'Homegrown!' Are Bucs Best-Drafting Team in NFL?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have officially reduced their roster to 53 players, giving us a chance to assess the guys who made it.

There is a strong rookie core from this draft class with players like running back Bucky Irving , center Graham Barton, and receiver Jalen McMillan. Impact players from the jump is what the Bucs' goal is and it wouldn't be the first time.

The Bucs have historically drafted well, this edition of the club hitting on some franchise-changing players like Mike Evans, Tristan Wirfs, and Antoine Winfield Jr. It is increasingly rare in today's NFL that teams have the amount of homegrown talent that the Buccaneers have.

As of this moment? All of the Bucs 2024 draft picks made the team this year and 22 of the last 23 players they've drafted in the last three years are on the team. There are only two starters on the Bucs who were not drafted by the team: quarterback Baker Mayfield and guard Ben Bredeson. The Bucs being able to hit on this many players is nothing short of astonishing and may prove they have one of the best GMs in the NFL in Jason Licht.

Licht has been the GM since 2014 and it's been rare since then that the Bucs have had a "true bust.''

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This Bucs team is built for longevity, and with so many rookies on the team being able to learn from the guys mentioned earlier it just leaves the Bucs in a great spot for the future. Players like Wirfs, Winfield Jr., and Evans have Hall-of-Fame trajectories, and not many teams in the NFL can say they have hit on this many players. ... And that is without mentioning previous-hit guys like Lavonte David, Chris Godwin, and Vita Vea.