Peter King explains simple reason why Bucs passed on drafting Will Levis

Despite rumors that they could trade up for him, the Buccaneers passed on drafting Will Levis at No. 19 and NFL expert Peter King explains why. 

What started out as a wild Thursday at the NFL Draft turned out to be a quietly amazing weekend for Jason Licht and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay left Kansas City with eight new players, five of whom are on the defensive side of the ball. Those results fly in the face of almost every projection that was being made in the 11th hour by experts around the league who had locked an offensive tackle in as the Bucs pick at No. 19 overall.

Instead the team went to the opposite side of the ball with its first pick, and that kicked off a trend that continued all weekend long.

MORE: Mel Kiper Jr. grades Buccaneers 2023 draft class

Calijah Kancey was the pick, but in the time between the Bucs going on the clock and the pick being turned in, there was another guy who some thought Tampa Bay might take. Kentucky quarterback Will Levis fell like a rock through the first round order, and there was a brief moment when most fans thought he might end up being the pick for the Bucs.

After all, we’d been hit with rumors the entire offseason that the Bucs needed a quarterback and Levis lined up with their need and draft position. He wasn’t the pick, though, and Peter King explained why on Monday.

Peter King explains why Bucs didn’t draft Will Levis at No. 19

In his weekly FMIA column, King recapped a crazy weekend at the NFL Draft and dove into a few specific storylines that developed. The fall of Levis was an obvious one, but rather than dunk on him King explained in very simple terms why teams like the Buccaneers passed on him in the first round.

As King rightly points out, Tampa Bay had bigger fish to fry than using a premium pick on a position it didn’t need to address.

King writes:

"Tampa Bay had many bigger needs than replacing Baker Mayfield. Plus, you heard so much about how great the tight end class was. But there was only one tight end picked in the first round because, of course, the supply was so deep. Levis didn’t sink like a stone. He was the fourth-most-desired quarterback in a year when the vast majority of teams had bigger needs."

The Bucs went with Pitt pass rusher Calijah Kancey, a pick so hidden behind smoke and mirrors that not even the man himself knew the selection was coming. It was a masterclass in keeping front office secrets within the walls of One Buc Place, and is another feather in the cap of Jason Licht as general manager of the team.

It’s more than just the secret being kept that shines an incredible light on Licht. The dedication to whatever strategy that was drawn up pre-draft and the belief that everyone in the room knew what they were doing was seen in the Bucs passing on Levis.

Fans were nervous for a reason when the Bucs went on the clock and Levis was still there. All offseason long they’d been conditioned the think Tampa Bay was a legit candidate to trade up for Levis and here he was falling right into their laps at No. 19.

Rather than give into the temptation, Licht stuck to the plan and in turn added a potentially massive piece to a defense that is three years removed from wiping the Super Bowl field with the best offense in football.

In a division that added Derek Carr, Bijan Robinson, and Bryce Young this offseason, the Bucs zagged and reinforced its defense to account for the battles it will be in. It’s a brilliant strategy, and one that isn’t fairly complicated once you zoom out and look at the whole weekend Tampa Bay had at the draft.