Speaker 1: Welcome into Road to the Draft, Casey Phillips here with
Speaker 1: senior writer and editor Scott Smith. And as you said
Speaker 1: right before we started filming, it's the end of throw,
Speaker 1: the end of the road, the final road to the
Speaker 1: draft before the draft itself one week from today. So
Speaker 1: this means you're going to get everything right today. Right,
Speaker 1: it's the last one, so you already just you know anything,
Speaker 1: because everybody could guarantee that their mock draft is exactly right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I can't. I can't.
Speaker 3: I can't stop thinking about the Boys and the Men
Speaker 3: song after you said into the Road.
Speaker 2: So I'm kind of lost. Yeah, I don't even.
Speaker 1: Have a pick, Like, yeah, you're just you're just thinking
Speaker 1: about that song.
Speaker 2: That's all that matters.
Speaker 1: Well, I know we did get some insight from a
Speaker 1: rather important person involved in the Bucks draft. General manager
Speaker 1: Jason light had his pre draft press conference this last week.
Speaker 1: And so were there things that he said that you
Speaker 1: felt like gave you some interesting insights?
Speaker 2: You have to search a little bit, yeah, because.
Speaker 1: Well he didn't just tell us who we're picking.
Speaker 3: I'm sure managers around the league always do these pre
Speaker 3: draft press conferences, and it's an exercise and you know,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to help the me and give them what.
Speaker 2: They want, but you're not giving them what they really want,
Speaker 2: which is the end, which we don't want him to.
Speaker 3: You don't want to give what your strategy obviously, and
Speaker 3: to be honest, when you're picking his far down as nineteenth,
Speaker 3: it's hard to really know what your strategy is going
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 2: You've got to be prepared for a lot of things.
Speaker 3: But one of the things that he was asked about was,
Speaker 3: you know, there's this trend basically of running backs being
Speaker 3: devalued because of their position. Like in two thousand and five,
Speaker 3: the Buccaneers drafted Cadillac Williams fifth overall and he was
Speaker 3: the third running back drafted that year, which is inconceivable
Speaker 3: nobody that would never happen now.
Speaker 2: Eighteen years later.
Speaker 3: But he was asked, would you take a running back
Speaker 3: in the first round? He says he's not against it
Speaker 3: if it's a special that's what he said. I got
Speaker 3: the quote, No, not if you feel like it's going
Speaker 3: to be a special, special player. So the idea behind
Speaker 3: not wanting to use high draft assets on a running
Speaker 3: back is that their careers on average are shorter, and
Speaker 3: so he said, when you draft a guy in the
Speaker 3: first round, you're hoping to get a guy that you
Speaker 3: have for ten years, and that's less likely with a
Speaker 3: running back because they don't as often get that second
Speaker 3: contract in that third contract. So would you still want
Speaker 3: to take a running back knowing that you probably aren't
Speaker 3: getting a ten year player. Well, Jason said, you'd like
Speaker 3: to get that, but they're few far between and you
Speaker 3: don't always get that. So he would take a running back.
Speaker 3: And the reason that this is a topic is because
Speaker 3: there is a star running back, Bijon Robinson of Texas
Speaker 3: this year who is considered the best prospect at running
Speaker 3: back since Saquon Barkley in two thousand and seventeen or eighteen,
Speaker 3: who went second overall, which is the highest running back
Speaker 3: has gone in a long time. Jason Lyt has not
Speaker 3: drafted a running back higher than pick thirty eight since
Speaker 3: he got here, and that was Ronald Jones in the
Speaker 3: second round, and so this would be a departure from
Speaker 3: what we've done. But he said, if it was a special,
Speaker 3: special player, he's not against it. A lot of people
Speaker 3: think Bjon Robinson is a special special player. Will he
Speaker 3: be there at nineteen we'll see. He's probably one of
Speaker 3: the best five or ten players in the draft, but
Speaker 3: because he plays running back, he'll probably.
Speaker 2: Slip out of the top ten. Maybe maybe not.
Speaker 3: But if he's there at nineteen, after hearing Jason what
Speaker 3: Jason said, you have to think it's a possibility.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it would be exciting.
Speaker 1: It would. Yeah, everybody loves when there's some of those
Speaker 1: position players that get taken.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think we're all very happy about Rashad
Speaker 3: White and think he's going to do great, and so
Speaker 3: isn't necessarily the hugest position of need, but if you
Speaker 3: have a chance to add a player that that's good,
Speaker 3: that is that good. I mean, Barry Sanders went third
Speaker 3: overall in the draft. He went because the first two
Speaker 3: teams felt like they didn't need running back. About three
Speaker 3: years after that, I bet they all wish they had
Speaker 3: Barry Sanders.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very true. In terms of position of need.
