Down Grade For Jason Licht

May 15th, 2023

“Reminder, block Bucky Brooks until 2024.”

NFL Network year-round draft guru Bucky Brooks, the former defensive back/return man, thinks he might get a phone call from Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Jason Licht.

That’s what Brooks said last week on air during a draft-grades segment focused on what NFC South teams accomplished last month.

Brooks gave the Bucs the worst grade in the division, “a B-.”

Brooks likes the explosiveness of Bucs first-round pick defensive tackle Calijah Kancey. However, Brooks wonders how the Bucs will fare after thriving with giant defensive tackles in previous seasons. Kancey is small for the position at 6-1, 281 pounds. Brooks noted that Bills first-round pick Ed Oliver (similar body type) has had an up-and-down career.

“So this is when Jason Licht and Todd Bowles will come to me, ‘We have to have office hours,’ Brooks said, acknowledging that he was harsh on the Bucs’ picks.

Guard Cody Mauch out of North Dakota State? Brooks questions how long it will take Mauch to play “big boy” football in the NFL.

And it seems Brooks thinks the Bucs missed a good chance to address their quarterback situation in the draft.

Call the man, Jason Licht. Set him straight.

44 Responses to “Down Grade For Jason Licht”

  1. SB~LV Says:

    Both true observations

  2. Allen Lofton Says:

    Brook’s success in picking draftees is no better than NFL Team draftee selections – the Brook’s of the world throw Sh!t on the wall in hopes of getting it right…he has no room to talk.

  3. HC Grover Says:

    I don’t think he did too bad. A well rounded draft for the new coach next year to work with.

  4. Chris@Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa Says:

    I like what we did in this draft. Sure, a real left tackle would have been nice but when we picked we did not like what was left.
    I think we may surprise some teams this year.

  5. Buc4evr Says:

    Jason built in the trenches which was sorely needed. He didn’t try to win the draft. Looks like Bucky didn’t watch any Bucs games last season. This is not the time to draft a QB that is not going to start when there are so many other holes to fill.

  6. SOEbuc Says:

    I don’t understand. So many other nattys were giving A and A+ in the draft. Analysts, scouts, fans are going off on Trey Palmer and Sean Tucker. YaYa, Rameriz, and Payne have shown all their possibilities to break out.

  7. Infomeplease Says:

    No one knows anything until they do! Just idle speculation! Seeing is believing! About 4 games in we’ll have a somewhat better idea if any of these guys will make an impact this season.

  8. Dusthty Rhothdes Says:

    Licht has always been this GM a below 500 one…nothing new

  9. RustyRhinos Says:

    All of these “New Head Coach next season JBF’ers”. Will be all angry and full of more negativity when we DO NOT get rid of Coach Bowles, And extend his contract instead. Please stay away from sharp objects, High places, and multiple tools covered by your 2A.

    Bubbly Brooks has never had any really positive comments or draft reviews, ever. WHY Care Now?

    I am excited to see how our Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2023 draft and the players we have post-Brady step up and take on their challenges ahead. We can moan and groan and be so anti( whoever fits your fancy). I was in the Old Sombrero for so many losses and watched our first win. I have been a Buccaneer fan threw the decades of the 70’s-80’s-90-s all the way to today and until my last breath.

    GO!!!!! BUCS!!!!!

  10. Pewter Power Says:

    Panthers traded for up for Bryce young, does anyone remember anyone else they drafted? Lol this is ridiculous and they give up the 2024 1st round pick which will probably be high. Rookie quarterbacks don’t usually thrive when the rest of the offense is trash but hey the league is all about quarterback even if the team is mediocre at best.

    Kancey is the same size and height as Aaron Donald, it’s ok to compare to ed Oliver but not Aaron Donald because he’s a first ballot hall of famer it’s impossible to think kancey could have a hall of fame career for it

  11. Mike Says:

    Anyone can nitpick on the draft picks, but I think for where the Bucs were drafting, they did quite well throughout the draft and feel like a lot of these guys will be productive NFL players.

