Jason Licht Explains A Quality In A Good Coach
March 31st, 2025
Talkin’ coaches.
Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht is going on his 12th season as an NFL general manager. He’s now hired three head coaches (remember: lousy Lovie Smith brought in Licht, one of the very few — two? — good things Lovie’s ever done for the organization).
Along the way, Licht built a Super Bowl winner and that same team is on a fourpeat as NFC South champs.
So clearly Licht has had good and bad fortune in hiring coaches. In a sitdown with BSPN’s Mike Tannenbaum, a former GM himself, Tannenbaum asked Licht what goes into a good head coach.
Some coaches just are not built for the job, Licht replied. He noted when a guy jumps from coordinator to head coach, often he’s only used to working on one side of the ball with maybe having one or two issues to deal with each week. As a head coach, there are sometimes way more than a couple of daily issues.
“They just aren’t wired to do that,” Licht noted of some coaches who struggle managing team issues.
So Tannenbaum then asked Licht to name trait of a good coach. Licht noted it’s something both Bucco Bruce Arians and Todd Bowles have. No panic.
“I have a lot of those moments with both of Todd and Bruce,” Licht said. “I think one of the best qualities of a great head coach is, you walk in on Monday and you tell them, ‘Hey, both of our starting tackles are going to be out this week.’ And the ones that go, ‘UGH! What are we going to do? We are going to lose for sure!’ [generally are coaches who struggle.]
“Then you’ve got the ones like Todd and Bruce, are like, ‘All right. We’ll figure it out.’ That’s what we’re supposed to do. So that’s a great quality.”
The NFL is an unpredictable game. Injuries, suspensions, and the opponent change week-to-week.
The guys that can and will roll with the punches are the guys Licht wants in charge.
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