Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jason Licht’s worst draft picks
By Bailey Adams
3. Jeremy McNichols (2017)
Tampa Bay very clearly needed to address the backfield during the 2017 offseason. Free agency came and went with no additions made. From there, it was assumed that the Bucs would find a new running back in the draft.
However, the first four rounds passed without a pick being spent on a running back. Licht (understandably) passed on Dalvin Cook in favor of O.J. Howard in round one. He went with secondary help in round two, then grabbed Chris Godwin (one of his best picks) in the third round.
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But then Licht traded back into the third round to select linebacker Kendell Beckwith. Beckwith had a nice rookie year and looks like a good asset for the Tampa Bay defense to have for the future. But did they need a linebacker there? It’s debatable.
Samaje Perine, Tarik Cohen, Jamaal Williams, Wayne Gallman and Marlon Mack all went in the fourth round, but Licht must not have liked any of those guys enough. Where he went wrong, clearly, is the selection of Boise State’s Jeremy McNichols in the fifth round.
McNichols was highly underwhelming in the 2017 preseason and failed to make the team out of camp. The fact that he couldn’t even crack the roster after Licht seemed to have hopes that he would be in the backfield rotation says a lot. There was hype around him, but none of it was backed up in his extremely short Tampa Bay tenure.