The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are slated to pick 27th in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft next Thursday night, which means General Manager Jason Licht may have to wait three or four hours to make his first decision. On the other hand, if Licht finds himself working the phones with his NFL counterparts that evening, the Buccaneers could conceivably be on the clock earlier that evening…or perhaps not at all.
Licht held his annual pre-draft press conference last week and he said something that even he knew was a very familiar line for him. He says something similar almost every year, because it’s almost always true.
“I’ll say it every year, you guys probably get sick of me saying it,” said Licht. “All options are on the table right now.”
One of those options – or two, really – is a trade out of the 27th spot. That could be a trade up to nab a coveted prospect the team doesn’t expect to last to the end of the round. Or it could be a trade down to add extra draft capital and target a player, or handful of similarly-rated players, it believes it can still get later.
There’s a good reason to believe that the Buccaneers will be keeping an open mind and an open phone line regarding either of those options, and it comes from something else Licht mentioned in his press conference. To wit:
“It does look like a draft [where] there’s going to be some good players in the mid rounds, for sure,” he said. “There may not be 30 guys that you think are legit first-round picks but there’s going to be a lot of good players in the middle rounds.”
So if the blue-chip talent pool seems to be drying up early next Thursday, that could theoretically make the Buccaneers more willing to add in some extra assets to move up the board for a player who can make an instant impact in 2022. Conversely, if the value in this draft is in getting more swings in the middle round, that would make a trade back, and potentially out of the first round, more palatable.
I took a stab at a couple of draft-trade…