Jason Licht: Trade Wizard
June 20th, 2025
Dialed in.
Joe wishes the stat geeks and math heads could type in English.
Steven Patton, who runs @PattonAnalytics and seems to do numbers crunching for a Stinking Panthers website, tried to do an OceanGate-like Titan submersible deep dive on which general managers made the best traders from 2016 to 2023.
Joe’s head was spinning after the third paragraph, sort of like after reading three pages of a Henry James novel.
Patton and Colin Dunphy seemed to take 25 paragraphs to spell out what could have been explained in eight sentences. Ugh. Joe guesses a tech writer could embrace this… prose.
Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht is one of the best in the NFL at winning trades when it comes to value, they found out.
A couple of trades this decade probably helped seal Licht’s rep as a man who comes out ahead in most trades. In 2020, Licht dealt a fourth-round pick for foot-rubbing tight end Rob Gronkowski and followed that up by trading up in the draft, giving up another fourth-round pick to land Tristan Wirfs, who seems to be putting together perhaps a Hall of Fame-worthy career.
Joe would say Licht and the Bucs got their value in those few deals.
Another interesting result from Patton’s research are the general managers/shot-callers who are lousy at trading. These include media darling Les Snead of the Rams, Bill Belichick, John Lynch of the 49ers (that Trey Lance trade alone would get many a general manager canned) and Mickey Loomis of the slimy Saints.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:23 am
ha! look at that coach from unc formally of boston. one of the absolute worst at trades. his genius was always to have have been lucky enough to have landed on tom with a 6th round pick.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:25 am
And let’s not forget Jason Pierre Paul.
JPP changed our defense from soft with GMC to wild and crazy with Suh and JPP.
Suh, Vea, JPP and Barrett was one of the greatest D-lines in NFL history.
They are really underrated for what they accomplished.
The JPP trade transformed our defense!
June 20th, 2025 at 6:48 am
I’ll bet my wife secretly writes for those guys on the side. It takes her half an hour to tell me it’s raining.
Anyway, yeah, man. Jason has pulled off some amazing trades. The only bad one I can call to mind is when he traded up for Agyuo or whatever that kickers name was. That was a stinker. JPP, Gronk, good stuff cheap.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:54 am
From days long gone I remember some truly gruesome trades. Especially when Screwy Hughy owned the team. A first round picks for the throwing Samoan. A first round pick for Booker Reese. Pure ankle grabs
June 20th, 2025 at 8:05 am
I’d like to know what statistics classes this guy took in college. And how was value defined? Looking at the graph gave me a headache!
June 20th, 2025 at 8:07 am
That Jack Thompson trade was the beginning of 12(?) years of Buccaneer crap.
Just terrible…….
June 20th, 2025 at 8:42 am
Andrew Thomas, Jedrick Wills Jr., Mekhi Becton, and Tristan Wirfs. WHO got the best tackle out of THAT draft?
June 20th, 2025 at 8:54 am
JPP easily Jason’s best trade.
June 20th, 2025 at 8:54 am
Us being able to draft Wirfs should tell you about the other teams that passed him over. ALL the pundits hit it right that year that Wirfs was the best Lineman coming out and had the Bucs taking Andrews at their spot, if he was still there in their projections. He literally fell into our laps and the fact that Licht had the intel to move up a spot and grab him is worth it’s weight in gold.