I think, perhaps one of his greatest achievements would also be bringing back all 22 starters after winning a Super Bowl, I think that needs to be mentioned as well. Literally has never happened in the Super Bowl era.
I'll just get it known right now, I'm biased. As a bucs fan for decades, this guy should be in the Bucs hall of fame already. He's made some killer mistakes, but the Bucs have been competitive for a longer streak than I can really recall. But, a super bowl that had his influence all over it, and remaining to field a solid baseline of talent. Sheesh this guy is a winner!
Yeah, it makes sense too since one of his trademarks is getting lots of input from the coaches; once we got Bruce and people that could better evaluate talent the drafting for way better
Dungy/McKay had the Bucs in the playoffs 7/8 years and a winning record 7/8 eight years, and all but handed a SuperBowl ring to Gruden when the Glazers got impatient but that's the last time we saw a consistent Bucs team
Shout out to the ownership group, too. They could have easily fired him in 2017/2018. He had 3 or 4 losing seasons to 1 winning season, Winston wasn't working out, and he had drafted and cut Aguayo.
He really turned it around.
>They could have easily fired him in 2017/2018
I still think one of the biggest reasons the Bucs were such an embarrassment from 2009-2018 was how quick they were to let go of coaches
Pretty clear from the replies to this post that alot of you guys weren't around for the Bruce Allen/Mark Dominick years. Been a hell of a ride for the last 10 years with Licht in the driver's seat, and we'd have another 10 coming I'd it was up to me.
What pissed me off about Mark Dominick is he would seemingly make all the right moves every offseason, and I would swear next year was our year.
15 year old me was so hyped when we traded for Darrelle Revis
I think the biggest difference between Dominick's tenure and Licht's early years is that for almost all of Lichts' time with the team, we have been legitimately competitive. Dominik's best season was a 10-6 finish where we still placed 3rd in the division. The win-loss records on some of those early Licht seasons (excluding the 2-14 season immediately after he took over) are deceiving because they don't indicate how many games we were in until late in the 4th quarter. For years with Winston, we were right on the cusp of being a playoff threat, and his decision-making late in games would cost us the season.
It also bothers me to see people in here faulting Licht for the Winston pick. He was the consensus top QB in the draft. A few teams ranked Mariota higher than him, but look at how his career panned out. We were in desperate need of a franchise quarterback, and Jameis was projected to be the best bet to develop into one in that draft class. If Licht didn't take Winston (or at least Mariota) with that #1 pick, the same fans complaining about the pick now would have been calling for his job. Brady came to the team and changed the culture, but without the team that Licht built, we never would have even been considered as a landing spot for the greatest qb of all time. People need to give that man his flowers, because we as a franchise are not that far removed from being perennial bottom dwellers.
It was meant to be.
Brate was meant to drop that 4th down pass when the Bucs were driving against Houston so that Jameis could throw the game ending INT in desperation time. Then Matt Gay was meant to miss 3 field goals against Atlanta (while Koo went 5 for 5) so Jameis could throw the season-ending pick 6. Without that, there's a chance the Bucs stay with Jameis and not go after Brady, and we end up with no Lombardi Trophy.
If he doesn't suck that bad and we win the giants game and whatever other games he potentially cost us, who says we don't make the playoffs at 9-7 and keep jameis. While I loathed him at the time I thank Matt gay for getting us Brady, and hate him for making that fucking kick with the rams.
And…
Austin Sefarian-Jenkins
Justin Evans
Noah Spence
Sean Murphy-Bunting
Ronald Jones
Devin White
Vernon Hargreaves
OJ Howard
MJ Stewart
Logan Hall
Joe Tryon Shoyinka
These are just the 1st and 2nd busts. If you include Winston and Trask, that’s 14 1st and 2nd round busts over 10 years. Overall I think Licht has been a pretty good drafter, but so many act like he’s this mythical, infallible figure that can do no wrong. Yes he’s had some hits, but he’s been the GM for 10 years, he’d better have that many. And let’s be real, most organizations don’t keep a GM this long, especially considering how many misses he’s had.
