“Just A High-Level Humble Guy”
October 11th, 2025
If you ask Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht about his front office and its accomplishments, there’s a good chance you won’t get an answer for five minutes while Licht rattles off endless names of his subordinates and talks about how they are all rock stars that run the show and make him look great.
Licht seems to try and up his gratitude level every year.
He’s even escalated since calling Mike Greenberg, the Bucs assistant GM, “the real GM,” That was four years ago when Greenberg was the Bucs director of football operations.
It’s all very sweet, but Joe doesn’t want to hear it. Licht is the big cheese and deserves the accolades that come his way, and the criticism.
And the love has been flowing.
Former Eagles scout and popular podcaster John Middlekauf, Colin Cowherd’s go-to sidekick on NFL matters, was gushing about Licht this week on The Colin Cowherd Podcast. Middlekauf even suggested Todd Bowles would have failed without Licht’s operation backing him up.
“He got Jason Licht, who anyone in the league will tell you is easily one of the best GMs,” Middlekauf said. “Just a high-level humble guy who’s seen it all, worked for everyone that mattered in the league over the last 20 years. And their team, like they have had so many injuries. And you watch them play, I mean offensively they’re missing their starting running back and their Hall of Fame wide receiver and they scored 38 points on the road against Seattle? Wow.”
The New York Times polled 29 general managers head coaches and team executives across the NFL recently and asked them identify the best five front offices in the NFL. The Bucs got 2 first-place votes, 0 second-place votes, 2 third-place votes, 3 fourth-place votes and 4 fifth-place votes.
That translated to Licht’s crew ranking tied for sixth-best in the NFL with the Packers, slightly better than the Lions and Seahawks.
Yeah, Licht’s been that good in recent years.
“I think he’s one of the best GMs in the business,” a second exec said. “He’s an excellent evaluator. He empowers his guys to run a really good department. He lets the scouts do their job and values their input. They’ve done a really good job for several years of knowing the type of guy they want in their building and sticking to that, just being very disciplined about who is in the locker room, who is in the building, the type of person they are, on top of the quality of player.”
Joe is obviously a Licht fan. He’s gone from bad to tolerable to great — and he seems to keep improving. If Licht, a renowned offensive line whisperer, can add edge rusher guru to his résumé, he could find himself in Canton one day.
October 11th, 2025 at 6:38 pm
But they don’t value the edge rush….
October 11th, 2025 at 6:39 pm
My son and I had a great experience at sofi last year. Sat right in front of the bench and my son had a sign saying it was his 13th birthday. Multiple coaches came by and said hi, shook his hand. Blazer came and gave him a pen for his hat and took a few pictures. Then at the end of the game Evans took off his cleats, signed em and gave them to him. I cannot say enough about this organization from top to bottom, they genuinely love their jobs and appreciate fans. From coaches to players to owners, great people.
October 11th, 2025 at 6:48 pm
Licht already arguably deserves a spot in Canton, Joe. When all is said and done, he might have drafted multiple Hall of Fame players in Evans and Wirfs. Winfield, maybe Egbuka too? Too early to say that, obviously. But, with a Super Bowl on the resume and all the division championships and playoff appearances, plus being responsible for drafting 2-4 HOFers? That is Canton worthy when you consider other GMs who have made the Hall.
October 11th, 2025 at 7:01 pm
Let’s put all the talk on hold and enjoy what he has done and not be in a rush to have him in Canton or anywhere for that matter yet, nor the people that work under him because we want to keep them here for when de decides to hang it up. A heartfelt shout out to ALL the staff and support people. And while we’re at it let’s give a shout out to the Glazers who have been there to support him and the staff through all the changes, decisions and things that time has dealt us, to establishing a solid culture which does matter. Used to be other teams were the model of consistency, which leads to wins, and we envied them. Nice to be envied for once. And I believe the stain of those early years is washed away. Growth has growing pains but let’s enjoy the solid core we have here now.
October 11th, 2025 at 7:06 pm
Licht just needs 4-5 more Lombardi Trophies so let’s go do that. Sound like a plan?
October 11th, 2025 at 7:11 pm
Best GM in the league.
October 11th, 2025 at 7:12 pm
Bucs are blessed to have a top total team because we have a top level organization. Licht has just continued to improve year after year just getting better & better. Such a great time to be a Buccaneers fan.
The next draft is absolutely loaded with linebacker talent. I’m sure Jason & his team of scouts will find 1 or 2 studs to help the defense even more.
October 11th, 2025 at 7:18 pm
Bucs are blessed to have a top total team because we have a top level organization. Licht has just continued to improve year after year just getting better & better. Such a great time to be a Buccaneers fan.
