Bucs Make Bold, Right Move in 1st Round of 2020 NFL Draft

You've got to admit, Bruce Arians is true to his brand.

The "no risk it, no biscuit" head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made another bold move alongside general manager Jason Licht in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, trading a fourth-round pick to move up one spot for Iowa offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs.

It may seem like a steep price to pay for just a one-slot swap, but Licht and Arians saw the perfect prospect sliding down the board, and they weren't about to risk getting sniped by a trade offer from another team.

Wirfs, who could have easily been the first tackle off the board as early as No. 4 overall to the New York Giants, is a plug-and-play right tackle with rare athleticism and the pedigree that comes with being a Hawkeye offensive lineman. They're known for being pro-ready and tough as nails, two things Tampa Bay absolutely needs at the most gaping hole on the roster.

While some might see what Tampa Bay did Thursday night as a panic buy from a team desperate to fill their biggest need and overreacting to how the board was falling in real time, this was a move days in the making, and something the Bucs had already prepared for well in advance.

Licht had already laid the groundwork for the trade in the days leading up to the draft, knowing the San Francisco 49ers' spot at No. 13 overall was likely to be a popular slot for opposing teams trying to trade ahead of them.

“Well, we did make a lot of phone calls in this," Licht said via video conference call Thursday night. "We received a lot of phone calls, too, over the last few days. I’ve been keeping Bruce [Arians] abreast at this and we’ve talked through a lot of this. We were on the phone with the 49ers well before their pick. We had been talking with them for a few days along with a few other teams. When you make that call when they’re on the clock, you don’t have to start the conversation from square one. They knew that we’d be interested [and] I knew there were a lot of teams trying to move into San Francisco’s spot, so it was an easy conversation, ‘This is what we’d be willing to do and the haggling had been going on for a few days.’”

Licht has never traded up in the first round during his tenure in Tampa Bay, but this was the right time to make the move, despite what some may deem a steep price tag.

“We’re not always going to be looking to give up our picks to move up," Licht said. Sometimes you have to take a look – if you give up a fourth, what are you going to get in the fourth round? Hopefully we’re going to get a great player, but it doesn’t always turn out that way. To be able to ensure that we get the player we all love thus far and what we’ve seen and what he is as a person and a player, I think it’s well worth it. It’s across the board with Bruce [Arians] and I and our staffs. We felt like was something worth doing. There’s plenty of draft to go. We can maneuver through the board – we could pick up some extra picks like we have done in the past. Right now I’m feeling really good.”

The board looked like it would fall extremely well for the tackle-needy Bucs early on, with only one of them being taken among the first nine picks. But after the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets each took a tackle back-to-back at picks 10 and 11, Arians admitted things started to get dicey.

“Yeah, we were getting a little frustrated, but everything worked out extremely well," Arians said. "We didn’t have to give up too much to go up and get the flip. We got the guy that we really, really liked.”

This offseason has proven just how serious Arians and the Bucs are about living up to that famous motto. Signing Tom Brady, trading for Rob Gronkowski, and now trading up in the first round for a potential Pro Bowler at right tackle, Tampa Bay is going all in to make a Super Bowl run.

They say prevent defense only "prevents" you from winning. Well, the Bucs are doing the complete opposite, sending the house in hopes of striking gold over the next couple of years with Brady and company.

They've taken the risks, now let's see if that biscuit follows.