Bucs GM: NFL Team Would 'Offer Literally 10' 1sts for Mahomes, Burrow-Type Prospect

Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht says NFL executives would "offer literally 10 first-round picks" for a high-caliber quarterback prospect, per ESPN's Dan Graziano.

"Obviously, the quarterback is No. 1," Licht said, per Graziano. "And if you know in the draft a quarterback is going to be lights-out— like, you know he's going to be Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow— you'd offer literally 10 first-round picks for that guy. It wouldn't matter. It would be worth it. But it's such a crapshoot."

Licht was in his second year as general manager when the Buccaneers used the No. 1 pick of the 2015 NFL draft to select quarterback Jameis Winston out of Florida State.

The Buccaneers never made the playoffs in five seasons with Winston. The team let him walk in free agency before signing Tom Brady in 2020.

"We had Jameis, it didn't work out, but then we realized that while we had Jameis we were putting together a pretty good team around him thinking he'd be the guy," Licht said, per Graziano. "When we decided to move on, it was the team we'd built around Jameis that Brady wanted to be a part of."

The Buccaneers won their second Super Bowl the next season with Brady, highlighting the importance of the position.

Licht may have committed the Buccaneers to a known quantity in Baker Mayfield for the next three seasons, but the six teams that chose to draft quarterbacks in the first round of the 2024 draft will have to wait until this fall to see how well their picks panned out.