Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Draft Aftermath | S.S. Mailbag

This week, Buccaneers fans have questions about some of the positions the Bucs' didn't address in last weekend's draft, a hypothetical league-wide redraft, and more

May 02, 2024 at 01:40 PM

Scott Smith

Senior Writer/Editor

As you may have heard by now, Jason Licht broke an interesting personal streak in last weekend's NFL draft. In each of his first 10 drafts as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' General Manager, Licht had engineered at least one swap of draft picks while the rounds were going on, whether that be trading up, down, in or out. This time around, he came in with seven picks in specific spots and left with seven players selected in those exact spots. No trades. Not even one for just the fun of it.

It's a week later but I've still got the draft on my brain. It's hard to turn the page when you've spent months thinking, reading and writing about this one topic. So I'm going to give you some more random notes about the Bucs' 2024 draft results.

- As Day Three of the draft began on Saturday, the Buccaneers were in position to make a selection relatively early in the afternoon, as they held the 25th pick of the fourth round, number 125 overall. They used that on Oregon running back Bucky Irving. After that, Licht and company kicked their heels up on their desks and became spectators for several hours.

Because their 2024 fifth-round pick had been traded last year to get the sixth-rounder used on wide receiver Trey Palmer, the Bucs did not have a selection in that round. And the trade in March that netted a third-rounder for cornerback Carlton Davis had also sent this year's sixth back to the Lions. The Bucs did have a compensatory selection in the sixth round, but it was the 44th and last pick of that frame, number 220 overall. They used that one on UTEP guard Elijah Klein.

That gap of 95 draft slots was the biggest between any two picks in a Buccaneers draft since 1981. It is the fourth-longest gap between picks in Tampa Bay's drafting history. In the franchise's earliest years, as it was trying to fill out a roster that was short on true NFL talent due to unfavorable expansion rules (compared to subsequent expansion years), the team often traded mid-round draft picks for established veterans. That's how, in 1977, the Buccaneers had no picks in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds. After taking Charley Hannah at pick number 57, the Bucs didn't pick again until number 196, which was used on quarterback Randy Hedberg. That was a gap of 139 picks; they might have wheeled some cots into the draft room. There were also pick gaps of 118 spots in the 1978 draft and 110 in the 1981 draft.

- Because the Buccaneers didn't make any trades, that meant they stayed put and picked at number 26 in the first round, selected Duke center Graham Barton. That marked the first time in 49 drafts that the Bucs had picked at exactly number 26. The other first-round slots from which the Bucs have yet to hand in a draft card are numbers two, nine, 10, 18, 21, 24 and 27.

- On the other end of that spectrum is pick number 57, which this year the Buccaneers spent on Alabama outside linebacker Chris Braswell. That's the same spot from which Tampa Bay took tackle Luke Goedeke two drafts ago and, as noted above, where they landed Hannah in 1977. In fact, the Bucs have executed the 57th pick in the NFL draft five times, which is the same number of times they've picked first overall. The only draft slot that has produced more Buccaneer picks is number 34, which the team has used six times. That group includes James Wilder, Errict Rhett and Donovan Smith.

- Barton was the first player the Buccaneers have ever drafted out of Duke. As Greg Auman of Fox Sports first pointed out, that leaves only two schools that are currently in Power Five conferences from which the Buccaneers have never drafted a player: Oklahoma State and UCF. Here's a side note to Auman's fun fact: Tampa Bay is the only NFL team never to draft a player from Oklahoma State. The Bucs' scouting department must have misplaced its map to Stillwater.

- The Bucs took Washington wide receiver Jalen McMillan in the third round, Irving in the fourth round and Washington tight end Devin Culp in the seventh round. That marked the first time since 2017 that the Buccaneers have drafted a receiver, running back and tight end in the same draft. That year it was Alabama tight end O.J. Howard in the first round, Penn State wideout Chris Godwin in the third round and Boise State running back Jeremy McNichols in the fifth round.

- Speaking of the University of Washington, with the selections of McMillan and Culp, Tampa Bay has now drafted five Huskies in the last seven drafts: Vita Vea in 2018, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka in 2021, Cade Otton in 2022 and Culp and McMillan this year. They've drafted 11 UW players in team history. All of those players plus another Huskies product, Greg Gaines, are on the Bucs' current roster. Those six Washington players are double the next schools on the list with the most current Buccaneer representation – Pittsburgh, Iowa and Nebraska.

Okay, enough about the draft. Now on to your questions.

A reminder that you can send questions to me any time you want on Twitter (@ScottSBucs) and they're easier to find if you include the hashtag #SSMailbagBucs. We are also now soliciting questions each week on our Instagram page; look for that story on Wednesdays. As always, if you want to get a longer question into the mailbag and would prefer to email your question, you can do so to tbbsocial@buccaneers.nfl.com.

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TAMPA, FL - April 25, 2024 - Head Coach Todd Bowles of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during day 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft in the draft room at AdventHealth Training Center. Photo By Tori Richman/Tampa Bay Buccaneers