The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be armed with seven picks when the 2024 NFL Draft begins on Thursday night. At least, that is, until Jason Licht starts making some calls.
Licht has been the Buccaneers' general manager since 2014, which means he's about to conduct his 11th draft for the team. In each of his first 10, he made at least one trade that changed his pick allotment during draft weekend. So we are definitely talking about fungible assets here.
That said, as Licht and company get ready for the clock to start ticking, here are the picks they will be holding to kick it off:
- Round 1, Pick 26, 26th Overall
- Round 2, Pick 25, 57th Overall
- Round 3, Pick 26, 89th Overall
- Round 3, Pick 29, 92nd Overall
- Round 4, Pick 25, 125th Overall
- Round 6, Pick 44, 220th Overall
- Round 7, Pick 26, 246th Overall
Four of those picks fall on the first two days of the draft, which encompasses Rounds One through Three. The second of the two third-round picks was acquired in a March trade of cornerback Carlton Davis to Detroit, which also included sixth-round selections in this draft and next year's draft going back to the Lions. As Licht himself noted during the NFL Annual Meeting last month, third-round picks are very valuable assets and, indeed, eight of the nine players he has taken in that round since 2017 have become starters.
Despite the Davis trade, the Buccaneers do have some work to do in the sixth round, as they were awarded a compensatory pick at the end of that frame based on collective losses in free agency in 2023. It is the 44th and final pick of that round.
