“Steady.”

No one really expects a third-round draft pick to have an impact with a team right away. Unless someone is crazy enough to draft a kicker in the third round.

So when the Bucs landed Ted Hurst this spring from Georgia State, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht thought there may be a little bit of a learning curve. The NFL is just a little higher competition than the Sun Belt Conference.

But the more Licht watched Hurst in Bucs practices, the more he began to realize that Hurst could have an impact this year, forget down the road.

“After we drafted him, I personally thought, ‘OK, this is a great situation for him to be behind these guys and learn.’” Licht said. “He may not make a big impact for us this year, but one for the future.

“I think he’s proven to us throughout camp, even OTAs, and practice every day that he’s been very, very steady. I think it’s kind of evolved into, ‘OK, we can use him this year and he’s going to play a role.'”

Licht hit the nail on the head when he referred to Hurst as “steady.”

Joe hates to be repetitive, but he knows not all of his readers read every published story. So here goes:

Joe has seen every Bucs practice from the OTAs, through minicamp and training camp. While Hurst doesn’t look anything like Chris Godwin, he plays like Godwin.

You know how Godwin makes contested catches look routine? That’s Hurst. It doesn’t matter if he has a defender draped all over him. Hurst, time and again, day after day, smoothly and routinely, makes contested catches look ho-hum.

If Hurst can continue to do that on Sunday afternoons, he will be a fixture on the Bucs for some time.