 2015 at 9:58 am
Lovie said yesterday him and his coaches will be fully involved in the draft process. That board will be flipped up side down once these coaches watch hours of film on these guys.
February 19th, 2015 at 10:00 am
@Robert 9: I wonder if they have corn dogs and elephant ears in the Bucs war room?
February 19th, 2015 at 10:07 am
Ha imagine that…Bucs coaches clueless. Don’t hear that too often.
February 19th, 2015 at 10:08 am
@ tom
my bet would be lovie has the corn dog and warhop has the elephant ears. why else is he still on the payroll?
February 19th, 2015 at 10:14 am
And then…they need to read these boards…
February 19th, 2015 at 10:27 am
Did they not do this “process” last year as well or being new to the Bucs organization, were they behind the power curve a bit?
February 19th, 2015 at 11:41 am
Sounds like an effective approach to me. Don’t bias the coaches opinions with the board the scouts and GM have set after tons of research. Let them look at these players with fresh eyes and compare their ultimate conclusions to your own. THEN have all the debates and conversations to adjust and fine tune the final draft board.
Anyone know if this is common practice in the NFL? – or is Licht being an innovator with this approach?
February 19th, 2015 at 1:18 pm
I would be very excited to get Denzel Perryman if he’s still there at 34th pick!
Got a bad attitude and a Napoleon complex from being short. He’s out to show the world! Our defense could use some “attitude” right in the middle.
February 19th, 2015 at 2:37 pm
At 2-14, how much praise can be heap unto this coaching staff? Offensive aside. Special team aside from the place kicker was terrible. The Defense give up huge plays regularly. Two early and huge blowouts. One to an awful Falcons team. There is no ICONS in coaching on the Bucs staff. They were failures. Nickerson was a Bucs Icon on the field.14 losses is a failure. The linebacker play was nothing special. You could blame the player from being out of position, but who put the player out there? I am not impressed with any of these coaches in doing there primary job of coaching. Did the defense improve from 2013? I don’t see it. They lost 14 games. Worst in the league. I hardly care about the evaluation skills of these coaches. They are the worst in the league until proven otherwise.
February 19th, 2015 at 4:32 pm
Robert 9, since it is so obvious you are a troll, what team do you really root for.