With the 2025 NFL Draft now lower than a month away, now’s the time when groups slender within the draft boards they’ve spent the previous 12 months compiling. Bucs common supervisor Jason Licht just lately alluded to the technique the crew has the place they provide you with swimming pools of gamers they imagine shall be within the vary the place they choose every spherical.
All of that would flip on a dime based mostly on how the draft goes, with the entrance workplace having to account for a lot of completely different eventualities unfolding. We spent Thursday’s Pewter Report Podcast going over a few of these eventualities involving the crew buying and selling up and down.
Ought to Licht’s pool of gamers be barren when they’re on the clock at No. 19, might Tampa Bay comply with a current blueprint that yielded profitable outcomes?
The Bucs Turned 2022 First-Spherical Decide Into Three Key Contributors
Bucs DT Logan Corridor – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
It was not that way back when the Bucs moved down within the draft to accumulate extra capital that was future starters. Armed with choose No. 27 within the 2022 NFL Draft, they traded it to the Jaguars for choose Nos. 33, 106, and 180.
Tampa Bay used the thirty third choose to pick defensive lineman Logan Corridor, who performed in 16 video games (10 begins) final season and recorded a career-high 5.5 sacks. Whereas one might argue the crew missed the possibility to take inside linebacker Devin Lloyd (twenty seventh), defensive deal with Devonte Wyatt (twenty eighth), or defensive finish George Karlaftis III (thirtieth), Corridor has not been a bust and will proceed his improvement right into a long-term starter subsequent season as he enters his contract 12 months.
That is the place issues get fascinating.
With two further picks, Jason Licht traded choose No. 180 to maneuver up within the second spherical from No. 60 to No. 57 as a way to choose proper deal with Luke Goedeke. Leapfrogging just a few groups to make sure Goedeke would put on crimson and pewter has paid off as he has turn out to be an above-average offensive deal with. These are onerous to seek out, however they trusted their analysis on him and used one of many picks they acquired to safe him.
Bucs TE Cade Otton – Picture by: USA At the moment
The 106th choose would go on to show into tight finish Cade Otton. After splitting beginning snaps with Cameron Brate throughout his rookie 12 months, Otton has solidified himself because the crew’s beginning tight finish throughout the previous two years. He nonetheless wants to point out extra week-to-week consistency to justify a long-term deal, nevertheless it was not a wasted fourth-round choose by any stretch.
Relatively, the Bucs wound up buying and selling a late first-round choose and turned it into the primary choose of the second spherical, a fourth-round choose, and a sixth-round choose. Whereas the crew might have stayed and picked Corridor or a special defensive participant, the capital was used so as to add Goedeke and Otton into the combination.
The Bucs Might Commerce No. 19 To Add Defensive Depth
When trying on the 2025 NFL Draft, it isn’t considered as extremely as lately. There won’t be six quarterbacks taken within the prime 12 like there have been final 12 months. As an alternative, after the primary couple of picks, the nicely of blue-chip prospects begins to run dry. It takes two to tango in relation to having a crew wanting to maneuver up, however for the proper participant it might occur.
Bucs GM Jason Licht – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
“All the time trying,” Licht stated about shifting up and down the draft. “Each eventualities we perform a little mission, it takes us about week to do. It’s an Excel sheet that will blow your thoughts of all of the completely different eventualities relying on what participant is there or what group of gamers are there. ‘How far you’ll transfer again, who’re these gamers, who would you progress up for and the way far would you progress up?’
“I’m undecided that’s there proper now, nevertheless it actually is interesting to me to probably, if there’s a gaggle of let’s say 5 gamers that we actually like which are there after we’re choosing, to maneuver again and safe some further picks. That doesn’t appear to work out fairly often, it’s often you have got a gaggle of 5 gamers and there’s just one left whenever you choose so simply take them [laughs].”
Ought to prime cross rushers Mike Inexperienced and Donovan Ezeiruaku, inside linebacker Jihaad Campbell, and security Malaki Starks all be taken earlier than Tampa Bay is on the clock, Jason Licht would possibly see a commerce down as a means so as to add somebody within the crew’s subsequent pool of prospects whereas including extra draft picks. Solely having six picks this 12 months and loads of defensive wants to deal with, that is one thing the crew will certainly discover.
For the case of hypotheticals, if Licht have been to commerce choose No. 19 and transfer all the way down to the 24-27 vary, that would internet an additional third-rounder and a seventh-rounder. Doing that will permit the crew to nonetheless land a first-round expertise whereas additionally bringing one other Day 2 participant into the fold.
Based mostly on the positional worth of the within linebacker class, drafting one on Day 2 is often the perfect plan of action anyway. In terms of cornerbacks, the Bucs have solely drafted one within the first spherical since 2014, with the choose of Vernon Hargreaves III in 2016 proving to be a bust. Additional draft capital is a approach to double dip on the place, and it could be a good suggestion to with Jamel Dean’s harm historical past making it a good suggestion to shore up depth behind him. The Bucs drafted cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting within the second spherical in 2019 after which chosen Dean within the third spherical the identical 12 months.
A commerce again may very well be the easiest way to bolster the protection and extract probably the most worth out of this 12 months’s draft class. It labored in 2022 and has the possibility to once more.
