Tampa Bay’s general manager Jason Licht hosted a virtual press conference with the local media prior to the 2020 NFL Draft, speaking publicly before the NFL holds an unprecedented draft where coaches and front office members will be making their selections from the confines of their own homes.

Technical issues and the natural problems that come along with being isolated from your co-workers during such an instrumental part of building an NFL roster brings fear, but Licht is confident in the team around him – from scouts and coaches to the Bucs’ I.T. department – and confident that it will all run smoothly.

“Well we’re currently going through a lot of scenarios with that,” Licht said. “We’re working through a lot of different platforms in terms of having some video conferences and being able to talk to one another. We’re going to find the best one, the most secure one and we’ll have some mock scenarios of our own.”

Bucs GM Jason Licht – Photo by: PewterReport.com

Licht mentioned that coaches and general managers around the league will have a technical support member, led specifically for Tampa Bay’s staff by director of football technology Spencer Dille, available at their residence should any unforeseen problem occur.

Licht continued to explain his preparation process as the unique draft inches closer.

“Sometimes you can get a little over-technical in these situations,” Licht said. “You want to make sure that you have a hard-line phone, several phones available to you, cellphones or what have you, but sometimes it just comes down to old fashioned picking up the phone, calling the league office and saying we’re going to pick this player.

“We’ll have all of our scenarios done when the draft starts, in terms of where I would trade up, where I would trade back, what we’d be looking for, what we’d be wanting, what players we’re going to take in order, those types of things. In terms of the technical part, we’re still working through it a little bit but I feel very confident — we have a great I.T. department led by Spencer Dille — that we have a lot of different avenues we could work through.”

Licht even mentioned that another member of the Bucs’ staff could send the pick in, should the situation arise, but the draft itself isn’t the only thing that this pandemic has impacted. This time of the year would generally consist of players participating in pro days and flying across the country to visit teams at their facilities for work outs and interviews as prospective draft picks.

While Licht says the situations around talking to players and seeing their workouts has been different this year, he believes that it provides a unique opportunity to evaluate players in a different fashion.

“Sometimes in this process you can over-analyze a little bit and put too much stock into a workout,” Licht said. “Whereas the tape, I know you guys hear this all the time and we say it all the time, the tape is about 90 percent of what the player is. We can tell how hard a player plays, we can tell sometimes how smart a player is just by how he plays. In some regards I’m excited about this draft to see if we’re going to draft more off of pure evaluation than over-analyzing.”

Bucs director of college scouting Mike Biehl – Photo by: Scott Reynolds/PR

In addition to the tape, Licht says that they have been able to watch film from individual players’ pro days and workouts despite not being able to be there in person.

As far as getting to know players through interviews and watching tape with them, Tampa Bay been steadfast with utilizing all of the technology made available to them, despite being hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away. Many potential selections have already had official meetings with the Bucs at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis or the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., but outlets like Zoom and FaceTime have helped fill the void for NFL teams.

“We have a very tech savvy scouting department and coaching staff,” Licht said. “So we’ve been able to get on video conferences with tape and watch and listen to them explain what they’re doing and install some of our plays and have them regurgitate it to us, which has been a really interesting way of doing things through this but it’s been very effective.”

All in all, every team in the league is on a level playing field. And while the situations that have arose are a hindrance, Licht is confident that they won’t stop Tampa Bay from being informed and able to make the right decisions come draft day.

“Like I said before, I’ve got a great I.T. department – it’s the best around,” Licht said. “I feel very comfortable with the information that I’m going to be able to get and it’s incredible the things they can do, but it’s going to be a little different. Probably in-between picks, instead of high-fiving, I’ll probably have to take out the trash and empty the dishwasher.”