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Bucs GM: Team Needs Not Tied To 2025 Record

March 1st, 2026

Interesting and telling take from Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht.

When Licht wasn’t busy hosting news conferences with local and national media last week at the NFL Scouting Combine — and sitting down for TV spots and 20-plus minutes on the Ira Kaufman Podcast — he joined SiriusXM NFL Radio and answered a question about filling the Bucs’ holes and avoiding knee-jerk reactions in free agency and the draft.

That was an easy answer for Licht, who said the Bucs’ plan is unaffected by last year’s late-season collapse.

“I think even if we had made the playoffs and made some noise in the playoffs, no matter how far we went, I think we’d still be in the same position that we are right now,” Licht said.

Now that’s a GM confident in his process!

“We know where we need to make improvements. We know where we’re lacking. We own it. We all own it. I’ve gotta do a better job on my end as well. We didn’t play as well at certain positions as we could have. So, right now we have plans. I feel confident in what we’re gonna do here. We’ve got free agency, we’ve got the draft, we’ve got different avenues that we can add some more players. We’ve had some really good luck in the past finding some, you know, not necessarily the flashy player: Ben Bredeson, Chase McLaughlin, you know, Shaq Barrett. Every team has these, but we’ve done a pretty good job with those. So it’s not necessarily the flashy [player], it’s also some of the doubles that you hit that help get you over the top.”

Licht’s message was clear across his various stops last week. Don’t expect the Bucs to deviate from their roster-building path of the past few years. Sure, it could happen, but that’s highly unlikely.