Buccaneers NFL Draft 2022: Three things you need to know about new OG Luke Goedeke

After trading their first-round pick on Thursday night, the Buccaneers had to wait until pick No. 33 to make their first selection of the 2022 NFL Draft. And after adding Houston defensive lineman Logan Hall with that pick, Jason Licht decided he didn’t want to wait until pick No. 60. So, he made another trade.

Tampa Bay sent picks No. 60 and No. 108—one of the picks they got from Jacksonville in Thursday’s trade—to Buffalo for the No. 57 pick. And with the No. 57 pick, the Bucs drafted Luke Goedeke, an offensive lineman out of Central Michigan. Here, we have three things you need to know about the second of the team’s two second-round picks.

Goedeke’s journey has been a grind, as it has taken him from no-star recruit to NFL talent

Every draft pick takes a different path to the NFL, but it’s a safe bet that very few can say they’ve gone through the same journey that Goedeke has. He grew up in Whitelaw, Wisconsin, which is about 40 miles outside of Green Bay. After playing both tight end and defensive line—in addition to lettering in basketball and track—at Valders High School, he didn’t have the type of recruiting process that is typical for an NFL player. In fact, he was zero-star recruit and, by his own admission to Tampa media on Friday night, he “wasn’t anything to hoot and holler about.”

With college football seemingly off the table, Goedeke enrolled at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point as a student. He eventually joined the football team there, catching 12 passes for 132 yards in nine games (four starts) as a tight end for the Pointers. Following that season, he sent film to Wisconsin and Central Michigan, the latter of which offered him a full scholarship as a tight end, with the potential for him to transition to a position on the offensive line.

So, after going from zero-star recruit to Division III walk-on, Goedeke made his way to Mount Pleasant as a Division I player—and a scholarshipped one, at that. He sat out in 2018 due to the transfer rules, then started 14 games at right tackle for the Chippewas in 2019. An injury cost him his 2020 season, but that setback wasn’t enough to hold him from blossoming into an NFL prospect. He started another 10 games at right tackle in 2021, playing at a First Team All-MAC level. And now, the 6-foot-5, 312-pound Goedeke—who was around 220 pounds when he graduated high school—is in the NFL, where he is expected to transition inside to guard.

Goedeke has described himself as a “glass-eater out there”

Offensive linemen tend to be interesting people. Some are vocal and intense, while others are reserved and laid-back. Every once in a while, you get one who likes to kick back and unwind with his ukulele (we’ll miss you, Ali Marpet). All of them, though, have one goal in common: put defenders on the ground. Goedeke certainly says as much, calling himself a “glass-eater” in an interview during the pre-draft process. Yeah, offensive linemen are the most interesting people on any given football field.

Asked on Friday night about calling himself a glass-eater and what that means, Goedeke described himself as a guy who is “always looking to bury guys and just put fear into their eyes” and someone who, on the field, is “really a nasty guy.” Listening to him talk about his game and what he looks to do every time he steps on a field, it’s easy to imagine him getting along well with Bucs center Ryan Jensen, isn’t it?

Goedeke is the Bucs’ second draft pick from Central Michigan in the last three years

Bucs general manager Jason Licht has never been afraid to look deeper than the Power Five leagues for talent—especially in the early rounds of the draft. He selected Ali Marpet out of Hobart in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft, took Noah Spence from Eastern Kentucky in the second round in 2015 and went with Alex Cappa out of Humboldt State in the third round of the 2018 draft. In the second round of the 2019 draft, Licht made Sean Murphy-Bunting the first Central Michigan player ever to be drafted by the Bucs. And on Friday night, Licht made Goedeke the second Central Michigan player to be drafted by Tampa Bay.

Goedeke and Murphy-Bunting’s time with the Chippewas overlapped in 2018, when the former had to sit out as a transfer. He worked on the scout team that year, which meant he would match up against a starting defense that featured Murphy-Bunting. Asked about his former—and new—teammate on Friday night, Goedeke called Murphy-Bunting “a great player, great leader [and] great all-around guy.”

Interestingly enough, Goedeke has a collegiate tie to another professional athlete in Tampa Bay. However, it isn’t a Central Michigan tie—it’s a Wisconsin-Stevens Point connection. Tampa Bay Rays pitcher J.P. Feyereisen was a 16th-round pick of Cleveland’s in the 2014 MLB Draft after playing his college ball at Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Goedeke will presumably join the competition for Tampa Bay’s starting left guard position, which was left vacant following Ali Marpet’s retirement. He’s set to battle it out with Aaron Stinnie, Robert Hainsey and Nick Leverett. You can find Goedeke on Twitter @lukethelifter. Be sure to congratulate him and welcome him to Tampa Bay!