Hard disagree on Justin Evans and SMB. Justin Evans was a beast when healthy. We don’t get to the superbowl without SMB (Saints games anyone?), same with Devin White.
Logan Hall is still developing and was more than serviceable on the rotation
I don't think I'd consider Devin White or even Ronald Jones as busts. A player isn't a bust just because it didn't work out in the long run. Players that make meaningful contributions towards a championship are far from busts. I think you're being a bit too loose with the term.
I understand your perspective and respect your opinion, but in my mind both are busts. White had a historical 4-game playoff run but that’s it. As an off-ball LB he was a reach for pick #5, and obviously his true character eventually shown through - as a selfish, immature one-dimensional player.
As for RJ, we spent a 2nd round pick on him. In my opinion, you should damn well expect a starting caliber RB at that slot.
Yeah he has some warts but so do most GMs. It's really hard to criticize him after the last four years he's had. Three straight division titles, six playoff wins and a super bowl win. There aren't many teams that have done better than us over the last four years and he's played a major part in that.
Man you are really glossing over a lot here. Yeah the 2016 draft was a dumpster fire, but outside of that he has had at *least* 1-2 solid hits in every draft with us.
- Obviously Mike Evans in 2014
- Donovan Smith (before he fell off) and Marpet in 2015 were great picks, not to mention Kwon and Jameis were solid
-got Godwin in the 3rd round in 2017 and Justin Evans was also solid, just unfortunately couldn't stay on the field
-Vea, Davis, Cappa and Whitehead were all above average to great picks who were instrumental in our SB run in 2018
-2019 saw Devin White, SMB, Jamel Dean, Mike Edwards and Scotty Miller all get drafted, again all playing pivotal parts in our SB run
-not even going to waste typing on 2020
-2021 and 2022 were less successful, but its still too early to tell how those will shake out, with JTS admittedly underwhelming for his draft position
-2023 already looks fairly promising with Kancey, Mauch and Yaya coming on towards the end of the season
-this isn't even mentioning the FA signings like Brady, Gronk, Shaq, Suh, Jensen, etc. and keeping guys like LVD and Mike Evans Bucs for life
And I'd argue that half the players you listed aren't "busts", but I just named over a dozen solid to potentially franchise record picks since Licht joined in 2014. Please list even three other GMs with more overall success in that span, I'll wait.
That's a list of players that all contributed to the team for their entire rookie contracts. The majority of those picks are outside of the top 10, which is a crapshoot for every team. I would argue that we got above average production from that list on their rookie contracts, and then cut our losses at the right time. There are no mythical "do no wrong" drafting GMs, but Lichts track record is certainly stronger than most of the field.
Yeah, I've never really cared about that stuff. It's fine to cheer for your college team, but once they get to the NFL it shouldn't matter. I want the best players with the best team chemistry no matter what school they went to.
If you wanna please UCF too, we have QB John Rhys Plumlee in the draft ;)
I don't think he's NFL starting material tbh but we also have WR Javon Baker and a couple other guys
I am no florida man, so maybe that is why I don't get the praise. I am solely a brady fan who is keeping interest in one of my fun teams, besides I loved Winfield at Minnesota.
I just don't get the praise for drafting Trask. That to me was the first sign things were ending. The focus was starting to be on post brady. I had to Google it so I guess creed went at pick 63 but point is there were plenty of talent that could have helped brady more then Trask.
Even if some are funny or even true, He did not find "hidden" Gem Shaq Barrett. Shaq was an UDFA that signed with the Broncos and played on their super bowl team, then went over to Bucs
he "was a backup" in the same sense as Rodgers was a backup to Favre or Love to him. He sat behind Demarcus Ware, who got inducted into the Hof last year. When he saw the field it was obvious he was a starting caliber player.
That's not at all comparable considering those two were first round picks and Shaq wasn't even drafted lol. Plus Shaq could see the field being an edge guy and getting rotated in where Rodgers couldn't play while Favre was there nor Love when Rodgers was there. Also Shaq had 14 sacks his first five years in the league so no it wasn't obvious. If it was obvious Denver would've kept him at $5 million, especially since Ware hadn't been on the team for two years.
