Along with preparing for the 2019 NFL Draft, Bucs general manager Jason Licht also has some tough decisions to make on the futures of players such as Donovan Smith, Gerald McCoy, Adam Humphries, and Kwon Alexander. On Wednesday, Licht had a chance to speak with the media NFL Combine in Indianapolis about his plans for the Bucs.

Stated here is the full transcript from his press conference:

(On prioritizing Donovan Smith, Kwon Alexander, and Adam Humphries)
“Well it could be a domino effect. There’s ways that we’ve gone through scenarios where we keep them all, you can have it all but you can’t have it all at once, but you’re going to have to make sacrifices elsewhere. If you just say ‘okay we want to sign back everybody and bring back everybody’ well, you got to make some sacrifices for your football team and figure out what’s best for your football team.”

(On if that means creating salary cap room with other players)
“Yeah, that’s one potential way. There’s only so much you can create.”

(On if he can definitely say that Gerald McCoy will be on the Bucs in 2019)
“It’s just hard to say that about any player right now. It’s just we have so much between now and free agency, the draft, OTA’s, offseason, I can’t just say definitively on anyone. I can tell you he’s a great player, and ideally we would love to have him back.”

Bucs DT Gerald MCoy – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

(On why he can’t say that about Gerald McCoy but you can about players like Mike Evans, Ali Marpet and Jameis Winston)
“I can say ideally we want Gerald McCoy here. He’s under contract and I want him to be back.”

(On if it’s the same with DeSean Jackson)
“I’d love to have DeSean back.”

(On if that’s the same for everyone that he has under contract)
“That’s correct.”

(On what makes him think that DeSean Jackson can turn the corner given the problems he’s had with the team in the past)
“I’ve had some great conversations with him, I know Bruce has too. I know Jameis has a lot of respect for DeSean. There’s a lot of things that happened behind closed doors that not everybody understands and knows the entire story. I like DeSean, I have a lot of respect for him, he’s a good football player.”

(On if DeSean Jackson has expressed that he wants to be back on the Bucs)
“He’s expressed that he would like to be back.”

(On if it’s hard to have that conversation with someone under contract who’s said that they publicly would like to that.)
“He didn’t necessarily say ‘I want to be back’ he said I like it here. He’s excited about what we have going on.”

Bucs GM Jason Licht and WR DeSean Jackson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

(On if Kendell Beckwith’s injury was worse than he expected)
“Yeah, it’s fair to say it’s a little bit more complicated than originally the day of when we first got the news.”

(On if Beckwith’s career is in danger)
“I’ll know more in a little in a month.”

(On if it’s reasonable to say that it’s likely to be a conservative first week of free agency for the Bucs since they have a lot of in house guys to sign)
“Yeah, you could say that, things could change though, but you could say that. I think the emphasis would be on keeping our own.”

(On M.J. Stewarts struggles, and where he will fit in 2019)
“They’ll give him opportunities at multiple spots, but I think right now we’d love to see what he can do at safety.”

Bucs CBs MJ Stewart and Carlton Davis – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

(On free safety or strong safety)
“He’ll do both.”

(On if Alex Cappa could move positions)
“I think that’s one with the new staff that internally we’ve gotten more looks then they have, they’ve seen all the tape now. They know that he’s a player that they’re excited about having, that he could perhaps have some versatility to play right tackle. I think we’re going to give him a shot at playing guard first, but I don’t want to rule out moving him out there either. That’s more of a question for Bruce.”

(On if Caleb Benenoch is done at guard and moving to tackle)
“I don’t Caleb had the year that any of us wanted at guard. I think his best position is tackle.”

(On if the secondary struggled to the point that with a new coaching staff, they get a clean slate)
“I think any staff that comes in always gives their players a clean slate, especially the young guys, and we have a young secondary. WIth all the talks we’ve had with the coaches and the discussions I’ve had with them, there’s a lot of excitement about the secondary and the defense. They came in with not quite knowing the talk around town is the defense is horrible and the rankings were terrible, and they were, I’ m not going to sugarcoat that, but when they dive into the tape, they were excited about we have some good football players. We have Lavonte, Kwon, JPP, Carl Nassib, we got Vita, we got Gerald, Carlton did some great things for a rookie. We are really excited about Vernon Hargreaves, they are really excited about Vernon Hargreaves, so I don’t think the cupboards empty. This will be an interesting year, it will be funnier.”

