When the “Big 3″ were off the board by the time the Bucs No. 7 pick was coming up, Bucs general manager Jason Licht was faced with a decision – stand pat, or try and get more picks. The Bills offered him two No. 2 selections and the Bucs only had to move down five spots.

Licht said it was a gamble, but they got the player they really wanted all along with the selection of Washington defensive lineman Vita Vea.

“When I got the call from Buffalo and they made us a great offer after going back and forth a little bit, we knew what they were going after,” Licht said minutes after the pick. “When you’re going after a quarterback you can’t say that was a bad deal on their part. You have to be willing to spend a little bit, more than you normally would to move up the board. We got the call and we thought about taking our guy there. He was in play there and we would have been very happy taking him there. We took a risk moving back. All the work and intel that we did we knew that there was a pretty good shot. A couple teams there we were a little bit nervous about but we also had other players we could have taken. Fortunately for us, we’re sitting here talking about Vita. I couldn’t be happier.”

Besides bringing tremendous athleticism, Vea brings an attitude that Licht loves.

“We’ve got some good players here,” Licht said. “Don’t discount Beau Allen and Mitch Unrein. We overhauled that defensive line room quite a bit. Dirk and I thought that was a necessity coming off of last year. It starts up front. You can never go wrong having some ass-kickers up there.”

Licht talked more about what they saw in Vea during the evaluation process

“Vita is a guy that we’ve liked for a long time here,” Licht said. “Very early in the process he was a guy that we identified that could really, really help us. He’s not only a great run stuffer, but he has also got athleticism—freakish athleticism for a 347 pound guy. He holds that 347 very well. He’s going to help us in a lot of areas. He’s a great kid—awesome kid. He’s been very resilient in his life, him and his family. He has a great family, he’s overcome it. We like those kind of guys. I’ve said that over and over. He definitely fits that mold. He’s very tough and he loves football. We think he is going to be a great fit here.”

Head coach Dirk Koetter was also all smiles when he got to the podium to talk about Vea.

“Obviously we all liked Vita’s tape.” Koetter said. “Pac-12 defensive player of the year and an extremely powerful man. We talked to him at the combine and we brought him in on one of our thirty visits. We found out that he loves football, is a family man, and is incredibly gifted athletically. We had him high on our board and were able to trade back and pick up two second round picks and still get one of the top guys on our board. It’s a win-win.”

Washington DT Vita Vea – Photo courtesy of Univ. of Washington

Licht recounted a story that Vea told him on his pre-draft visit to Tampa Bay.

“When we brought him in I asked him, in very simple terms, ‘what is the most important thing a defensive lineman can do?’ I believe he said, ‘kick the crap out of the guy in front of him,’” Licht said. “So, I liked that about him. He still has a huge upside. No player is perfect. I like guys that play hard, are dominant, and still have a huge ceiling. He’s one of those. He told a great story. He went to French Polynesia on a trip with a group of kids from Washington and there is no internet or tv, all these things. They went to a field with a bunch of bodybuilders there and they were lifting rocks. So, Vita walks over to a huge rock that he sees and lifts it up and everyone starts staring at him and mean mugging him for the duration he was there. He found out there was only one guy on the island that could lift that rock for the last decade. So, he’s Excalibur of sorts. He’s got a great personality. He’s a great story teller. After you get to know him he’ll light up a room.”