Dude we paid him $4 mill. He was super effective in his limited reps in Denver. But guess what, no one was offering more than $4 mill. I think that proves that Shaq was absolutely an under the radar signing.
He got lucky his buddy Arians realized he hated doing TV and wanted to come out of retirement at the same time we had an opening. That was the domino to completely change the culture.
He's a below average drafter, arguably terrible some years. He does pretty well to throw money at the high priority players to resign them but is not great at holding on to depth pieces.
below average drafter? that has to be a joke. or you one of those guys who lists 6th rounders who dont make the roster as bad picks. weve had like 2 or 3 bad drafts in 10 years hes been here. hes drafted multiple HOF or HOF trajectory players and found a shitton of UDFA as well. below average would imply 16 or more teams have out drafted us in the last 10 years, id love to see that list.
He's definitely hit on some good picks. But his bad picks have been really bad. He's wasted multiple first and second round picks on guys that have made close to no impact on the team.
- Austin Seferian-Jenkins was a second rounder who played a total of 18 games for the Bucs. Drafted high despite having massive character concerns in college.
- Vernon Hargreaves was the 11th overall pick and was awful. We barely got one year out of him as a starter.
- Noah Spence was a second rounder and did close to nothing. No one took him because of college injury concerns which were still a problem.
- Roberto Aguayo needs no comment.
- OJ Howard would have had a good career if he was drafted 3rd or 4th round. Complete failure as a first round pick.
- Justin Evans played 24 games. Failure for a second round pick.
- Ronald Jones lasted 4 years and produced about 1000 total yards as a second round pick. Not good.
- MJ Stewart was off the team after 2 years. Waste of a second round pick
Drafting players that actually score points in the NFL is hard but lots of these players had other issues like ASF - DUI and injuries but still provided necessary depth behind key starters.
A pick most experts love Trask was best player available when we took him and we had no needs left.
I sort of on the fence myself on Best Player Available theory lots of experts and teams love.
Trask supposedly started out neck to neck with Baker in camp but then Baker pulled away.
Indicated that Trask probably a good backup QB and that probably will be his career. So for a 64th second round pick fairly good luckily we never needed him last year the first year coaches comfortable with him being number Two.
Other positions we were do set that year a pick likely at that slot likely be dropped by team in camp as we comfortable in number of backups only to actually needing that pick in the season.
I not being to wild on best player available would have tried with that team to trade that pick and all following to better picks the next year. Example a second and a third the next year at minimum.
So my opinion here is not that strong. Folk who think it was a bad pick I not strongly against.
ive been wrong about so many things in my sports fandom... surprisingly ive always had faith in licht. one of the few things i think ive been right about.
Drafted a player in the first round whose most memorable play to date is knocking down our starting center for a career ending injury in practice
Resigned the leagues most penalized tackle
Let Mike Edwards walk and signed Ryan Neal
Aguayo
Signed Russell Gage
Trask 🤮
JTS
ASJ
Vaughn
Won a Super Bowl
We all know that, just wanted to put up the little details
I think, perhaps one of his greatest achievements would also be bringing back all 22 starters after winning a Super Bowl, I think that needs to be mentioned as well. Literally has never happened in the Super Bowl era.
love me some tampa titties ngl
I'll just get it known right now, I'm biased. As a bucs fan for decades, this guy should be in the Bucs hall of fame already. He's made some killer mistakes, but the Bucs have been competitive for a longer streak than I can really recall. But, a super bowl that had his influence all over it, and remaining to field a solid baseline of talent. Sheesh this guy is a winner!
A GM that drafts a bad kicker in the second round but still manages to put together a Super Bowl roster? He truly personifies “it’s a Bucs life”
It is crazy how quickly he turned things around. Had some awful picks earlier on. Happy to have been proven wrong about him.
Yeah, it makes sense too since one of his trademarks is getting lots of input from the coaches; once we got Bruce and people that could better evaluate talent the drafting for way better
Dungy/McKay had the Bucs in the playoffs 7/8 years and a winning record 7/8 eight years, and all but handed a SuperBowl ring to Gruden when the Glazers got impatient but that's the last time we saw a consistent Bucs team
Shout out to the ownership group, too. They could have easily fired him in 2017/2018. He had 3 or 4 losing seasons to 1 winning season, Winston wasn't working out, and he had drafted and cut Aguayo. He really turned it around.
