Building A Solid Roster
April 11th, 2020
Bucs GM Jason Licht.
Earlier this week, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht seemed pleased that his work is finally paying off to a degree that arguably the best quarterback who ever played wanted to play for the Bucs.
A guy who runs a salary cap-focused website agrees.
Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com told Sheil Kapadia of The Athletic that he’s impressed with Licht’s roster-building the past two seasons.
The Bucs brought back defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh on reasonable deals. And they wisely used the franchise tag on Shaq Barrett. Barrett had 14 sacks during his first five seasons in the NFL. He had 19.5 last season.
“That’s the perfect use of the franchise tag,” Fitzgerald said. “In his case you’re talking about someone that the league valued the year before at $4 million. You shouldn’t jump from being a $4 million player to a $20 million player just off of one season. So that makes sense to me that they did it that way. On paper, it’s a good offseason for them.”
The Bucs finished fifth in defensive efficiency last season. Now it’s a matter of whether Brady can get the offense on track with his new weapons.
To Joe there are two tricks to see how Brady plays for the Bucs. The first is how this offseason plays out.
Because of the sickness, there are no OTAs or a minicamp. There may not be a preseason either (so the sickness will actually be a blessing in disguise and maybe force owners to realize what a total joke preseason games are).
So how will a brand new quarterback, albeit a 20-year veteran of the NFL, develop cohesion with brand new teammates?
And of course, the elephant in the room is Father Time and when he comes knocking.
If Brady can manage those two potholes, the Bucs should be fine this fall.
April 11th, 2020 at 7:11 am
It seems to be a typo in the headline!!!!!!!! It should read “BUYING A Solid Roster”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is a very real possibility that only 4 or 5 starters will be left from opening day two short years ago!!!!!!!!!!! Is that building????? The “real” fans do not think so!!!!!!!!!! And ole stale biscuit better make the most out of this very short window!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because none of his excuses or finger pointing blame game will work this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or his stupid golf cart will end up at the bottom of Tampa Bay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
go bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 11th, 2020 at 7:16 am
I really don’t credit Licht for all of the sudden becoming a genius…..
I do give him credit for BA……but it’s BA & Bowles who are largely responsible for the Bucs roster………FAs Barrett, Suh & Perriman……now Brady…..
That coupled with White, SMB, Dean & Edwards…….great draft……
Looking forward to another one.
April 11th, 2020 at 7:20 am
Good morning to everybody, except the whiny sleep-ins. I’ll greet them around 11:30 or so.
You can harp all day long about Brady’s age. But you can’t argue the fact that the guy is in phenomenal shape and takes care of his health and well being. He’s never shown up out of shape and his one motivation is winning.
But the new term being thrown around by some of the whiny sleep-ins is bandwagon. I’m guessing that’s some kind of backhanded comment from the JW loyalists. As if we just now became Bucs fans and didn’t drink ourselves into oblivion last season doing shots every time JW threw an interception.
Whatever helps the sleep-ins stay in bed curled up in a ball crying about Mr 30-30, I guess. The rest of us have moved on and look forward to actually winning a meaningful game for a change. Division contender in December.
April 11th, 2020 at 7:30 am
@tampabaybucfan
You are already claiming great drafts that was not even a year ago already??????? Why don’t you just handout to the whole roster a trophy!!!!!!!! Or better yet, they can hang a banner claiming that they are the “Intercontinental champions”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At best they came around after a very poor start with another two years until grades come in!!!!!!!!! In reality they struggled as rookies and looked better against a very soft end of the schedule who faced back up QB’s!!!!!!!!!
You want a quick grade tampabaybuc fan??? Well the “real” fans give you an “F” for your bad take!!!!!!!!!!!!
go bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 11th, 2020 at 7:41 am
Hey joe what do you guys think of Justin Herbert? Any opinions does Ira like him?
April 11th, 2020 at 7:50 am
Excited for Mt Vea in year 3. I hope, if one of the big 4 OTs is not there, we can snap up a big nasty to rotate on the D line. Interior or edge, gold jacket/ green jacket, who gives a ish?
April 11th, 2020 at 7:56 am
Licht should be a draft analyst for a youtube channel and thats about it; he drafts like he throwing darts at a pool table
April 11th, 2020 at 7:57 am
Glad we have BA and his henchmen. Glad we have Brady for a couple years too.
Perhaps, if all the French players/pas rushers are gone by 14- we can trade back and bring in a RB/QB/OT in the first 2 rounds?
Excited to see our team this year.
Joe- do you consider the WWACF factor? (wins without alarm clock font). It’s gotta be the extra .69% to get us over the hump!