  12. Doc Says:

    This G.M should be fired today, what a joke if he did not luck up and signed Brady he would have been fired.

  13. Bobby M. Says:

    The knock against the Bucs draft is we didn’t do anything extreme. Didn’t go big after any particular player, no big trades…overall relatively boring but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get quality players. Nobody knows what they have at this point. Everyone has a “high ceiling”….it’s a bit of a gamble that you hope statistically falls in your favor. All these opinions are generally influenced by splash draft trades or player specific selection. Had we traded for the Texas stud RB, people would be raving about our draft….or if we went for a QB, that’s great stuff to talk about.

  14. zzbucs Says:

    Bucky Brooks, GURU?????

    You woke up quite generous today Joe!!!!

  15. Joe Blow Says:

    So, just because NFL Network and their stooges on the website say we need to draft a quarterback we’re crap for not doing so? Some of these clowns had a stiffie for Will Levis and were mad we didn’t take him! Levis! They wrote the team off because Brady is gone. One. Man. These guys don’t know sh!t from apple butter, that’s why they’re flapping their gums and not in a front office.

  16. cmurda Says:

    If you don’t have at least one if not multiple “sexy” skill position picks, then the “experts” will promise you lost the draft.

    Who would argue with me that Wirfs and Marpet have probably been the best O Linemen of all time for the Bucs. If Marpet decided to continue playing, he would be neck and neck with Wirfs. Honorable mention to Jensen. The previous 50 years ? Nobody is up there. The point here, however, is that there was mostly negative feedback after Licht picked Marpet. Turned out to be one of the best picks in the history of the franchise. I care nothing about what the “grades” are. It’s dumb as a box of rocks to assign grades before underwear football has even begun let alone the rookies playing.

  17. Pewter Power Says:

    You had no premier quarterback options and had to settle it’s been proven that elite skill positions can make a quarterback playoff caliber so it was extremely wide to bulk up on defense to try and keep the scoring low or get blown out. I like what he did let’s hope he chose the right players. He was way too generous to falcons and saints in my opinion

  18. 1#bucsfan Says:

    Not a SEXY draft but one that was needed. Build thru the trenches is how you are successful. For the situation we are in which is a great one. Mortgaged the house to win a Super Bowl n almost went for back to back. Most of y’all that call Jason a bad GM or below average GM are just haters that will never be happy.

  19. Allbuccedup Says:

    Take away Brady no success for Licht. Back to the Bucs we all know and love. Its a Bucs life.

  20. Destinjohnny Says:

    In his defense he didn’t trade up for a guy that wasn’t going to be drafted until 3 rounds later.
    It’s kinda like punting on 2nd down

  21. SOEbuc Says:

    RustyRhinos

    Exactly. Soooo freaking annoying about people b!tching about how terrible he was as a HC year one in Tampa, yet we won the division with a bulls!t OC……………and GOAT’s last year (maybe?). Bowles was the OC that everyone says that was all about the defense in LV. Waiting to see some fire and hopefully accomplishment from Maralas.

    Buncha bandwagon Bowles Bucs fans. I would love to see us win the Super Bowl particularly for this reason.

  22. SOEbuc Says:

    *Bowles was DC that everyone says was all about the defense LV.

    And they had signed him to a 5 year DC extension after 2020. Yeah they’re just gonna toss him and his defensive coaching staff to the curb after year two.

  23. Mosey Says:

    You guys don’t understand feelings and behavior. Certain people live in survival mode not wat the therapeutic books teach😃

  24. LakelandSteve Says:

    Bucky Brooks are like the rest of the these clowns. They all have to have something to say that is controversial or gets people to tune in. No one really knows how any teams draft picks are going to turn out before the season starts. As for Kancey being undersized, you can’t measure a man’s heart. We will all know after the season how these guys turned out.