The next draft is absolutely loaded with linebacker talent. I’m sure Jason & his team of scouts will find 1 or 2 studs to help the defense even more.
October 11th, 2025 at 7:49 pm
Hey Joe, does Licht still jump in the pool when the Bucs win? He’s probably getting too old, and having to do it too often. Best GM in Bucs history!
October 11th, 2025 at 8:08 pm
Has hit 5 of the last 6 drafts with 4 in a row and the 2020 draft’s potential to have 2 HOF players. He’s at the top of his game. People act like Licht can’t draft an edge rusher. It’s actually the team drafting later especially when we went for JTS and logan Hall. We haven’t had a chance at the top players since before 2019.
October 11th, 2025 at 8:40 pm
Best GM in the league. The way he navigated us out of the lost decade is a thing of beauty. What’s crazy is that lovie smith who we all bag on which he deserves hired him. The only good thing lovie did lol. Of course there’s growing pains when you’ve never done a job before and have zero experience but man it all has bin worth it. @ JOE JL should be in the hall of fame solely for building a team good enough for Brady to want to play for. lol
October 11th, 2025 at 9:07 pm
Want an edge rush? Get rid of the Tdodster.
October 11th, 2025 at 9:28 pm
Only reason he was ever bad is he was Lovie’s puppet for those two years. Then he was mediocre, I agree. From the moment he hired BA, he’s been en fuego.
October 11th, 2025 at 11:28 pm
It has nothing to do with drafting an edge rusher. Bowles doesn’t value it. How many teams have their edge rushers drop back in pass coverage as often as he does. It’s not Licht it’s Bowles and the God awful system he runs defensively. Bowles refuses to change his ways and this is what we get year after year when it comes to a edge rusher.
October 12th, 2025 at 12:06 am
@Aqualung, your selective reasoning is contradictory and illogical. Do you even hear yourself or are you too “colorblind” to notice your pattern? You appear to credit BA for Lichts success over the last 6 yrs, blame Lovie for his early failure, and give Licht (and Koetter) a pass with a mediocre assessment.
So, according to you, Licht is a maliable pawn who fails (Lovie), is average (Koetter), or succeeds (Arians) based solely on the coach. Yet, you conveniently omit Bowles’s contributions to Licht’s success over the last 6+ yr, of which Bowles served as the teams DC for 3 of those yrs (including a superbowl) and HC/DC for 3+ of those yrs. Ironically, those are Licht’s best yrs as GM.
Look, we get the beef with TB the DC (I’m with you here), but to ignore his contributions to the team’s/Licht’s success is ludicrous. Licht himself credits Bowles for Baker and his leadership for 3 division titles. Maybe you can find the capacity to turn the page and move on from your myopic pov. Just because you say something over, and over, and over, and over does NOT make it right, more specifically, accurate. This is a buc friendly site, not a political rally. Your chant has rambled on too long and your lack of objectivity makes the words ring hollow
October 12th, 2025 at 6:57 am
He ranked 6th? That’s criminal! 3years ago we were $88million over the cap! That would’ve absolutely submarined any other organization for years. Ie the slimy Saints. On top of his drafting, his maneuvering and managing the salary cap preparing for years ahead has been absolute genius!
October 12th, 2025 at 7:11 am
To that end, the players clearly believe in Todd. Have you EVER seen a current or former Buc criticize Todd about ANYthing? Contrast THAT with the world champ Eagles–Lane Johnson is calling out the new OC in the press
October 12th, 2025 at 12:25 pm
@Mac
I believe you’re on to something … Known to immensely clever people as “the Obvious”
And confusing to others whom Really don’t understand the “traditional art”.of the pass rush..
CONSTANTLY sending Your BEST OPTIONS TO GET TO THE QB, “into coverage”, instead of Actually Rushing the passer is foreign to most… It IS a tell of HOPELESSNESS for getting sacks from guys who have trained all their lives in the “traditional ways” to SACK THE QB! The same Defensive line players that are “sent into coverage”, For One are NOT PHYSICALLY DESIGNED FOR THAT JOB! And therefore, CONSTANTLY FAIL AT COVERING GUYS THAT RUN IN THE SPEED RANGE OF THE 4’S
As a “pure pass rusher”, This is the Worst Possible team to be apart of as long as Bowles is in charge…. Just the facts whether people like it or not. NO NEED TO LIE ABOUT BOWLES TACTICS AND PRETEND IT’S WORKING TO ANY SIGNIFICANT DEGREE “FOR PASS RUSHERS” IN PARTICULAR…