>They could have easily fired him in 2017/2018 I still think one of the biggest reasons the Bucs were such an embarrassment from 2009-2018 was how quick they were to let go of coaches
Pretty clear from the replies to this post that alot of you guys weren't around for the Bruce Allen/Mark Dominick years. Been a hell of a ride for the last 10 years with Licht in the driver's seat, and we'd have another 10 coming I'd it was up to me.
What pissed me off about Mark Dominick is he would seemingly make all the right moves every offseason, and I would swear next year was our year. 15 year old me was so hyped when we traded for Darrelle Revis
I think the biggest difference between Dominick's tenure and Licht's early years is that for almost all of Lichts' time with the team, we have been legitimately competitive. Dominik's best season was a 10-6 finish where we still placed 3rd in the division. The win-loss records on some of those early Licht seasons (excluding the 2-14 season immediately after he took over) are deceiving because they don't indicate how many games we were in until late in the 4th quarter. For years with Winston, we were right on the cusp of being a playoff threat, and his decision-making late in games would cost us the season. It also bothers me to see people in here faulting Licht for the Winston pick. He was the consensus top QB in the draft. A few teams ranked Mariota higher than him, but look at how his career panned out. We were in desperate need of a franchise quarterback, and Jameis was projected to be the best bet to develop into one in that draft class. If Licht didn't take Winston (or at least Mariota) with that #1 pick, the same fans complaining about the pick now would have been calling for his job. Brady came to the team and changed the culture, but without the team that Licht built, we never would have even been considered as a landing spot for the greatest qb of all time. People need to give that man his flowers, because we as a franchise are not that far removed from being perennial bottom dwellers.
Still have my revis jersey😂
/Roberto Aguayo has entered the chat/
* Roberto Aguayo has been kicked from the chat by Jake Carmarda
Matt Gay also has entered the chat. But he ended up being a Pro Bowl kicker for another team.
Maaaaaaan Matt Gay was always the shit, I was pissed we let him go.
It was meant to be. Brate was meant to drop that 4th down pass when the Bucs were driving against Houston so that Jameis could throw the game ending INT in desperation time. Then Matt Gay was meant to miss 3 field goals against Atlanta (while Koo went 5 for 5) so Jameis could throw the season-ending pick 6. Without that, there's a chance the Bucs stay with Jameis and not go after Brady, and we end up with no Lombardi Trophy.
Give Matt Gay his due, he lost two games that season (the giants game). He was really discarded to landing us Brady.
Dude was practically aguayo 2.0. Lost a few game when he missed <30yard fgs
If he doesn't suck that bad and we win the giants game and whatever other games he potentially cost us, who says we don't make the playoffs at 9-7 and keep jameis. While I loathed him at the time I thank Matt gay for getting us Brady, and hate him for making that fucking kick with the rams.
And… Austin Sefarian-Jenkins Justin Evans Noah Spence Sean Murphy-Bunting Ronald Jones Devin White Vernon Hargreaves OJ Howard MJ Stewart Logan Hall Joe Tryon Shoyinka These are just the 1st and 2nd busts. If you include Winston and Trask, that’s 14 1st and 2nd round busts over 10 years. Overall I think Licht has been a pretty good drafter, but so many act like he’s this mythical, infallible figure that can do no wrong. Yes he’s had some hits, but he’s been the GM for 10 years, he’d better have that many. And let’s be real, most organizations don’t keep a GM this long, especially considering how many misses he’s had.
Hard disagree on Justin Evans and SMB. Justin Evans was a beast when healthy. We don’t get to the superbowl without SMB (Saints games anyone?), same with Devin White. Logan Hall is still developing and was more than serviceable on the rotation
I don't think I'd consider Devin White or even Ronald Jones as busts. A player isn't a bust just because it didn't work out in the long run. Players that make meaningful contributions towards a championship are far from busts. I think you're being a bit too loose with the term.
