April 24, 2025 • 9 mins
Tampa Bay Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht spoke to the media after selecting Ohio State WR Emeka Egbuka 19th Overall in the First Round of the 2025 NFL Draft. GM Licht highlighted Egbuka’s passion for the game, praised his versatility within the wide receiver group, and emphasized that the selection was made with both the present and future.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes, it's always kind of strange when we'd make the
pick because we're all jumping around and slapping high fives
and everything, and then you come in here and it's like.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
M m.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Oh, okay, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Mentally, we're all thinking about all the science that we
have to I'm joking.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's always good to see.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
You guys on us. No lot, no reported meetings, no
reported anything.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And he's the pick.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Why do you like him so much?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, there's a lot to like about him. First of all,
we didn't didn't have him in for a visit because
there was there were no questions we had with him,
met with him at the combine, and we know a
lot about him just over the years. He's a true probe,
mature beyond his years. I mean, he's a perfectionist. He's
(00:54):
been in a great program with a great wide receiver coach,
with a great room, a lot of lineage there that
he takes a lot of pride in. I think he
stayed this year so he could help the young guy
continue with the with the lineage of Ohio state receivers.
Just a lot lot to love about him. And then
(01:15):
on top of it, he's a he's a really good player,
so we're really excited to have him. He's our type
of guys.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I'm right.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I've Bill said that he was not going to pass
where you guys would not pass on a great offensive player,
even though there's obvious needs on defense. There were some
highly rated defensive players on the board. Let's talk about
the decision and the fact that you've got two receivers,
one that's going to be thirty two and another in Corisco,
and that's you know, time to start to restock the position.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, we felt this was a pick for the you know, future,
but also for the president. I mean, you saw what
happened last year. We had some injuries and you know
we did you know, the coaches did a great job
with what we had, but you know, adding another great receiver.
Top has said all along. I think he's told you
guys that uh back in March, that you know, a
(02:05):
good offense can help a defense. It's about scoring points.
And it's exciting to add him to the mix up.
We've got Jay Mack and and UH and him now
for the future, but also the present. And then still
we have an elite room with Chris and Mike and
Chris is uh still on track. We're still shooting for
Week one with him. And you know, this wasn't had
(02:29):
nothing really to do with Chris's injury rehab right now.
This had everything to do with you know, he was
a player that Todd and I and our staffs obviously
had a lot of meetings. But Todd and I at
the end of the day, we had some players that said,
if if this player is here, we're gonna take him
and uh, and we're gonna be happy with Chris is.
(02:49):
Chris is doing a great job.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Is this a situation there where you've got Jalen McGillin,
who's your third round pick from a year ago, had
a strong finish of the year, but in eleven personnel,
three receivers are gonna be on the field.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Who's going to be off the field? Well, you know
there is rotation as well too, so there's a you know,
we can play with four wide receivers as well. There's
a lot of things that that grizz is uh, you know,
licking his chops about right now. So you can't have
you can't have too many good ones.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
So Jess, he said, just listening to some of the
people talk about him in Ohio State that he was
the leadership in a character of this guy. You have
that blackkerd on your wall, you know, the bucking player.
What was it about him off the field that you like?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, you can't find anybody to say anything bad about
this guy in terms of his leadership, his commitment, his passion,
his accountability. It's it's all top notch. In fact, we
have a kind of a football character grade and he's
the highest of the high so so so that's that
(03:59):
on top of being a great player, something that we're
very proud of.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Can you talk about kind of what.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
You envisioned, like the offense looking like with him out there?
It's just kind of like what made you like if
we put him on this offense?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
It's already here. You can bring it here. Yeah, I
had some dreams last night about it. He's you know,
he's a he's a very versatile guy, so he can
play all three positions, and uh, we like that about him.
Spent a lot of time last week talking with buch
Clinton about it. You know, he's very smart, so he's
(04:33):
gonna be a quick study. It's you know, added to
J Mack, who we love and then Mike and Chris
are elite. It's a it's gonna be fun to watch,
It's gonna be fun to see how it works out.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Mike and Chris kind of be in the models for
what you want receivers to be. If you look at
anca body type as a prospect, body type, skills, miserables character,
it lights up a lot like Christie.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Coming out of college. It does. That came up multiple times,
so that's definitely a plus.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Are there any opportunities to move back?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So yeah, and then we we always uh kind of
charted out what the scenarios are going to be, and
he was a player that we said, doesn't matter, we're
going to take. So wouldn't want to lose out on,
you know, trading back to pick up you know, a
third or fourth round pick, but then which are very valuable.
(05:29):
But also how would we feel if somebody took him
and be honest with you, I'll probably be thrown up.
So he's so we're glad that we got him.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
You guys like State runs the ball.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
He's a very good run blocker too.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
How much did that factor into your decision.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Making as well? Well, it's a it's a huge plus.
