Bucs Draft Didn’t Have Enough Juice For NFL.com
May 8th, 2024
Doesn’t excite NFL.com.
Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht isn’t sexy enough for NFL.com.
That’s the gist Joe got of the NFL’s internet wing typing up a ranking of the 2024 draft classes.
Reading the Bucs’ draft review from Gennaro Filice, their class didn’t have enough hot models to get him hot and bothered. Rather, Licht got a bunch of sixes.
You know, the nice quiet girl that would win over Mom, not the hot bikini model that would impress Dad.
(How bad is it at NFL Media after NFL chieftain Roger Goodell went on a drunken rampage slicing the workforce buried in the bowels of SoFi Stadium? Filice is the deputy editor of NFL.com. The joint has the No. 2 man there typing up draft reviews!)
In short, Filice must have hated the late baseball manager Whitey Herzog. He mocked Licht for being good at hitting singles, insinuating that to have a good draft class you’ve got to hit home runs.
Filice ranking the Bucs’ class at No. 27 of the 32 NFL teams.
His biggest knock on Licht? Not drafting a cornerback to replace Carlton Davis (Filice is not sold on Zyon McCollum).
Jason Licht placed a substantial bet on 2022 fifth-round pick Zyon McCollum by trading Carlton Davis III to Detroit in March. Then the Tampa Bay GM doubled down by avoiding the position altogether in the draft. Bold strategy, Jason — we’ll see if it pays off. But enough about the picks the Buccaneers didn’t make — how about the cards they actually turned in?
The first-round selection of Graham Barton could have been sponsored by OSHA, seeing how universally it was lauded for safeness. Truthfully, the Duke left tackle does appear to have a versatile skill set that could fit in any environment. In Tampa, he’ll probably man the pivot, where he played as a true freshman in Durham. Unfortunately, he can’t simultaneously play left guard, which remains a soft spot on the depth chart. But that high-floor pick kind of set the tone for the rest of the draft, as the Bucs continually hit singles with exceedingly solid picks. Stuck behind a murderers’ row of pass rushers during his first three years at Alabama, Chris Braswell finally got his opportunity this past fall and took full advantage, leading the SEC with 56 pressures. After turning heads at the Senior Bowl, Braswell enjoyed a nice workout at the NFL Scouting Combine. There could be some untapped potential here. In Round 3, Licht appeared to target the slot, offensively and defensively. Jalen McMillan struggled with injuries this past season, but in 2022, he actually led Washington in receptions and receiving touchdowns — yes, over Rome Odunze. Tykee Smith’s a versatile safety/nickel who’s much more physical force defender than sticky cover man, but he could see significant snaps Year 1 in the slot.
One more pick I’d like to spotlight, as it underscores the radically decent feel of this draft haul: fourth-rounder Bucky Irving. The Oregon running back was a consistent vessel for “FORGET THE TESTING!” pleas from impassioned draftniks over the past couple months, and for good reason. On film, he’s a compact, shifty, generally fun mighty mite of a ball-carrier. But a slow 40 time and inexplosive jumps in Indy sunk his draft stock.
First off, what the f’ is “man the pivot?” Joe knows what a pivot is in basketball but what the f’ is “man the pivot?” Sounds like an English kickball term, sort of like “pulled level.” Please Filice, stick to real football.
As always, a draft is often only as good as the first-round pick. So that means Graham Barton, a man without a permanent position (yet), has to ball out.
Joe likes most of this Bucs draft.
But No. 27 draft class? Joe thinks that’s a little harsh, no matter if Licht turns you on or not.
May 8th, 2024 at 12:19 am
Joe i like you but american football is not real football. So just leave it alone.
May 8th, 2024 at 12:37 am
Wrong site to post that on there Rick Flair.
People outside of Tampa can’t possibly do enough research and write that article. Just because we didn’t add Stephon Gilmore doesn’t mean we didn’t address the position so everyone is looking for us to replace Davis because it’s in the spotlight.
26 is eerily close to where we picked so I wonder if he values early selections?
Im not bothered by the ranking because people are dumb and don’t do enough homework before writing an article.
I guess Atlanta finished last?
May 8th, 2024 at 12:42 am
LET’S BE HONEST …
It’s not a sexy draft. Joe was calling for anything but an IOL for months. “IOL can’t take it 80 yards to the end zone.” He’s a writer and IOL are boring. Then, the Bucs didn’t nab a “potential 1st,” like Cooper DeJean, in the 2nd. Finally, the Bucs didn’t draft a controversial QB. Our draft has almost no media value.
It’s boring to write about filling every hole, added depth, added defensive chess pieces, drafting to manage the cap, and making this team very difficult to beat next year and for years to come.
It’s boring draft that will lead to another boring 4xNFCS Championship.