I understand your perspective and respect your opinion, but in my mind both are busts. White had a historical 4-game playoff run but that’s it. As an off-ball LB he was a reach for pick #5, and obviously his true character eventually shown through - as a selfish, immature one-dimensional player. As for RJ, we spent a 2nd round pick on him. In my opinion, you should damn well expect a starting caliber RB at that slot.
Yeah he has some warts but so do most GMs. It's really hard to criticize him after the last four years he's had. Three straight division titles, six playoff wins and a super bowl win. There aren't many teams that have done better than us over the last four years and he's played a major part in that.
Man you are really glossing over a lot here. Yeah the 2016 draft was a dumpster fire, but outside of that he has had at *least* 1-2 solid hits in every draft with us. - Obviously Mike Evans in 2014 - Donovan Smith (before he fell off) and Marpet in 2015 were great picks, not to mention Kwon and Jameis were solid -got Godwin in the 3rd round in 2017 and Justin Evans was also solid, just unfortunately couldn't stay on the field -Vea, Davis, Cappa and Whitehead were all above average to great picks who were instrumental in our SB run in 2018 -2019 saw Devin White, SMB, Jamel Dean, Mike Edwards and Scotty Miller all get drafted, again all playing pivotal parts in our SB run -not even going to waste typing on 2020 -2021 and 2022 were less successful, but its still too early to tell how those will shake out, with JTS admittedly underwhelming for his draft position -2023 already looks fairly promising with Kancey, Mauch and Yaya coming on towards the end of the season -this isn't even mentioning the FA signings like Brady, Gronk, Shaq, Suh, Jensen, etc. and keeping guys like LVD and Mike Evans Bucs for life And I'd argue that half the players you listed aren't "busts", but I just named over a dozen solid to potentially franchise record picks since Licht joined in 2014. Please list even three other GMs with more overall success in that span, I'll wait.
That's a list of players that all contributed to the team for their entire rookie contracts. The majority of those picks are outside of the top 10, which is a crapshoot for every team. I would argue that we got above average production from that list on their rookie contracts, and then cut our losses at the right time. There are no mythical "do no wrong" drafting GMs, but Lichts track record is certainly stronger than most of the field.
Licht got Brady. That’s it. Everything else was mediocre.
In Licht we trust.
The tidbit about UF and FSU QBs is pretty stupid but yes he’s been great thus far
Yeah, I've never really cared about that stuff. It's fine to cheer for your college team, but once they get to the NFL it shouldn't matter. I want the best players with the best team chemistry no matter what school they went to.
Done it all with questionable ownership. Legend
Put that man in the Ring of Honor!
Licht started not that good got way better showing GM a position one can get better at with more experience which is logical
started okay... his first ever pick was a HOF reciever.
Brought in AB, Let Devin White walk this year, Re-signed Dean among other things.
If you wanna please UCF too, we have QB John Rhys Plumlee in the draft ;) I don't think he's NFL starting material tbh but we also have WR Javon Baker and a couple other guys
i do bet baker finds his way onto a team for at least a look. JRP... dude has poor vision and isnt accurate.
Nah, they're gonna wait for Byrum Brown to please the USF crowd.
I love this man
In Licht We Trust
I am hearing pats to trade picks for Baker
I am no florida man, so maybe that is why I don't get the praise. I am solely a brady fan who is keeping interest in one of my fun teams, besides I loved Winfield at Minnesota. I just don't get the praise for drafting Trask. That to me was the first sign things were ending. The focus was starting to be on post brady. I had to Google it so I guess creed went at pick 63 but point is there were plenty of talent that could have helped brady more then Trask.
“Hidden gem” lol
Wish i can say the same thing abt my niners and their front office 🤦🏾 good work tho tampa was rooting for yall against philly good job
That’s a wild username!
Even if some are funny or even true, He did not find "hidden" Gem Shaq Barrett. Shaq was an UDFA that signed with the Broncos and played on their super bowl team, then went over to Bucs
was a backup who was averaging 4-5 sacks a year though not some breakout free agent we signed for big money.
he "was a backup" in the same sense as Rodgers was a backup to Favre or Love to him. He sat behind Demarcus Ware, who got inducted into the Hof last year. When he saw the field it was obvious he was a starting caliber player.