It's a bonus, you know, it's he's an overall overall
game is what we liked. So, I mean, if a
guy can't block, it's really a detriment. But we're not
going to draft him where we took him just because
he's a good blocker. But you know, but that's obviously
a huge bonus.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
First, when you do have a lot of positional needs
on defense, does that speak to I guess the death
that you've talked about in terms of you feeling confident
they're good answers at these other positions in the second
or four.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, and you know, obviously we'll see how that turns out.
But we just felt like with him, it was too
good to pass up. It's a it was kind of
the perfect pick where it meets, like I said before,
it helps us now and it really helps us in
the future. I texted him right away and said, you're
(06:40):
gonna like this one, and then uh, he texted back
something and then ask for his number. So I'm sure
they're talking right now.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Serious thought at all to taking a corner or taking
an edge thresher in that spot or any other defensive
position inside linebacker or was this just for you that's this.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Is the guy. We we went through all of those
scenarios of I mean painstakingly did it over the last month.
If these guys are sitting here, who is it going
to be? With Todd? I go over it every day
with him, text him late at night. Well, he's more
of an early morning I don't text at three o'clock
in the morning. It's insane, maniac no, I said, So
(07:23):
it's we go through all these scenarios. If these four
players are here, this position groups, are you okay with
still okay with him being the top? You know? And
you know I wouldn't do it if if he wasn't
okay with it and he was.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
Draft up before you the first thing he pitched with
their surprises to you in terms of anything you weren't
expecting in Ember detackles.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
No, nothing, I mean really, after so long, nothing really
shocks you. So I mean it was went pretty pretty smooth. Yeah.
Does the depth of a.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Position like t tackle or I should say ed rusher,
the depth of like ed Rusher? Does that kind of
I guess give you comfort knowing that you know, if
you do want to address that pick or that position.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
That you'd be able to later, I'll be honest with you.
Our depth that edge Rusher gives me comfort, so not
saying that we won't address that, but I like I've
said it before, I think Chris Braswell has a big
future still obviously signed Hassan. I think Yah Yah is
gonna have a huge year. We love Anthony Nelson, and
then we've got some other young guys. The Jose who's
(08:25):
still has an upside. So I don't think it's as
dire as people may make it out to be. I
think we're going to be a lot better Russian the
pastor this year. What's that I barely I haven't had
a chance to do anything.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
We know.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
If they always have strong thoughts about guys, they need
to resign draft picks.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, no, I need to call them now. They knew
that they knew that we liked this player, so I
gotta be careful though telling anybody I know. Yeah, I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
You guys were very resourceful and still score a lot
of is when Mike and Chris were both down last year,
I believe you lost all four games and that that
little stretch Mike Mike was up most of the one
of those games. So does that influence, like just like, yeah,
we can do some stuff, but you still gotta have
some big posit players at that position.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
One hundred per hundred percent are they, Thanks guys,
Yes, it's always kind of strange when we'd make the
pick because we're all jumping around and slapping high fives
and everything, and then you come in here and it's like.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
M m.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Oh, okay, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Mentally, we're all thinking about all the science that we
have to I'm joking.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's always good to see.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
You guys on us. No lot, no reported meetings, no
reported anything.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And he's the pick.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Why do you like him so much?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, there's a lot to like about him. First of all,
we didn't didn't have him in for a visit because
there was there were no questions we had with him,
met with him at the combine, and we know a
lot about him just over the years. He's a true probe,
mature beyond his years. I mean, he's a perfectionist. He's
(00:54):
been in a great program with a great wide receiver coach,
with a great room, a lot of lineage there that
he takes a lot of pride in. I think he
stayed this year so he could help the young guy
continue with the with the lineage of Ohio state receivers.
Just a lot lot to love about him. And then
(01:15):
on top of it, he's a he's a really good player,
so we're really excited to have him. He's our type
of guys.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I'm right.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I've Bill said that he was not going to pass
where you guys would not pass on a great offensive player,
even though there's obvious needs on defense. There were some
highly rated defensive players on the board. Let's talk about
the decision and the fact that you've got two receivers,
one that's going to be thirty two and another in Corisco,
and that's you know, time to start to restock the position.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, we felt this was a pick for the you know, future,
but also for the president. I mean, you saw what
happened last year. We had some injuries and you know
we did you know, the coaches did a great job
with what we had, but you know, adding another great receiver.
Top has said all along. I think he's told you
guys that uh back in March, that you know, a
(02:05):
good offense can help a defense. It's about scoring points.
And it's exciting to add him to the mix up.
We've got Jay Mack and and UH and him now
for the future, but also the present. And then still
we have an elite room with Chris and Mike and
Chris is uh still on track. We're still shooting for
Week one with him. And you know, this wasn't had
(02:29):
nothing really to do with Chris's injury rehab right now.
This had everything to do with you know, he was
a player that Todd and I and our staffs obviously
had a lot of meetings. But Todd and I at
the end of the day, we had some players that said,
if if this player is here, we're gonna take him
and uh, and we're gonna be happy with Chris is.
