Jason Licht: College Stars Are Battle-Tested For NFL
May 12th, 2025
Playing under pressure matters.
In last month’s draft, the Bucs selected three guys that starred for big-time programs and used to playing marquee games in prime time, high-stakes games in packed stadiums.
Emeka Egbuka (Ohio State), Benjamin Morrison (Notre Dame) and Tez Johnson (Oregon) played many impactful, important games. And all performed well.
Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht thinks playing multiple games on a big stage and producing in those games help a player’s transition to the NFL.
“It matters a lot,” Licht said, as he explained to popular sports radio and television personality Adam Schein on “Schein on Sports,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio.
“I think it gives you one less thing you have to worry about when they come in. They’ve got their head screwed on, right?
“There’s a lot of things that go through the mind of a rookie when they come in. ‘Where am I going to live? Where’s my car? How do I get car insurance? Where do I get my driver’s license?’ All those kinds of things.
“When you have a smart, mature kid like all of these guys, it’s really a thing … they’re going to take care of their business. When they’re here in the building and on the field, they’re given everything they have, and they’re not distracted.”
Licht then recounted a story he has told often; Chris Godwin was so prepared to hit the ground running in the NFL that he had his apartment already leased before rookie minicamp, and passed on the chance to live rent-free in the team hotel because he didn’t want to be distracted finding a crib when he otherwise could have his head in a playbook or watching tape.
“We found that with those types of guys, you have a better success rate [with draft picks],” Licht said.
Licht then repeated what he has often said. When he and his staff draft a player that doesn’t pan out, it is more often than not the Bucs missed on the person, not missing on his football skills.
And no, Joe did not include Elijah Roberts in this, even though his SMU team got an at-large berth in the playoffs.
Best Joe can tell, SMU only had two nationally televised, important games. That was taking Clemson to overtime in the ACC championship and the Penn State game in the first round of the playoffs. That was a day game and SMU was obliterated.
May 12th, 2025 at 10:55 am
Dude has 1 playoff win without Brady.
He drafted Jameis, drafted Trask, drafted Aguyo the kicker in the second round, can’t draft a DE to save his life.
I just don’t trust his judgement.
Get to a NFC title game without Brady then get back to me.
May 12th, 2025 at 10:55 am
Someone I know was at an SMU game, said Robert’s was an absolute game wrecker. So, yeah.
May 12th, 2025 at 11:11 am
For the guy’s comment you can’t fix stupid and negative. Disregard it and carry on.
May 12th, 2025 at 11:13 am
Allen Lofton Says:
“For the guy’s comment you can’t fix stupid and negative. Disregard it and carry on.”
Truth hurts I guess. Carry on.
May 12th, 2025 at 12:07 pm
Licht has made some mistakes, but he’s learned from them. My guess is all of our division rivals think Licht has done to good of a job at drafting, and adding talent.
May 12th, 2025 at 12:09 pm
Dave? Dave? Is that you lol.
Todd Bowles butt hurt fan?
Sounds right.
May 12th, 2025 at 12:19 pm
Dude, his judgment and connections are what got us Brady. Those winds count. As does the super bowl.
May 12th, 2025 at 12:25 pm
Steven007 Says:
“Dude, his judgment and connections are what got us Brady. Those winds count. As does the super bowl.”
Never said the wins or Superbowl didn’t count. He gets credit for bringing in Brady.
The problem is he hasn’t shown any ability to win without Brady.
Just one first round win versus a depleted and floundering Eagles team.
He’s not a genius.
May 12th, 2025 at 12:35 pm
Good interview with Jason. He is a humble man always giving credit to others. Looking around the league, we are pretty lucky to have Jason as GM.
May 12th, 2025 at 12:37 pm
Lichts before Brady vs after Brady drafting is as if we fired old Licht, then hired recent Licht, huge difference
May 12th, 2025 at 12:39 pm
TB#1 – boring, just boring. Same old unintelligent uninteresting drivel.
Jason has done a great job, and that great work continues.
May 12th, 2025 at 12:53 pm
I will agree with TB1 on one thing. I have nothing against Trask. But, when your team has just won the Super Bowl and you are mortgaging the future salary cap to bring back all of the starters, using the second round pick for a player you never want to be have the field that season was a bizarre choice.
To be fair, there were not a lot of success stories from the third round that followed Trask’s selection with the final pick in the second round. But, there were some, and you don’t make the shots you don’t take. It was the wrong place and time to be trying to find the heir apparent for Brady.
As to the other draft picks, they were highly rated players at positions of need. Drafting a kicker that high was unconventional. But, the college career suggested a unique opportunity.
As to taking the Bucs to a conference championship, with 16 teams per conference and only two teams playing for the conference championship, on average, teams should play in the conference championship once in every 8 years, and they should win the conference championship once in every 16 years.
It has only been four years since the Bucs appeared in and won a conference championship game. And, yes that was with Brady – who had other offers on the table and decided that the team Licht had built was his best shot at another ring – which he won with the team Licht built.
May 12th, 2025 at 1:30 pm
Todd, would you say a thing the same thing about belichick with the Patriots? Perhaps you would.
May 12th, 2025 at 1:58 pm
Allen Lofton Says:
For the guy’s comment, you can’t fix stupid and negative. Disregard it and carry on.
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True, you can’t fix all that.
The Bucs are fortunate to have Licht right now. He’s a Top – 5 GM in the NFL and has just been hitting back to back homers in the draft the past few years.
He should be charged with Grand Theft in the most recent draft. Morrison is easily a Top 15, First Round Talent. Johnson, our 7th Round pick had a 4th round grade by some competent talent evaluators. A couple of the UDFA’s will eventually make the active roster as well, either by the end of this season or the beginning of next.
May 12th, 2025 at 2:14 pm
toopanca Says:
I will agree with TB1 on one thing. I have nothing against Trask. But, when your team has just won the Super Bowl and you are mortgaging the future salary cap to bring back all of the starters, using the second round pick for a player you never want to be have the field that season was a bizarre choice.
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No NFL team ever wants their back-up QB on the field. But it’s not Trask’s lack of quality or lack of experience that caused him to never see the field. During the years he played under Brady & Baker, neither one of them missed a game.
Many rookie QBs need to play some real games in the NFL in order to develop into a legit starter. In Peyton Manning’s rookie season he had a 56.7 completion percentage, a QB rating of 71, and threw 28 interceptions. With a chance to correct his mistakes he quickly became one of the best ever.
But first he did need that season. Trask never got that chance and we don’t know what his ceiling would have been if he had.
May 12th, 2025 at 3:38 pm
that’s all fine and dandy but — Another week, another exchange of accusations between the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson.
In what has become a regular occurrence as the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year seeks an extension of his current contract that expires this offseason, Hendrickson issued a statement to ESPN expressing his latest displeasure at the Bengals’ level of communication and willingness to negotiate.