In March, at the NFL’s Annual Meeting in Orlando, Tampa Bay Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht discussed the third-round pick his team had received from the Detroit Lions in exchange for cornerback Carlton Davis. Licht described that added draft capital as a valuable asset the Buccaneers could use to add young talent to the roster or as “ammo” in a potential trade up scenario.
Those passing thoughts of March have turned into full-on strategic sessions in April. Licht doesn’t necessarily want to spend a Day Two pick to jump up from the 26th spot in the first round, but he is going to be ready if that changes on draft night and if a trade opportunity arises.
“In the past, our trade ups and trade downs, we’ve started that process typically around now,” said Licht, speaking at his annual pre-draft press conference exactly two weeks before the start of the NFL’s 2024 Draft. “We are too, right now. You don’t want to make rash decisions – at least I don’t – on draft day, emotional decisions that can come back and bite you. You want to be as clear minded as you can when you’re putting that together.”
Licht described a chart that he and his staff put together in the weeks before the draft to take away the uncertainty of what can and should be done when the draft clock is actually ticking. The chart covers different scenarios and the actions the Bucs would take under each one; Licht described one in which the Bucs were 10 picks from being on the clock and there were three coveted players left. Is that a point at which you should explore trading up, or is it a point at which you should hold? Conversely, if the list of coveted players is not shrinking fast, is there a point at which the Bucs should consider trading down and picking up some more draft capital? Licht will know all these things by the time the first round begins.
Licht has made small trades up plenty of times over the first 10 Buccaneer drafts he has governed, though more commonly on Day Two than in the first round. In the 2020 draft, he sent a fourth-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers (and got a seventh-rounder back) in order to move up one spot to number 13 and secure future All-Pro tackle Tristan Wirfs. With three other blue-chip tackle prospects already off the board, Licht didn’t want to risk letting another team jump over the Bucs to the 49ers’ spot. It is likely that he had started making phone calls to several teams ahead of the 14th spot when Wirfs…
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