Tampa Bay Buccaneers GM reveals benefits of top 30 visits

Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht gets some useful info from pre-draft top 30 visits.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht speaks during the NFL Scouting Combine. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are bringing in plenty of prospects on their top 30 visits — 30 players the team is permitted to bring to One Buccaneer Place in Tampa. Every team does them, but what exactly goes into them?

Bucs GM Jason Licht doesn't always use them to make his draft picks. In 2023, he picked Pitt defensive tackle Calijah Kancey after never speaking to him throughout the entire pre-draft process. That doesn't mean that they aren't useful, though, and Licht told media exactly what he uses them for when asked in his pre-draft press conference on Thursday.

“I just enjoy getting to know them. There are some guys that we talk to at the combine that I wasn’t in on the meeting for various reasons and I just enjoy getting to know them," Licht said. "I just like hearing their story and I feel like I can get a lot from it."

If you want to know more about a player on a top 30 visit, you can ask any number of questions about their routine, their health or any other personal concerns that come up. This information could be valuable if you like a prospect and want to know more about a specific area of concern.

Licht acknowledged that players are media trained during these visits, but he also said that his staff has ways to get around that. At the end of the day, he simply enjoys hearing the journey the players have taken throughout their football careers.

"I know that they’re coached up on it. There’s really few tactics that some of our guys use to get them off their game a little bit but I just really like hearing their story and just how they’ve overcome some of the things that they have or some of them haven’t had to overcome things but just how they’re wired," Licht said. "I just enjoy meeting people, so it’s just fun for me in general.”

Licht will meet a lot of players from now until the NFL Draft, and he may like one of them enough to pick them No. 19 in the first round next Thursday — or maybe he hasn't met with his preferred pick at all.

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READ MORE: Tampa Bay Buccaneers GM reveals big insight into this year's draft

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