Bucs CB Vernon Hargreaves III – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

(On where Vernon Hargreaves will fit next year)
“It kind of depends. It depends on what the makeup of our team is, so he can play both. I know he’s a really good nickel, I know he’s a really good press guy outside, so I’d like to keep him at one spot, but it depends.”

(On given that Jameis Winston is their guy, what kind of player are they looking for as the backup quarterback)
“This is a better question for Bruce because I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but you want somebody that can handle the positions if need be. Secondly, I know what’s important to Bruce in the development of a young quarterback in Jameis’ stature, and the point where he is is not having him look over his shoulder. Not to say there are certain guys that are trying to steal his job, but there’s guys that if things aren’t going well on a certain day that Jameis has to worry about this guy taking his job. So, I know that was important to Bruce.”

(On the chances of signing Ryan Fitzpatrick or Ryan Griffin)
“We’re still in the discussion stage with all our pending free agents.”

Bucs QB Ryan Griffin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

(On if he’s interested in bringing back Fitzpatrick, Griffin, or both)
“I don’t want to rule both of them out, but it will probably be one or the other.”

(On if he knows how they are going to tender Peyton Barber as a restricted free agent and if Barber knows they will tender him)
“We are still in the middle of those discussions, we’ll probably know a little bit more, well we have the deadline coming up. We can tender him high, we can tender him in the original round, or we can work on an extension.”

(On with the young secondary players like Carlton Davis and Vernon Hargreaves not having many career interceptions, if he’s concerned about the lack of interceptions and playmaking ability of the secondary because they’re so young and inexperienced)
“Obviously we haven’t been playing good enough in terms of the turnover battle. Yes, is that a factor in who we’re going to take? I don’t know if you can say that, just because a guy has a ton of interception production doesn’t mean he’s going to have it at the next level. You got other skills that you need to keep in mind of, size, speed, instincts.

(On if because of that, would it direct him to get a proven guy in free agency at this level with experience)
“Sure.”

Bucs DT Gerald McCoy – Photo by: Zach Beeker

(On how Gerald McCoy fits in this defense)
“You know, this is going back a few years, but Todd (Bowles) will use a three technique, which Gerald is. We had that in our three-four with Darnell Dockett in Arizona, and Darnell had one of his best years that first year, so he fits.”

(On if he likes the fact that in hindsight that Vita Vea played in a three-four defense in college and now that background will speed things up for him this year with Todd Bowles defense)
“Yeah, at least he’s had the looks before and taken the reps there, which is huge.”

(On if Todd Bowles like the fact that Vea has the versatility to play elsewhere)
“Well he does have the ability to play elsewhere, or he can have the ability to be one of the best nose tackles in the league, but it’s always great to have versatility.”

(On what’s been the reaction from people at the Combine to having Bruce Arians back)
“I haven’t heard one negative thing. I’ve heard so many compliments on Bruce and the coaching staff, he’s got such a way about him. He’s CEO of his staff, CEO of his players, those guys are so loyal to him, and his friends throughout the league remain his friends for life, he’s just got that. It’s great, I hung out with him at dinner two nights ago and lunch yesterday, he’s a rockstar.”

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians and GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

(On what these two practices will look like, with one being for the rookies and the other for veterans)
“I’d like Bruce to be able to elaborate a little more. From my perspective, he likes to have two practices going on at the same time, that’s why he likes the larger coaching staff, we can have a coach on both fields at all positions. It gives the guys opportunities to get 50-60 reps instead of some guys were getting eight in a regular OTA with the first team, or with the live look. So, this is a great way of being able to evaluate, giving an extra tool to evaluate players and see what we got. We would of identified Humphries and Cam Brate maybe a little bit earlier than we did.”

(On where the idea originated)
“I don’t know, you’d have to ask him. I just know that’s the way he’s always liked to do it.”

(On if it’s reasonable to think he’ll have to make moves on offense to boost up the resources on defense)
“You just don’t want to hurt your football team. Now, yeah, you can do that, or we can say ‘you know what? We got a good offense, let’s make it even better.’ You have to sacrifice somewhere else. You don’t want to do that, you try to keep as even as possible.