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