Jason Licht: Trade Wizard
June 20th, 2025
Dialed in.
Joe wishes the stat geeks and math heads could type in English.
Steven Patton, who runs @PattonAnalytics and seems to do numbers crunching for a Stinking Panthers website, tried to do an OceanGate-like Titan submersible deep dive on which general managers made the best traders from 2016 to 2023.
Joe’s head was spinning after the third paragraph, sort of like after reading three pages of a Henry James novel.
Patton and Colin Dunphy seemed to take 25 paragraphs to spell out what could have been explained in eight sentences. Ugh. Joe guesses a tech writer could embrace this… prose.
Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht is one of the best in the NFL at winning trades when it comes to value, they found out.
A couple of trades this decade probably helped seal Licht’s rep as a man who comes out ahead in most trades. In 2020, Licht dealt a fourth-round pick for foot-rubbing tight end Rob Gronkowski and followed that up by trading up in the draft, giving up another fourth-round pick to land Tristan Wirfs, who seems to be putting together perhaps a Hall of Fame-worthy career.
Joe would say Licht and the Bucs got their value in those few deals.
Another interesting result from Patton’s research are the general managers/shot-callers who are lousy at trading. These include media darling Les Snead of the Rams, Bill Belichick, John Lynch of the 49ers (that Trey Lance trade alone would get many a general manager canned) and Mickey Loomis of the slimy Saints.