Is Licht in ANY jeopardy of being booted with Bowles?
2014 NFL Draft
Mike Evans (7) Austin Sefarian-Jenkins and Charles Sims - Evans, the best Buc ever but those other two? Hell Nah!
2015 NFL Draft
Notable Picks: Jameis Winston (1), Donovan Smith (34), Ali Marpet (61), Kwon Alexander (124) - OK this year was ok but Jameis at #1 aged like milk.
2016 NFL Draft
Roberto Aguayo (59)- LOL LOL LOL Vernon Hargreaves and Noah Spence - This is a JOKE right?
2017 NFL Draft
O.J. Howard (19), Chris Godwin (84) - Imagine O.J. going before Godwin Licht missed on one and hit on the other.
2018 NFL Draft
Notable Picks: Vita Vea (12), Carlton Davis (63), Alex Cappa (94), Jordan Whitehead (117) - middling save for Vea and Cappa. Sorry Carlton is mid ASF. Oh and ROJO too.
2019 NFL Draft
Devin White (5), Sean Murphy-Bunting (39), Jamel Dean (94), Mike Edwards (99) - man this is just plain MID
2020 NFL Draft
Tristan Wirfs (13), Antoine Winfield (45) - WINNERS! Ke’Shawn Vaughn Tyler Johnson - hell hell NAH
2021 NFL Draft
Notable Picks: Joe Tryon-Shoyinka (32), Kyle Trask (64), Robert Hainsey (95)- Another cruel joke.
2022 NFL Draft
Notable Picks: Logan Hall (33), Rachaad White (91), Cade Otton (106), Jake Camarda - Punter may be the best pick here. LOL WUT?
When evaluating a GM you have to evaluate him not only on the picks he made, but how that compares to the performance of other GMs in the field.
Good example here is 2015 - we needed a QB, there were 2 options - Winston or Mariotta. Even if we didn’t go with QB, look at the next 10 picks - were any of them better picks really? I’d argue that choice was pre-determined and a wash. If I were evaluating any GM in the first round of that 2015 draft, there were maybe a quarter of the picks that panned out with some appropriateness to where they were drafted.
Drafting also has a lot of unknowns that are out of the GMs control - such as how the coaching staff utilizes/develops a player, as well as the player themselves and the various reasons why they fail and succeed that’s entirely on them.
Has Licht been the best GM in the NFL? I wouldn’t say that, but I’d wager he’s in the top quarter of the league (top 10ish?) based on the drafting and FA pickups / roster construction he’s done over the years.