Speaker 1: One of the ones that we've talked about has been
Speaker 1: just offensive line in general, but specifically tackle. And I
Speaker 1: know Tristan Worth spoke this last week as well, and
Speaker 1: there's been debate about is the a right tackle, is
Speaker 1: he a left tackle? What does this mean he's get
Speaker 1: right for both. Yeah, you know, just be ready for
Speaker 1: all the things. So do you feel like you've gleaned
Speaker 1: anything from what he said or what the team has
Speaker 1: said that makes you think that a tackle would be
Speaker 1: something that the team would consider, well, he said.
Speaker 3: Jason Light to that question, said, tackles are very hard
Speaker 3: to find. There are a few good ones that we
Speaker 3: like in this year's draft that we've spent a lot
Speaker 3: of time on. And then he also said, however, the
Speaker 3: depth at offensive line throughout the rest of the draft
Speaker 3: was a lot better on the interior line that had tackles.
Speaker 3: So it could be a situation like Tristan WIRs in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, where there were four guys that were considered
Speaker 3: blue ship prospects and everybody knew it, and there was
Speaker 3: a run on them, and we actually had to trade
Speaker 3: up to thirteen to make sure we got Tristan, who
Speaker 3: was the last taken of those four. He's turned out
Speaker 3: to be the best one, but he was the last
Speaker 3: taken of those four. It could be a year like
Speaker 3: that where because there's about four tackles maybe five at
Speaker 3: the top that people like a lot, but it drops
Speaker 3: off a little bit after that there could be a.
Speaker 2: Run on them. So do they make it to nineteen?
Speaker 3: Well, in her most recent mock draft on buccaneers dot Com,
Speaker 3: Brianna Dix gave us Broderick Jones of Georgia, Who's the
Speaker 3: guy we've talked about before. In a lot of mock drafts,
Speaker 3: he goes before nineteen, but in her particularly one, he
Speaker 3: made it there. And I have seen some mock drafts
Speaker 3: where he makes it to nineteen. This is a guy
Speaker 3: who played left tackle, So if you draft Broderick Jones,
Speaker 3: you're probably leaving Tristan Worrer at right tackle, which you
Speaker 3: know is a little bit easier, right, No, he's good
Speaker 3: at it. Yeah, we know he's fantastic addic. So Roger
Speaker 3: Jones is a guy that is on the Bucks radar.
Speaker 3: I would imagine they probably have really studied very hard,
Speaker 3: as Jason Light said, the top four or five offensive tackles,
Speaker 3: and you don't know if they're going to be there,
Speaker 3: but you're prepared to move on them if they are okay.
Speaker 1: And then I know that as you get closer to
Speaker 1: the draft, theoretically the mock drafts start to you know,
Speaker 1: you think, so decide a little bit more on one thing.
Speaker 1: They get a little clear that the first mock drafts
Speaker 1: that come out or all over the place, no two
Speaker 1: agree on anything, and then they start to all kind
Speaker 1: of get a little bit more of a consensus. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like, what is something you've seen in a
Speaker 1: lot of them that it's starting to look like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe there's some merit to this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean you've seen a lot of Brian Branch.
Speaker 3: The tackle from Tennessee darnelt right, But a guy that
Speaker 3: wasn't showing up around the Bucks pick for the first
Speaker 3: month or so that I've seen a lot in mock
Speaker 3: drafts lately is Iowa edge Lucas van Ness.
Speaker 2: And there's no doubt.
Speaker 3: That the Buccaneers could use another player at that position, because,
Speaker 3: as coach Bowles has said several times this offseason, they
Speaker 3: need to get more pressure off the edge and more players.
Speaker 3: The more players that you have there that have some
Speaker 3: potential to put pressure on the quarterback, the better. So
Speaker 3: even though Shaq bart is coming back from his achilles
Speaker 3: injury and we re signed Anthony Nelson, still you could
Speaker 3: easily work another blue chip prospect into that rotation on
Speaker 3: the edge. So Lucas van Ness he's a guy. He's
Speaker 3: kind of a projection guy because he didn't really even
Speaker 3: start it.
Speaker 2: I always more of a rotation player.
Speaker 3: And and you know he doesn't he didn't have stats
Speaker 3: off the you know, have sacks off the off the board.
Speaker 3: He had maybe twelve something like that over his career.
Speaker 3: But you see him and you see in these in
Speaker 3: these clips here he's a very powerful player. He's quick
Speaker 3: off the edge. He probably has to work and sort
Speaker 3: of upgrade his arsenal pass rush moves, but you see
Speaker 3: the talent there to work with, and that's what you're looking.
Speaker 2: For at that position.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that is going to do it for
Speaker 1: us on this final road to the Draft and in
Speaker 1: the Draft is one week away. If you were able
Speaker 1: to come to the draft party at Raymond James Stadium,
Speaker 1: we highly recommended it as going to be a blast.
Speaker 1: We will both be there doing a show talking even
Speaker 1: more about some of these prospects and who we think
Speaker 1: the Bucks are going to pick that night. So we
Speaker 1: hope to see you there and thanks again for tuning
Speaker 1: into Road to the Draft.