  25. JD Still Says:

    Calijah Kancey too small ?He is the exact same size as Aaron Donald and Warren Sapp, almost to the pound! Hey , just for fun why don’t We wait and see what he does on the actual field of play, instead of in the minds of prognosticators, radical concept I know, but , to appease the Bucs faithful nay sayers, We can let him sit on the bench for a couple of years and give him no chance to play and call it “developing “ him , until we can grab some over the hill ,400 pound cast off , “with experience “, to compete against him, oh ,but that would be silly ,wouldn’t it, who in their right minds would do that?

  26. SlyPirate Says:

    LET’S START A NEW SITE

    LogYourPredictions.com. It would track everything, every expert says about a team, and quantify it. That way reports become beholden to what they say.

    Right now reporters can spout opinions on a wym with zero repercussions. Then, they can flipflop with revisionist history. It’s trash.

  27. Stebobucsfan Says:

    My question is, why isn’t Bucky a GM. Pretty sure he would make more money.

  28. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    When handing out draft grades it doesn’t seem there is consideration for giving up picks in future drafts……of course when you trade future picks for this year’s picks, your draft will be better this year.

  29. MadMax Says:

    I get it….we’ve made some questionable decisions in past drafts….but I think in this draft, we’re going to reap some rewards….and whoever this brooks guy is, hands off on my GM Mr Licht!

  30. AtlBuc Says:

    So, if we were to believe Mr Brooks, we should have drafted Will Levis in the first found. For all we know, Trask is better than Levis. I give absolutely no credit to what these talking heads say. The people on this site know more than they do.

  31. Jeff Says:

    So a full grown man named “Bucky” says Light had a bad draft.

  32. SufferingSince76 Says:

    When I was in school, a B- was a good grade.

  33. Tiny Dungy Says:

    “Bucky” Beaver is gnawing on some logs
    The Bucs drafted not well, says he,
    Did Jason Licht reach for some picks?
    We’ll have to wait and see…..

  34. Goatfarmer Says:

    Brooks can write some good articles and opinions. He is gifted with the English language. But he is dead wrong here and JL won’t be calling him unless to ask for some names to consider for the upcoming Bucs’ head coaching vacancy.

  35. BigMacAttack Says:

    How many Super Bowl rings does Bucktooth Bricks have? Know your role and shut your mouth.

  36. optimisticbucsfan Says:

    @ JD – those are two HOF’ers

  37. destinjohnny Says:

    all you can go on is his last two drafts which have sucked

  38. #99 the Big fella Says:

    Joe, start another website.. call it joecrybabies.com
    Lord knows you have plenty of those here.

  39. BigMacAttack Says:

    Bucs are going to surprise everyone this Season.

  40. orlbucfan Says:

    Oh, so now that Brady is gone, the Bucs suck again. Says who? Some yo-yo who wouldn’t know the Bucs if the whole team bit him in the arse. Glad I’m one of those ancient Bucs fans cos I laugh at the stupid crap. Looking forward to August. Hopefully, a cat 6 hurricane won’t show up. That is a realistic prediction; this yahoo’s hot air ain’t.

  41. Winny Testaverde Says:

    Licht does know a thing or two about survival…I’ll give him that. His career record was worse than Dominik’s before the Calvary in the form of Big Brother Bruce and eventually Tom Brady arrived. We’re about to find out how good he is moving forward

  42. Delusional Intelligence Says:

    Outside of talking about DBs, I really never pay much attention to what Bucky thinks.

  43. garro Says:

    They pay Brooks to float crap. I don’t for a second think he believes even a qurter of what comes out of his mouth. Just cashing checks.

  44. Geno711 Says:

    I think that Bucky Brooks does a better job than a lot of them in analyzing how skill sets will translate. I think his point about Calijah Kancey size not fitting the Bucs style popped in my head right away when we drafted him.

    On our Guard/Tackle prospect Cody Mauch, I see all kinds of evidence that it may take a year (like most good teams) but that these coaches get the small school guys coached up pretty well.

    Every year there are some teams that get their 2nd round picks playing well at some point in the season, but it is rarely game 1 for most of these guys.