Part of the draft process each year is every NFL team hosting visits with prospects that they may potentially want to draft. Each organization, including the Bucs, gets up to 30 players to bring in to the team facility to get to know them more on a personal level.
The Bucs have had several players who have met with Tampa Bay so far.
So what goes on during these private meetings?
Bucs general manager Jason Licht gave some insight on Thursday.
A Top 30 Visit Day At The Bucs Facility
“Well, they’ll come in and they will meet with the trainer,” Licht began. “They’ve done their physicals for the most part – sometimes there are things that we want to check up on a little bit. They’ll meet with [vice president of sports medicine and performance] Bobby [Slater] and the training staff for 30 minutes, then they’ll meet with [vice president of player engagement] Duke [Preston] and his staff for 30 minutes. Then, they’ll meet with myself, [assistant general manager] John Spytek, [director of player personnel] Mike Biehl and [director of player personnel] Rob McCartney and then our scouts in a separate session for 30 minutes.
“Then they’ll meet with the coaches for a little bit longer and have lunch. We all want to make them feel comfortable. We want to get them loose and see their true colors, their true personality. Everybody has different ways. Sometimes Duke will give them some kind of a riddle to solve or will play some kind of a game with them – something just to see how competitive they are. I think overall they always leave here having a good day. We just want to loosen them up and see what their true personality is.”
After those meetings, the Bucs have a checklist of how it went with the prospect. Everybody is involved in this process, all the way from Licht to the intern that first meets the player at the airport.
“We have a very large spreadsheet with everybody’s opinion of [how] everybody is,” Licht said. “Including the interns that drive them to the airport and back. Sometimes those are the best ones.”
Bucs Also Benefit From Virtual Meetings
Every NFL front office is trying to gather as much information as they can to best formulate their decisions. It’s not always possible to meet with everybody in person, but Zoom interviews became the norm during the pandemic and these types of meetings have stayed through ever since a couple of seasons later when it was over. The Zooms have been a useful recruiting tool for the Bucs this time of year.
“Yeah, 1,000%. It’s been a big resource for us, and it has for other teams, too,” Licht said about Zoom’s positive impact. “It’s always good to see somebody face to face and talk to them. That’s always the best way, I think.
“But Zoom… I can walk through the halls right now any day here in this process and our coaches are Zooming with a different player, or our scouts, or together usually. We just get a lot more information. We gather a lot more information and get a feel for the players.”
Where it has become very useful is meeting with Day 3 or fringe prospects that could be late seventh-round picks or undrafted free agents. The Bucs have benefited from finding undrafted free agents over the years. Even last season Christian Izien started at nickel cornerback while Markees Watts showed potential as a pass rushing outside linebacker.
“We try to do as much of that as we can,” Licht said. “When the draft is over it becomes a free-for-all and it’s like you’re on the New York [Stock] Exchange. I think it does help a little bit to form relationships because everybody likes to have a little bit of a relationship and feels better going somewhere when they’ve talked to people there.”
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