What Is A Day Like In Bucs’ GM Jason Licht’s Shoes?

“Well fortunately I have awesome people working for me,” Licht said. “I mean, we have so much stability here. I’ve been here going on my eleventh year, I’ve got some people that have been with me the entire time. You guys have talked to Mike Greenberg, he’s the big brain. That’s not me, I just have a big head, I don’t have a big brain [laughs].”

John Spytek, the other assistant general manager, echoed a similar message when he went through the team’s extensive pre-draft process and gave shoutouts to the scouts and front office staff. For Licht, he enjoys the grind of watching film but understands that there is so much more than adding players to the team. He relies on the whole crew to help him steer the ship.

“I’ve got a lot of great people here, but I try to do as much film as I can because I learned quickly here – I’ve been here 10 years, the first five years had a lot of downs, and then the last five years have been mostly ups,” Licht said of how he approaches his post. “The first five years I tried to do too much and you find out once you get the GM job, I was a road scout for most of my career.

“The job entails a lot more than just watching film. When they build budgets and salary cap things, and ‘Where do you want people to park on gameday?’ I’m like, this is not what I signed up for, you know? You have to hire good people that handle all of that stuff.”

Simply put, he’s a football junkie.

“I love the draft, I love watching tape. It’s my – it’s like a drug for me. As much film as I can watch, the better.”

For “An Old Man,” Jason Licht Has Embraced Pulling Back The Curtain

In a technology-centric era where content is king, letting fans see what goes on behind the scenes is essential in being more relatable and relevant to an audience that always wants more. Jason Licht may now be 53 years old, but that has not stopped him from staying with the times by trolling on social media and keeping receipts.

Moreover, Licht has embraced putting things out into the open and revealing what goes in the war room.

“I think it’s just the age we’re in right now,” Licht said on the league being content-driven. “After the draft you bring in your first-round pick the next day and you have a little moment with them in your office, the head coach does in his office. And now, when they come in, there’s a crew of camera people coming in too. It was weird for me for a while, but the kids are just so used to it. I’m not trying to sound like an old man here – well, I am an old man – but they’re just so used to it.”

That’s why during this year’s draft, we saw an exclusive look at the team taking Barton and the phone calls made to the Bucs’ draft picks.

“This year I didn’t want to be that antiquated old fart that, ‘No, we got to keep everything secretive,'” Licht added. “I allowed them to have full access to our draft meetings, the Combine, the Combine meetings, during the draft, and I saw the content that gets put out and the fans love it. I know my kids love it, my family loves it, the fans love it, the behind-the-scenes stuff.”

As mentioned before, Jason Licht is a rare breed as an NFL general manager.

It is not often that a fan favorite is an executive and not a player, but Licht has built that reputation during Tampa Bay’s success over the past five seasons, most notably when he was spotted during the boat parade downing a Bud Light with former head coach Bruce Arians.

At the end of the day, football is a show, and Licht enjoys putting an entertaining product on the field and has fun doing it.

“I think it’s all a part of the thing,” Licht added. “You have to realize, yeah, we’re football people, we’re picking players. That’s our job, signing players, but really, we’re part of a big show. The goal is to put on a great performance out there at the stadium every week and our job is to put the talent out there, but we’re part of a bigger thing. We need to get fans involved and fans excited. I love the content.”

Watch Bucs GM Jason Licht On The Pat McAfee Show

Catch Bucs general manager Jason Licht’s full interview on The Pat McAfee Show below.