Jason Licht On Todd Bowles: “He Says You Have To Take The Best Player That Helps You Win Games, Period.”
April 16th, 2026
Bucs GM Jason Licht was in good spirits Wednesday.
Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht gushed Wednesday about his working relationship with his head coach.
Licht reinforced what Bowles has told Joe the past two offseasons: that in the first round a team should pick the best player available, then you address needs in the second round.
A year ago, Bowles told media at the owners meetings that he had zero issue if the Bucs were to go offense in the first round, even though Tampa Bay was crying out loud for an inside linebacker.
The Bucs picked receiver Emeka Egbuka.
At Licht’s annual league-mandated pre-draft news conference yesterday, Licht talked about his study of tight ends. Some in the know think the Bucs will grab Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq at No. 15.
Licht, who is not a good poker player, did not push back on that idea, saying it would be “great” if the Bucs could land an athletic tight end, a true deep threat.
Then Licht began gushing about his strong working relationship with Bowles.
“He proved to me last year where he wasn’t upset with taking Emeka [Egbuka] where he says you have to take the best player that helps you win games, period,” Licht said. “So, I’m very fortunate to have a head coach that feels that way when we work together to make these decisions.
“I feel like I’ve said this every year, you can never go wrong with taking the best player. You’re going to be happy at some point that you did instead of trying to force a pick.”
Licht did drop a doozy of a nugget about Bowles behind the scenes at One Buc Palace.
“He hates the [description] ‘defensive-minded’ head coach,” Licht said.
OK, Joe cannot lay off a big fat fastball coming right down Central Avenue.
Bowles gets ticked that he’s called a “defensive-minded,” coach, eh? Is that because he’s ashamed of his defense?
April 16th, 2026 at 4:23 am
@Joe went yard on that fastball!
April 16th, 2026 at 5:34 am
Remember Joe, Bowles couldn’t spend as much time on the defense last year because he was “helping” the offense. Hahahahahahaha
April 16th, 2026 at 5:59 am
“The best player that helps you WIN games period” is different than bpa. For example, the Titans are projected to take Love & #4, Love is valued as one of the best players in the draft. The problem with this selection for the Titans is, their offensive line is abysmal, so how much of a factor will Love truly have until they fix the OL issues? So is Love the player that would help them “win games period “?
Now for the Bucs, I do belythe offense is in a position where they could add a play maker like sadiq (I’m not a fan of it) but will sadiq be able to help the team “win games period” more so than a defensive players selection? Guess it depends on how the board plays out and ultimately that’s the decision Licht and Bowles will have to make.
My opinion, with all the TE talk they will be going a different direction in rd 1.
April 16th, 2026 at 6:30 am
Well, I am crying out that the Bucs need to take Jeremiyah Love and need to do whatever it takes to have the ability to draft him!!!!!
PS I too have been crying about Bowles, he should be replaced at DC by Jim Schwartz, but still keep that HC Job
I mean Great Googly Moogly!!!
April 16th, 2026 at 6:36 am
I said after the season that TE was a position of need
My question is……why pay Cade Otton?
The money spent on Cade Otton could have been spent on a Devin Lloyd
Then you would have solved the ILB problem, and could draft a TE
Everyone knew this was a deep draft for tight ends
That’s why this TE talk makes no sense
April 16th, 2026 at 6:54 am
If Todd didn’t do double duty as the D coordinator he would shake some of that moniker, but he won’t hire one so pretty obvious he is defensive minded HC
April 16th, 2026 at 6:54 am
Hey Joe, how about a follow up of last year’s draft, and I don’t mean Emeka Egbuka.
Everybody had Jihad Campbell mocked to the Bucs, what kind of season did he have?
April 16th, 2026 at 7:16 am
Jason Licht has had 12 seasons as GM of the Bucs with only 5 winning seasons – in 2020 and 2021 the Bucs went 11-5 and 13-4 with Brady calling the shots and Licht standing aside to not screw everything up – without Brady the Bucs and Licht have had winning seasons of 9-7 9-8 and 10-7 with one playoff win – not especially impressive – but we get folks on JBF screaming at the top of their lungs about how great Licht is – confounding –
April 16th, 2026 at 7:21 am
should some folks quibble with the assessment that Brady was steering the Bucs in 2020 and 2021 and Licht was not a contributor – please recall the 2021 “special teams” draft with Trask JTS and KJ Britt that would have gotten any other GM in the NFL fired
April 16th, 2026 at 7:30 am
Licht is one of the top 3 drafters in the entire NFL. He’s also one of the top GM’s.
April 16th, 2026 at 7:44 am
“I feel like I’ve said this every year, you can never go wrong with taking the best player. You’re going to be happy at some point that you did instead of trying to force a pick.”
Y’dont say, Jason.
The thing with BPA, at least with how it’s quoted here is that “for us” is always omitted.
There’s no real true consensus top player list in the draft process, at least not based off all 32 teams’ rankings that they spend ridiculous amounts of time and resources to flesh out.
What there is however, is speculation and an entire NFL offseason ecosystem that thrives off, and makes some pretty good money guessing what all 32 teams will do.
If after the BPA question a reporter asks “could you give us some positions you’re looking at in the 1st/2nd?” in terms of BPA.
Who wouldn’t put money on Licht answering “All of’em” and chuckling into the next question lol