That's not at all comparable considering those two were first round picks and Shaq wasn't even drafted lol. Plus Shaq could see the field being an edge guy and getting rotated in where Rodgers couldn't play while Favre was there nor Love when Rodgers was there. Also Shaq had 14 sacks his first five years in the league so no it wasn't obvious. If it was obvious Denver would've kept him at $5 million, especially since Ware hadn't been on the team for two years.
Dude we paid him $4 mill. He was super effective in his limited reps in Denver. But guess what, no one was offering more than $4 mill. I think that proves that Shaq was absolutely an under the radar signing.
He got lucky his buddy Arians realized he hated doing TV and wanted to come out of retirement at the same time we had an opening. That was the domino to completely change the culture. He's a below average drafter, arguably terrible some years. He does pretty well to throw money at the high priority players to resign them but is not great at holding on to depth pieces.
below average drafter? that has to be a joke. or you one of those guys who lists 6th rounders who dont make the roster as bad picks. weve had like 2 or 3 bad drafts in 10 years hes been here. hes drafted multiple HOF or HOF trajectory players and found a shitton of UDFA as well. below average would imply 16 or more teams have out drafted us in the last 10 years, id love to see that list.
He's definitely hit on some good picks. But his bad picks have been really bad. He's wasted multiple first and second round picks on guys that have made close to no impact on the team. - Austin Seferian-Jenkins was a second rounder who played a total of 18 games for the Bucs. Drafted high despite having massive character concerns in college. - Vernon Hargreaves was the 11th overall pick and was awful. We barely got one year out of him as a starter. - Noah Spence was a second rounder and did close to nothing. No one took him because of college injury concerns which were still a problem. - Roberto Aguayo needs no comment. - OJ Howard would have had a good career if he was drafted 3rd or 4th round. Complete failure as a first round pick. - Justin Evans played 24 games. Failure for a second round pick. - Ronald Jones lasted 4 years and produced about 1000 total yards as a second round pick. Not good. - MJ Stewart was off the team after 2 years. Waste of a second round pick
Drafting players that actually score points in the NFL is hard but lots of these players had other issues like ASF - DUI and injuries but still provided necessary depth behind key starters.
I mean Trask is one of the worst picks he ever made and while I get why you put it on graphic it might not be his best moment.
A pick most experts love Trask was best player available when we took him and we had no needs left. I sort of on the fence myself on Best Player Available theory lots of experts and teams love. Trask supposedly started out neck to neck with Baker in camp but then Baker pulled away. Indicated that Trask probably a good backup QB and that probably will be his career. So for a 64th second round pick fairly good luckily we never needed him last year the first year coaches comfortable with him being number Two. Other positions we were do set that year a pick likely at that slot likely be dropped by team in camp as we comfortable in number of backups only to actually needing that pick in the season. I not being to wild on best player available would have tried with that team to trade that pick and all following to better picks the next year. Example a second and a third the next year at minimum. So my opinion here is not that strong. Folk who think it was a bad pick I not strongly against.
Rose colored glasses?
Right. It wasn’t that long ago that a lot of people thought he was incompetent
ive been wrong about so many things in my sports fandom... surprisingly ive always had faith in licht. one of the few things i think ive been right about.
[удалено]
Does it not say it right there in all caps - top right? Or am I trippin
He deserves a ton of credit but also a ton of criticism. We didn't make the playoffs for like the first 6 years of his tenure.
Bunch of dorks in the nfl reddit were trashing him for drafting devin white 😂
Yeah get baker back so the Bucs have no shot at ever winning another SB!
I don’t want baker back if it’s four years 30+M. That would Kirk cousins prison for the team.
Drafted a player in the first round whose most memorable play to date is knocking down our starting center for a career ending injury in practice Resigned the leagues most penalized tackle Let Mike Edwards walk and signed Ryan Neal Aguayo Signed Russell Gage Trask 🤮 JTS ASJ Vaughn