Drafted amid confusion, Emeka Egbuka became Tampa Bay's top receiver, but inconsistency clouded his early impact.
Plenty of people were confused when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Ohio State's Emeka Egbuka with their first-round pick.
It wasn't that Egbuka was a bad player -- bad players don't make three all-conference teams and help their squads win a national championship.
But people wondered why the Bucs were drafting a receiver when the top two to ever play that position for Tampa Bay, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, were still on the roster.
Tampa had signed Godwin to a long-term extension the month before.
The Bucs didn't have a great defense in 2025, so it might still be fair to question why the team took a receiver in the first round.
But what's not up for debate is that Egbuka is a star in the making.
Bucs Roundtable will take a look at where each 2025 Buccaneers draft pick stands after their rookie season, starting with their seventh-round pick and working down.
Previous features in the series included profiles of receiver Tez Johnson, defensive tackle Elijah Roberts, linebacker David Walker and cornerback Jacob Parrish.
WR1 BY DEFAULT
Egbuka was far and away Tampa's most productive receiver in 2025. The stats don't tell the full story, since Evans missed nine games with injuries and Godwin missed eight. But Egbuka stepped up to the challenge, and he did so in a big way. He ended the season with 938 yards and six touchdowns on 63 catches, averaging roughly 15 yards per catch, placing him in the top 10 among qualified receivers.
Egbuka had his best game against the eventual Super Bowl champions -- and the NFL's top-ranked defense -- in their house. He torched the Seattle Seahawks for 163 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions, catching every ball thrown his way in a 38-35 Bucs win. A month later, in Week 10, before the Bucs' bye, Egbuka abused Super Bowl LX's other finalist, the New England Patriots -- who also fielded an elite defense -- for 115 yards and a score on six catches.
That would be Egbuka's last big game of the season.
CONSISTENCY
By most measures, Egbuka's rookie season was a success. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. One concern is how to limit Egbuka's iffy outings compared to those games in which he shined.
Although he had games of 163, 115, 101 and 85 yards receiving, he also had games of eight, 15, 20, 24 and 29 yards.
During Tampa's brutal four-game losing streak in Weeks 14-17, when the Bucs got tripped up by teams with losing records, Egbuka had fewer yards (139) than he did against Seattle alone.
It must be noted that Egbuka played through a hamstring injury he suffered in mid-October, which may have affected his performance.
As with most draft picks, it will be hard to know whether the Bucs made the right call for a while, and it's tricky to compare a player's production to what a player at a different position might have done. But if Egbuka can build on his rookie year and stay with the Bucs for the long haul, the franchise will have an emerging talent at receiver after Evans is gone.
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