On the debut episode of Ronde Barber's new podcast, Buccaneers GM Jason Licht stopped by and gave some last-minute NFL Draft intel. Unlike the stuff we've been hearing in recent weeks from insiders and folks peddling rumors (guilty as charged, to be fair), this comes straight from the source.
Licht specifically addressed the ongoing rumor that Tampa Bay will be trading out of the No. 19 pick, saying that not a single call has been made so far.
"So it's just the finetuning this week. People think that the phone's ringing off the hook and teams are wanting to trade up, trade back. I read a report that we're trying to trade back — I haven’t made a single call yet, so I don’t know where those reports come from," Licht said.
Jason Licht shoots down major NFL Draft rumor about the Buccaneers
There's a few ways to interpret this, not all of which is obvious. Licht is clearly saying that the team hasn't engaged in any trades, but that 'yet' at the end of his statement is doing a lot of work. It also doesn't shoot down the idea that Tampa Bay will pick up trade conversations as they get closer to being on the clock, but part of that is just the nature of the NFL Draft.
What this doesn't say is that the Bucs are absolutely locked into standing pat at No. 19, althought it's about as close to some semblance of truth as we've gotten thus far in the process. Hearing this straight from Licht carries a ton of weight, and if we're looking at it in the context of the last few years then it might be more illuminating than deceptive.
Licht could have traded out of the Bucs spot in back-to-back seasons but stood pat. The result was landing two key players for the future in Calijah Kancey and Graham Barton, which is reason to believe staying here again will produce similar results.
The only two times Licht has made a trade this decade were moving up for Tristan Wirfs and down for Logan Hall. It's hard to describe the canyon that exists between how those two picks turned out, but it's more of an example of why the Bucs don't seem crazy about the idea of moving around in the draft.
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