April 11th, 2020 at 7:57 am
French=trench*
April 11th, 2020 at 8:09 am
WWACF – LOL!
April 11th, 2020 at 8:23 am
Well after you look at Licht’s 2016 draft, he can’t go anywhere but up. To his credit he has. Right now we should be enjoying OTA’s, and mini camps mixed in the next two months. Then comes the long month of July with nothing. Look at now as our July. These guys still have plenty of time to work together during the long months of July, and August to hopefully prepare for the season. With players looking to work out in what might be unsafe places, the league needs to allow players back at team facilities. It can be done in a safe way, with only so many being able to work out at a time. In the next two months hopefully the NFL would be able to test every player who comes in every day.
April 11th, 2020 at 8:32 am
Trade down get three picks in the first. Draft the best offensive tackle in third round. Sign either peters or dotson for transition. A first round tackle is going to have some issues I don’t care who he is.
April 11th, 2020 at 8:37 am
Licht is doing a solid job.
April 11th, 2020 at 8:46 am
Allbuccedup Says:
April 11th, 2020 at 8:32 am
“Trade down get three picks in the first. Draft the best offensive tackle in third round.”
Well, that’s just not realistic at all. Maybe if we had a top 5 pick, but not at 14.
April 11th, 2020 at 8:53 am
Joe,
Maybe I missed your article on it but wasn’t one of the most interesting things from a football perspective that Brady said on Stern’s show was:
“I don’t have any trust that this guy can help us win the game. If you put him out there, I’m going not to throw him the ball,” Brady said, relaying what he’d tell Belichick.
April 11th, 2020 at 9:01 am
Here is a reality check for you all on the draft:
“Pats have not drafted a Pro Bowl Player since 2013” PFT
The great Belicheat and his rep as the ultimate roster builder. We have had several in that time. I am not a huge Licht fan, but this clearly shows the difficulty/crap shoot in selecting college kids to make a team with. I think you have to give him a little more credit TBBF.
@Realist, if Licht was not “Buying” some FAs, you would be Bit* ching about that. So “buying” and adding to a few good draft picks is what is making the Bucs roster look good to the GOAT
April 11th, 2020 at 9:11 am
I find the fact that 1st RD picks are a 50/50 proposition after 3 years. Thats for all teams. Another constant is many of the high prospects coming out of college are not NFL ready. In fact with spread offenses and focus on the passing game many NFl Teams are converting to college style offenses. Many of the recent rule changes that protect the QB and WR’s are changing the complexion of the draft. Finally with the increased concern about concussions and player safety a draft pick may be analyzed for his technique over his aggressiveness. My son and I were discussing the great John Lynch and the way he played vrs. todays rules. Would you draft a player who loves to put his head down and hurt a defenseless player? I agree Licht has picked some losers, but the game has changed over the last 5 years.
April 11th, 2020 at 9:11 am
Realist(o) is just taking out his frustration over being so patently wrong about ‘ol “pressbox Smitty”. In fact, his prognostications have been rendered unreadable by most. You’d be better off counting !!! than reading his posts!!!
April 11th, 2020 at 9:18 am
Trade Tom Brady, and get one of the young Quarterbacks,however no one wants a ARP quarterback. How is this a better roster,then last year, only thing added is a old washed up quarterback. NFC defense’s will eat Brady up,you can only throw slant passes for so long before defenses fine away to take it away. Def. Coordinators are watching film on Brady,however the best defense they have is old age.
April 11th, 2020 at 9:22 am
@
Realist….
I have come to find that no matter what I post….you will have a negative comment……I consider that a compliment…..
April 11th, 2020 at 9:25 am
Buc bonzai my bad I ment trade down for an extra 2nd round pick and lower first.
April 11th, 2020 at 9:28 am
Ed that was so boring that’s the best you????????
I wish ndog hurry up and wakes up because Mr Ed right here sucks at trolling😂
April 11th, 2020 at 9:28 am
Got
April 11th, 2020 at 9:41 am
“Youngbucs says” Has nothing no rebuttal because he know I am telling the truth.
April 11th, 2020 at 9:42 am
Mr Ed old or not he is still the best QB the bucs have ever had.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:07 am
The same way Tim Brown was the best WR the Bucs had prior to Evans.