May 8th, 2024 at 12:47 am
How is (admittedly by the author) drafting a decade long pro bowl level starter at center considered “hitting a single”? Who cares anyway? The talking heads can pontificate all they want. None of this matters until well after these men have at least taken their first snaps in a regular season game. For the time being, any Bucs fan who has been paying attention should be excited about this new crop of talent.
May 8th, 2024 at 12:48 am
That’s exactly it sly. Go bucs!!
May 8th, 2024 at 12:52 am
Does Gennaro Felcher get paid to be really stupid? That’s a dude? Must be a summer intern who normally hangs out at Josh Failman’s club for alternative lifestyles. This is so bad it even makes that Tanier dude look like a species of genus.
May 8th, 2024 at 12:53 am
Another receipt for Jason’s office wall.
May 8th, 2024 at 1:04 am
Please do not stare at my pivot.
May 8th, 2024 at 1:04 am
Sure it is.
May 8th, 2024 at 1:08 am
Joe doesn’t believe that. Doesn’t mean Joe would draft one in the first round though.
May 8th, 2024 at 2:26 am
Gennaro likes his draft picks to be sexy and juicy. So Bucs draft did not get him all hot and heavy. Oh well I’ll take a 10 year starter over the potential of a knucklehead wr any day of the week.
May 8th, 2024 at 2:37 am
Joe wouldn’t take IOL in the first round. At pick 26 who would you have picked instead of Barton Joe?
May 8th, 2024 at 2:45 am
Center has been referred to as “the pivot”. Considering your opinion of all things Offensive line I’m not surprised you didn’t know that.
May 8th, 2024 at 4:34 am
It wasn’t an over the top and exciting draft for us but we did well. I also think Bucky, Tykee, Klein, Barton, and others are going to be strong players and just what we need. So in the end, the Bucs did great in the draft.
May 8th, 2024 at 5:36 am
Its difficult to have “great” drafts when you are selecting players from the bottom of every round. But rating the Bucs latest draft at 27th out of 32 when I KNOW we just added a # of good players seems like uninformed and lazy analysis….
The important things Jason Licht is doing with his drafting since the team started winning and getting later picks is – he’s prioritizing the trenches, filling needs and drafting legit football players who work hard, love the game and have high character.
Not every high pick the last few years has lived up to expectations (White, JTS, Hall) – but look how many day 3 picks are exceeding expectations and either starting or playing major roles –
Whitehead, Nelson, Britt, Otten, Camarda, McCollum, Palmer, (Bucky?)
May 8th, 2024 at 6:12 am
Ricki, soccer is for sissies.
May 8th, 2024 at 6:46 am
The BUCS are constantly disrespected no matter what. We are the punch line of the NFL for some reason. I thought we had a solid draft. We filled most the positions we needed too. Sorry if it’s not sexy but it is doing your job in my eyes. Go BUCS!!!!!
May 8th, 2024 at 6:47 am
This team is gonna over perform and we are gonna see the core of our future star players on display this year. Future is bright; let’s enjoy the ride. A lot of other franchises would punch their own mothers for the type of front office and scouting the Bucs have shown.
May 8th, 2024 at 7:09 am
There wasn’t one head-scratcher in the group…….sure, a couple of boring picks because of the position…….G/C & Slot Corner…..but, very solid players.
If you start with the premise that Carlton Davis should have been replaced with this draft, you can’t help but give us a poor grade.
May 8th, 2024 at 7:36 am
The guy is probably disgusted we didn’t trade up to get a REAL QB
May 8th, 2024 at 8:10 am
@Joe,
I believe “pivot” is a rugby term/position. To over simplify, they are like an offensive “mike” who controls the back line and dictates offensive direction. I guess that is the analogy to a center. However, they are like a halfback, who is the guy that receives the ball and runs like h311 when the ball finally squirts out of a “scrum.”
May 8th, 2024 at 8:11 am
Pretty laughable article. They completely ignore the signing of Bryce Hall and a couple of lifeguards, as if the only way to fulfill positions is the draft.
May 8th, 2024 at 8:15 am
Thank you ChiBuc!
May 8th, 2024 at 8:35 am
Well, most of our picks were #26 – which is pretty typified. I’d say this ranking was right there where we picked.
Being analyzed by a guy standing next to Michael Irvine at a SoFi Starbucks for the next few weeks doesn’t give you a lot of credibility.
There were more than a few picks that dropped to our draft spot – I think we had a great draft.
May 8th, 2024 at 8:36 am
I dunno.
To knowledgeable fans a potential All Pro IOL in the first round is sexy and juicy.
Hard to squirt over IOL stats, though.
May 8th, 2024 at 8:39 am
Soccer is for kids that can’t make the football team, and can’t play an instrument in the marching band.
They get the leftover girls.
