9:13. Licht picks up his cell and calls Jacksonville GM Dave Caldwell. “We’ll give you our three and four. [Picks] 76 and 117 . . . all right . . . call me back.” Licht tells his Cisco Webex crew: “Jacksonville’s thinking about it. Straight up, 76 and 117.”
Quickly, Arizona, entertaining nothing, takes versatile defender Isaiah Simmons.
9:15. R-r-r-r-ringggggg! The alert on Licht’s phone sounds like the old-fashioned ringer on the Perry Mason Show. “Hello,” Licht said, answering it. “Okay. Okay . . . Okay.” Hangs up. Says to Cisco crew: “Jacksonville’s out. They’re taking [cornerback] C.J. Henderson.”
9:17. (Voice from Cisco) “Who you talking to in Cleveland?” GM Andrew Berry is Licht’s contact. Licht: “What I’m worried about is these two teams are tackle teams.” Cleveland (10), the New York Jets (11) are next. In pre-draft calls, both seem motivated to trade down.
9:19. Licht calls Berry. “Andrew, how you doing? You gonna sit there and pick?”
Jacksonville takes C.J. Henderson.
9:21. Licht calls Jets GM Joe Douglas on his cell. “Joe, how you doing? . . . Okay, call me back . . . Yeah . . . It’ll be for what we talked about. We’ll come up.” Off the call, Licht reports to the Cisco gang: “Joe says they got two guys here. If Cleveland doesn’t take one, he might move. I’m guessing Joe wants [Louisville tackle Mekhi] Becton.
9:23. Staring at screens. The waiting is the hardest part.
9:24. Licht: “Somebody get ready to call the Raiders.” McCartney calls GM Mike Mayock of Las Vegas (12) to find out his status.
Cleveland takes Alabama tackle Jedrick Wills.
9:25. Two tackles left. Pretty easy to see now that Tampa Bay wants a tackle. But which one? Licht calls Douglas. “Hey,” Licht says, “what are you doing?” Off the phone in 12 seconds. Licht to the Cisco gang: “They’re picking. Says they’re picking the guy large and in charge. Must be [364-pound] Becton.”
9:26. Frustration. Licht stays pretty cool, but he’s tensing up. Nobody wants to trade—for anything! When’s the last time the draft was 11 picks deep without a trade? The Raiders (12) are next. The Bucs are sure they’ll take a receiver, which makes them a good target. Mayock knows the Bucs, at 14, won’t want a receiver. To the Cisco gang Licht says: “I like giving ‘em the three and four and getting back their three. (Tampa trading 14, 76 and 117 and getting 12 and 81 back.) Much debate back and fourth. Just offer the four, someone suggests. Our three, five and six and they give us their three back, another suggests.
Jets take Louisville tackle Mekhi Becton. Raiders on the clock.
9:29. Voice on Cisco: “Minnesota [22] just called.” Licht, suddenly: “Too far back. No.”
9:30. Suddenly, a distant “MOMMY!!!!!!” Seriously. One of the three kids yelled for Mom, and it’s audible in the room. Licht stares at a screen. He never heard it.
9:32. Licht takes a moment. Raiders on the clock. Should he up the offer? Yes. He will. He calls Mayock and offers three, five and six while getting a three back. “Okay. Okay. Thanks Mike.” Licht hangs up and tells the Cisco group: “Doesn’t matter what we offer. They’re staying.” You can sense the disbelief. Later, Licht said: “Everybody was looking at each other on the videoconference, kind of putting their hands up, like, I don’t know what the hell’s going on here. Nobody wants to give us their pick. I was getting a little bit antsy, I should say.”
9:33. Thinking. Staring. No talk. Two minutes go by. Niners are next.
Raiders take wide receiver Henry Ruggs.
9:36. “I don’t think we can mess around here,” Licht says, as San Francisco (13) goes on the clock. But why? Why not just sit at 14 and pick the last tackle of the great prospects, Tristan Wirfs of Iowa? Licht had some intel that Niners starting left tackle Joe Staley was going to retire. So the free world was certain this next pick for the Niners was a great wide receiver or Javon Kinlaw, the defensive tackle who could replace the traded DeForest Buckner. Licht said: “Call A.P.” John Spytek, the personnel director, had been talking with San Francisco VP of player personnel Adam Peters during the week. Licht wanted this deal, and he wanted it now. “The Staley stuff scared me,” Licht said later. “The Niners could definitely be a tackle team.”
9:37. The GM side of Licht’s brain didn’t want to move up one spot and surrender a good pick (fourth round, 117 overall), while getting a seven in return. He know it might take that, but he wasn’t ready to make the offer yet. “A six,” he tells Spytek. “Start with that.” Spytek calls Peters.
9:39. Spytek calls Peters again. Is on hold with him. “They’re thinking,” Spytek tells the group.
9:40. Still on hold.
9:41. R-r-r-r-ringggggg! Licht’s phone. He answers it, annoyed. “Nothanksnothanks,” he says quickly and hangs up. Trade offer he had no interest in. All that matters now is the Niners. Spytek has made the final offer: San Francisco trades a one and a seven (13 and 245) to Tampa Bay for a one and a four (14, 117).
9:42. Waiting.
9:43. Niners say yes, Spytek reports. “Do it,” Licht says. Licht looks at the clock. Just 1:31 remains in the Niners drafting period. Now Greenberg calls NFL trademeister Ken Fiore to report the deal; a Niners counterpart does the same to another member of Fiore’s team.
9:44. “We good?” Licht says to the Cisco group. Yes, he’s told; trade accepted. Mike Biehl fills in the card for the league office, notifying them of the pick. Licht looks at the clock . . . 45 seconds left in the period. Plenty of time!
9:45. Licht dials Tristan Wirfs, in Mount Vernon, Iowa, to tell him (not in so many words) that he’d better get ready to block for Tom Brady. “Tristan!” he says. “Jason Licht with the Bucs. We just moved up to San Francisco’s pick here. We’re gonna take you . . . Okay? . . . Yeah . . . Coach is gonna call you. FIRED UP!”