April 11th, 2020 at 10:08 am
#FilmDontLie#
#NoMorePityParty
April 11th, 2020 at 10:09 am
Stanglassman that is so weak you guys suck today
April 11th, 2020 at 10:11 am
I don’t even have to go to far back for this weak spit you talking lol
Vincent Jackson 🥱
April 11th, 2020 at 10:25 am
Stranglehold we are talking about Tom Brady not Tim Brown no comparison
April 11th, 2020 at 11:00 am
El Buco Fake-A-Leasto needs to sign on in someone else’s name to make it look like she’s got a supporter.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:04 am
This team has no depth at any position lol.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:05 am
Relying on DB’s that played well for like four games LOL. A guy off the street taking most of the snaps at Safety, during that time.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:07 am
Overpaid/Inconsistent OL. Running backs…. LOL. Godwin/Evans goes down, this team is below average… Vea/Suh OVERRATED. Should I keep going?
April 11th, 2020 at 11:08 am
Dont pat yourself on the back quite yet JL. You’re record as a GM is still sub 500. If you dont make the playoffs this year you’ll be out of job. At least I hope so. Brady came here because of BA.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:11 am
The fact that this team has REFUSED to rebuild and tells themselves every season “We are trying to win now”…. makes Licht’s W-L record even more pathetic.
ADMIT THIS TEAM IS NOT A SB TEAM, ADMIT IT!!! (Sam Kinison voice)
April 11th, 2020 at 11:47 am
The team doesn’t have depth at TE? ILB? We do need depth at most positions, though.
April 11th, 2020 at 11:54 am
Licht Brain is on the HOT SEAT and rightfully so.
April 11th, 2020 at 12:10 pm
All the more reason to draft a running back early in this draft. If the passing game is not in sync we better have a solid running game to fall back on. I’m sure TB12 would agree.
April 11th, 2020 at 12:18 pm
No depth? What a awful awful take. How can you even determine that in May? What a joke.
What are you looking at a paper roster? That’s not what matters. What matters is if your team can make good personal decision and if they can develope players.
So what do we need for depth? OLB? Umm yeah we just signed Shaq Barrett last year. I think they know how to find quality players there.
What else we need? Corners……Well they just did a good job developing young players so don’t be surprised if somebody like Mazzi Wilkins emerges onto the roster and is solid.
Nunez Roaches turned into a solid depth player and Gholston turned into a key player. DL seems to be in good hands.
Even OL shouldn’t be a huge worry. They developed Cappa and Watford was a solid player they brought in. Don’t be surprised if this Haeg guy is a good player too.
We have the main compenents of building depth with is good personal decisions and developement………Now we add more pieces and keep developing and the bottom of the roster gets stronger.
Depth needs to be grown. It don’t just magically appear.
April 11th, 2020 at 12:21 pm
Etzel just said our run defense is overrated. Clearly this guy is touched in the head.
April 11th, 2020 at 12:25 pm
Can we pleases just give Realist a job at One Buc as some kind of assistant to Jason Licht just so he feels important and stops complaining about everything good that this ream has and praising the bad
April 11th, 2020 at 12:42 pm
JJ
You beat me to it…yeah somebody obviously peed in Etzel’s cheerios this morning so he decided to take it out on us.
That was a great defense of our depth. Probably average around the league..
NO NFL teams have great depth since the salary cap era.
Our OL was basically ranked in the top 10 of most “reviewers”. Good in passpro bad in run blocking. But that was last year…this year we obviously need an RT unless BA truly believes Haeg at 6-6 300lbs is his starter.
The team admits that we NEED another RB…I think we need two.
After that we are thin at safety…this team is very close to being a COMPLETE team. We have plenty of leadership on the D…from the vocal..JPP and D. White to the quiet lead by example…Suh and LVD.
Now we have leadership on the offense. TB12 and I think Marpet is finally emerging in that role for the OL.
April 11th, 2020 at 1:16 pm
Any idea on Kendall Beckwith or Justin Evans? Will they ever play football again?
April 11th, 2020 at 2:04 pm
Beckwith? Wouldn’t bet on it.
Evans? Maybe, but why would any team bank on him?
April 11th, 2020 at 3:53 pm
“Because of the sickness, there are no OTAs or a minicamp. There may not be a preseason either”….Joe
You guys amaze me. Here you have Joe admitting no OTAs and minicamp and maybe no pre-season. But, you guys are all raring to go on regular season. I don’t want to sound like a troll, but >>>There is NOT to be a 2020 NFL season! Where is the real realist in this crowd when we really need him?
April 11th, 2020 at 4:30 pm
Jason Licht is the luckiest GM in the league
April 11th, 2020 at 8:12 pm
“Build” is definitely the right verb when looking at last 2 drafts… the only real gripe might be MJ Stewart. Sure there are plenty of picks you might want to change with 20/20 hindsight but that’s nit picking when you look at overall contribution.
The “buy” part has been pretty nifty too with JPP, Shaq and Suh.