(02:49):
Chris is doing a great job.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Is this a situation there where you've got Jalen McGillin,
who's your third round pick from a year ago, had
a strong finish of the year, but in eleven personnel,
three receivers are gonna be on the field.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Who's going to be off the field? Well, you know
there is rotation as well too, so there's a you know,
we can play with four wide receivers as well. There's
a lot of things that that grizz is uh, you know,
licking his chops about right now. So you can't have
you can't have too many good ones.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
So Jess, he said, just listening to some of the
people talk about him in Ohio State that he was
the leadership in a character of this guy. You have
that blackkerd on your wall, you know, the bucking player.
What was it about him off the field that you like?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, you can't find anybody to say anything bad about
this guy in terms of his leadership, his commitment, his passion,
his accountability. It's it's all top notch. In fact, we
have a kind of a football character grade and he's
the highest of the high so so so that's that
(03:59):
on top of being a great player, something that we're
very proud of.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Can you talk about kind of what.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
You envisioned, like the offense looking like with him out there?
It's just kind of like what made you like if
we put him on this offense?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
It's already here. You can bring it here. Yeah, I
had some dreams last night about it. He's you know,
he's a he's a very versatile guy, so he can
play all three positions, and uh, we like that about him.
Spent a lot of time last week talking with buch
Clinton about it. You know, he's very smart, so he's
(04:33):
gonna be a quick study. It's you know, added to
J Mack, who we love and then Mike and Chris
are elite. It's a it's gonna be fun to watch,
It's gonna be fun to see how it works out.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Mike and Chris kind of be in the models for
what you want receivers to be. If you look at
anca body type as a prospect, body type, skills, miserables character,
it lights up a lot like Christie.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Coming out of college. It does. That came up multiple times,
so that's definitely a plus.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Are there any opportunities to move back?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So yeah, and then we we always uh kind of
charted out what the scenarios are going to be, and
he was a player that we said, doesn't matter, we're
going to take. So wouldn't want to lose out on,
you know, trading back to pick up you know, a
third or fourth round pick, but then which are very valuable.
(05:29):
But also how would we feel if somebody took him
and be honest with you, I'll probably be thrown up.
So he's so we're glad that we got him.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
You guys like State runs the ball.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
He's a very good run blocker too.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
How much did that factor into your decision.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Making as well? Well, it's a it's a huge plus.
It's a bonus, you know, it's he's an overall overall
game is what we liked. So, I mean, if a
guy can't block, it's really a detriment. But we're not
going to draft him where we took him just because
he's a good blocker. But you know, but that's obviously
a huge bonus.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
First, when you do have a lot of positional needs
on defense, does that speak to I guess the death
that you've talked about in terms of you feeling confident
they're good answers at these other positions in the second
or four.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, and you know, obviously we'll see how that turns out.
But we just felt like with him, it was too
good to pass up. It's a it was kind of
the perfect pick where it meets, like I said before,
it helps us now and it really helps us in
the future. I texted him right away and said, you're
(06:40):
gonna like this one, and then uh, he texted back
something and then ask for his number. So I'm sure
they're talking right now.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Serious thought at all to taking a corner or taking
an edge thresher in that spot or any other defensive
position inside linebacker or was this just for you that's this.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Is the guy. We we went through all of those
scenarios of I mean painstakingly did it over the last month.
If these guys are sitting here, who is it going
to be? With Todd? I go over it every day
with him, text him late at night. Well, he's more
of an early morning I don't text at three o'clock
in the morning. It's insane, maniac no, I said, So
(07:23):
it's we go through all these scenarios. If these four
players are here, this position groups, are you okay with
still okay with him being the top? You know? And
you know I wouldn't do it if if he wasn't
okay with it and he was.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
Draft up before you the first thing he pitched with
their surprises to you in terms of anything you weren't
expecting in Ember detackles.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
No, nothing, I mean really, after so long, nothing really
shocks you. So I mean it was went pretty pretty smooth. Yeah.
Does the depth of a.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Position like t tackle or I should say ed rusher,
the depth of like ed Rusher? Does that kind of
I guess give you comfort knowing that you know, if
you do want to address that pick or that position.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
That you'd be able to later, I'll be honest with you.
Our depth that edge Rusher gives me comfort, so not
saying that we won't address that, but I like I've
said it before, I think Chris Braswell has a big
future still obviously signed Hassan. I think Yah Yah is
gonna have a huge year. We love Anthony Nelson, and
then we've got some other young guys. The Jose who's
(08:25):
still has an upside. So I don't think it's as
dire as people may make it out to be. I
think we're going to be a lot better Russian the
pastor this year. What's that I barely I haven't had
a chance to do anything.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
We know.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
If they always have strong thoughts about guys, they need
to resign draft picks.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, no, I need to call them now. They knew
that they knew that we liked this player, so I
gotta be careful though telling anybody I know. Yeah, I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
You guys were very resourceful and still score a lot
of is when Mike and Chris were both down last year,
I believe you lost all four games and that that
little stretch Mike Mike was up most of the one
of those games. So does that influence, like just like, yeah,
we can do some stuff, but you still gotta have
some big posit players at that position.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
One hundred per hundred percent are they, Thanks guys,
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