Monday, April 13, 2020

Do Some Fans give Licht a Bad Rap?



          Recently NFL Network aired a piece on the topic of NFL GM draft trends. With that information I've compiled a list of the current GM's success in the draft as it relates to the total number of players they have drafted during their tenure, and how many of those players were pro bowlers.

          I was surprised to see where Jason Licht fell on this list, because of continuous rhetoric and whining by some Buccs fans in forums. There have been calls to fire Licht for a few years now, of which I personally have disagreed with. Has Jason missed on some picks? Yes. Has Jason made some terrible picks? Yes. All GMs do, and at a pretty comparable frequency, outside of a handful at the ends of the spectrum. Unfortunately many fans are crippled with proximity bias when assessing their favorite team, because the closeness of attention they pay to said team. Sure we as fans hear about other teams' great draft successes and their great draft busts, but the difference lies in those teams' under the radar draftees we don't hear about.

          The positively natured fan will over praise their GM's body of work, and the angry, negatively natured fan will call for their GM's head with every move made that doesn't produce a Hall of Famer. The goal of every GM is to achieve 10% pro bowlers of the players they've drafted. Jason Licht falls in the top ⅓ of the GM's in the League, which in my opinion is pretty good.

The list below is comprised of current GM's with more than one draft during their tenure.

      GM                            Team   Plyrs     PB'rs    %
1. Ryan Pace-                Chi         32         5        15.6
2. Mickey Loomis-       N.O.       115       17      14.8
3. Thomas Dimitroff-  Atl          87        12       14.0
4. Rick Spielman-         Min       120       16      13.3
5. Jerry Jones-               Dal        279       36      13.0
6. Kevin Colbert-          Pit         161       19       11.8
7. David Caldwell-        Jax         53        6        11.3
8. Tom Telesco-            LA C       46        5         10.9
9. Marty Hurney- Car(2 stints) 105      11      10.5
10. John Schneider-     Sea         97        10      9.7
11. Jason Licht-            Tam        42        4        9.5
12a. Dave Gettleman- NYG/Car 44       3         9.1
12b. Bill Belichik-         N.E.       176      16       9.1
14. Brett Veach-            K.C.        12        1         8.3
15. Howie Roseman-   Phi         80        6         7.5
16. John Lynch-            S.F.         27       2         7.4
17. Les Snead-              LA R       70       5         7.1
18a. Chris Ballard-       Ind         29       2         6.9
18b. Jon Robinson-      Ten         29       2         6.9
20. Bruce Allen-           Was        88       6         6.8
21. Bill O'Brien-            Tex        45        3         6.7
22a. Mike Brown-        Cle        258      16        6.2
22b. Brandon Bean-    Buf        16        1         6.2
24. Steve Keim-            Ari         53        3         5.7
25. Chris Grier-            Mia        29       1*        3.0*
26. Bob Quinn-             Det        34        1         2.9
27. John Elway-            Den       61       1         1.6
28. Brian Gutekunst-   G.B.       19       0         0.0

*Grier drafted 2 players who earned pro bowls after he traded them away. If you include those, 3 players for 10.3%


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