Vibes are high right now for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but unfortunately so is the rate at which key players are hitting the injury report. Sunday was arguably the breeziest of Tampa Bay’s five wins this season, but it happened without three core players on offense and a handful of other important players as well.
It didn’t stop the Bucs from beating the 49ers and claiming the top spot in the NFC, but it was a victory that might have been more costly than we all thought. Superstar rookie Emeka Egbuka finished the game with just two catches, largely because he didn’t play at all in the second half of the game.
Egbuka suffered what the team described as a hamstring injury and was ruled out after halftime. Losing him on Sunday didn’t end up hurting ths Bucs but now the question becomes how long will the team be without him?
Latest Emeka Egbuka injury update is less than ideal for the Buccaneers
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it could be longer than we want.
“Emeka Egbuka is scheduled to undergo testing Tuesday to determine how much time he will miss from the hamstring injury he suffered,” Schefter reported. “But it is expected to be some.”
There’s no way around it: this stinks.
Not only does it halt Egbuka’s meteoric rise but it puts a big dent in his race to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. It so means the Bucs will potentially be playing one of their biggest games of the season next week without four of the team’s top offensive weapons.
If there was ever a game to solidify Baker Mayfield’s MVP chances, it’s next Monday night in Detroit.
Tampa Bay is likely to be without Egbuka, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Bucky Irving in addition to everyone else that has been missing from action. Practice this week will be telling, and thankfully it’s a long week before the Bucs play again, but the injuries are piling up at almost a comical rate.
The good news is that the Bucs have some breathing room in the playoff picture. Sunday’s win over the Niners gave Tampa Bay control of the No. 1 seed in the NFC and even a loss next Monday in Detroit won’t throw them off course.
We can all thank the Chiefs for that, as Detroit’s loss in Kansas City puts them a game behind the Bucs in the standings. Tampa Bay also now owns the tiebreaker over San Francisco and the Packers have a tie on their record that could become an important differentiating factor at the end of the season.
More light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that there will come a time this season when Egbuka, Evans, Godwin and Irving are all healthy and playing in the same game. That won’t be this Monday, though, and we’ll see how long it is before we see Tampa Bay’s star rookie back in action.