May 8th, 2024 at 8:46 am
Don’t believe anything that comes out of the media. Their narrative heading into the draft was the bucs needed to draft a cornerback. Wonder what this moron ranked Atlanta
May 8th, 2024 at 8:47 am
It’ll be fun to see how that article ages.
It’s a weird subjective thing. I mean at #2 he has the Bears but they maybe only added 2 starters and a punter and it took 2 top 10 picks including #1 overall. Their OT in R3 may not play and they took a Punter in R4. #1 draft class? OK lol.
Sure Caleb Williams can make the whole thing look good I guess, but that’s a draft pick not a draft class.
I thought we had a similar draft to the Steelers in terms of positions drafted and value. And they were ranked #1 lol. What a weird list.
May 8th, 2024 at 8:51 am
Seems to me that we have had this kind of reaction to our drafts before. Now it’s everyone who can steal a crayon along with his tiny brother giving opinions on the interwebs.
1st eight picks in the 97 Draft….Dunn Offensive ROY…Anthony was not the best pick but had his moments. Wunch and Middleton were solid NFL players as were Hape, and Singleton, Al Harris played forever… Barber …Well …you know LOL.
Warrick Dunn
Reidel Anthony
Jerry Wunsch
Frank Middleton
Ronde Barber
Alshermond Singleton
Patrick Hape
Al Harris
Point is very little fanfare from fans or media but a good to great draft overall me thinks. Some were not in Tampa long but stuck in the league. Anthony was the only 4 and out.
Go Bucs!
May 8th, 2024 at 9:03 am
I really like the Bucs draft, but of course none of it means anything until they start playing ball. Thankfully their opinion means nothing too,
May 8th, 2024 at 9:31 am
The only thing worse than those never-ending moronic mock drafts are the post-draft grades and opinions.
It takes 2-3 years to judge a draft class.
Who gives a stinkin’ Pelosi what the chattering class says?
May 8th, 2024 at 10:03 am
The funny thing to me is that if you read his article, it doesn’t sound like he’s going to rank us that low. He gives us props on most of the picks. You’d think he’d rank the Bucs at least in the teens somewhere. And most other media Outlets ranked are draft as a B+. So 25 other teams had higher than a B+? I will not go and read the rest of his rankings list because I have better things to do.
May 8th, 2024 at 10:24 am
… also, all those teams that had top 10 picks, it’s very probable that as many as four of those early first round chosen quarterbacks will end up being journeyman or total scrubs in the NFL. If four of the six of them end up being solid starting quarterbacks the nfl, then they beat the odds in a big way. Most of them were total reaches. Look at the 2015 draft class of QBs, for instance. Not a single QB turned out to be anything special.
May 8th, 2024 at 11:04 am
Gennaro Filice Buc draft review is so typical of what many beat NFL writers do.
They find it easier to criticize instead of doing some due diligence and common sense that The Bucs already have a replacement for Davis on the team.
The Bucs Front office, Coaches and players have their act together and use this as kindling fuel for another Super Bowl run.
May 8th, 2024 at 11:56 am
Ricki, you talking about kick ball not football son
May 8th, 2024 at 1:58 pm
Bucky Irving is going to be a stud in this league.
May 8th, 2024 at 2:12 pm
An answer to Ricki Says:
I don’t know where you watch football at Bub. But American football is the game we play here in the United States. The game that’s played in the rest of the world is called Soccer, not football.
May 8th, 2024 at 2:13 pm
If someone thinks “continually getting exceedingly solid picks” puts you in the bottom-5 of drafts, I’d have to ask if this person has ever watched the game of football or studied how teams are built.
May 8th, 2024 at 3:11 pm
So let me guess – the team that picked first ranked first and the team that
picked last was ranked last?
May 8th, 2024 at 5:09 pm
Ignorance hath many follies. Filice displays this in his shallow analysis and the posters who lampoon un-American football (my preferred nomenclature for the game I was forced to make my own in college due to shoulders that just couldn’t stay in their sockets) here in the comments mirror his short-sightedness. I learned to drive a car before I learned to be an un-American football game-wrecker but not all of us who’ve “stepped on the pitch” in our “kit” fall into the can’t play the American trinity of sports, get female attention or play musical instruments category of male athletes. I never respected the gentlemanly culture of the game but the refs in my conference seemed to love it despite opposing players and coaches constantly pissing and moaning about my Jack Lambert/John Lynch-inspired interpretation of how that game can be played. Anything is what you make of it and all are entitled to their opinions. Filice seemed to allude to the QB when he wrote pivot. Hooker is the most analogous position to center in rugby in my experience. Dumb article, SOME dumber comments that would not be made in real life and proximity but keyboard Rambo’s gonna keyboard Rambo.
May 8th, 2024 at 5:24 pm
Yeah Joe out of curiosity who would you have taken over Barton?
May 8th, 2024 at 9:20 pm
So what scores more runs? 7 singles or a couple home runs? You do the math.