Much has been made of the departure of Tampa Bay Buccaneers legendary wide receiver Mike Evans, a future Hall of Famer, to an NFC postesason rival in the San Francisco 49ers, but most Bucs fans are not too worried about the Texas A&M grad making his way out west to the other Bay Area.
In fact, many Buccaneers fans think their group of pass catchers will be even better next season. Plenty hinges on how healthy long time No. 2 Chris Godwin Jr. can be now that he is the top dog of a young wide receiver group, but regardless, Buccaneers fans are high on what those young guns can bring to the table.
Emeka Egbuka and Jalen McMillan are filled to the brim with talent, while new third round pick Ted Hurst might actually be even better from a pure athletic perspective. And when you add in Tez Johnson, this is a wide receiver group that is potentially five deep next season.
Cade Otton can be as valuable as any WR
With all the focus on the wide receivers, though, the rest of the players around Baker Mayfield have become underrated. New additions Kenny Gainwell at running back and sixth round tight end Bauer Sharp are worth mentioning, but the Buccaneers decision to retain Cade Otton at tight end for new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson deserves a lot more press.
Otton does not jump off the page like Robinson's old star tight end Kyle Pitts with the Atlanta Falcons, but he may be way underappreciated based on the analytics. Joe Bucs Fan found on NFL Next Gen Stats that no player on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season generated more separation per route than Otton - not Mike Evans, not Chris Godwin, and not even the young guns Jalen McMillan and Emeka Egbuka.
Now, Otton only ranking 28th in the entire NFL with 3.5 yards of separation per play is not necessarily a great thing, because it puts the Bucs best player near the bottom of the league. And it is important to note that the Bucs best pass catcher, Evans, bases his game more on winning at the catch point than at getting separation.
Still, that same thing can be said about most tight ends in the NFL, so Cade Otton leading very talented wide receivers in this statistic is a huge feather in his cap and a real credit to his own athleticism and potential that have been largely untapped by the Buccaneers.
Zac Robinson and the Bucs now have even more reason to unleash Otton and make full use of a player who had so many other teams around the league interested in him this free agency before the Bucs kept him around. 2026 could be his year.
Add us as a preferred source on Google