Pre-draft, we speculated that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be one of the team’s looking to trade up on draft night once the Pittsburgh Steelers got on the clock at pick 20. Turns out, it was around that time that Bucs GM Jason Licht began sweating out whether or not the team would land its top target, Duke offensive lineman Graham Barton.
“I didn’t think that there is going be a snowball’s chance in hell that he was going to be there at our pick,” Licht told Adam Schein on Sirius’s Schein on Sports via JoeBucsfan.com. “So, when the board started to slide and fall the way it did, with the quarterbacks going and the run on some certain positions, I started to get pretty nervous. I attempted to try to move up.”
Licht knew there were multiple teams in front of him that could be targeting Barton. Beginning with Pittsburgh at No. 20, a team in need of a center. Barton was considered the favorite to land with the Steelers and had Troy Fautanu not fallen into their laps, it’s possible he would’ve been the pick. For Licht and the Bucs, he’s happy Omar Khan and company chose someone else.
“It was at 20 [he got antsy] there with Pittsburgh because I know how they value their offensive linemen. And I think they got a helluva pick there [Fautanu], too.”
It’s not explicitly clear if Tampa Bay tried trading up ahead of or with Pittsburgh or if Licht just starting mapping things out more closely. Knowing both teams were targeting an offensive lineman, it probably would’ve been hard to swing a deal with the Steelers., Omar Khan said he had trade offers, had the chance to move down, but obviously stayed at the Steelers’ spot to stop Fautanu’s fall and get a top-rated player on their board.
As Barton slid past Dallas, another possible destination, Licht settled in and let the board come to him. Just as Fautanu fell to Pittsburgh without requiring a deal, Barton dropped to No. 26 and became the Buccaneers’ pick. The team plans to convert him from left tackle to center, where he played as a freshman.
Both teams exited Round 1 happy. Both improved their offensive lines, both got great value, and neither had to trade to do so.
