The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have lost legendary wide receiver Mike Evans to another NFC contender this offseason in the San Francisco 49ers, but there is little concern about the offense heading into the 2026 NFL season, let alone the wide receiver position.
Because not only do the Bucs have Emeka Egbuka ready to break out as a true star in this league in his sophomore season alongside long time Bucs standout wideout Chris Godwin Jr., but they also have another very gifted young receiver in Jalen McMillan ready to build on a strong finish to an otherwise dismal 2025 campaign.
There is one more wide receiver turning heads, though, this late spring. As Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times pens, rookie wide receiver Ted Hurst has been showing his stuff as an "X" receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in rookie minicamp.
Ted Hurst has a chance at stardom
Journalists and coaches are raving about Hurst, who tested very well athletically and was an exceptional player in college for Georgia State. But that's the thing. Because he played at Georgia State, he was not a household name and thus had no real hype heading into the 2026 NFL Draft.
The Buccaneers are smarter, though. General manager Jason Licht clearly saw something in the film when watching Ted Hurst, and we all know how much he loves athletes with great speed, fluidity, and quickness, and Hurst has the kind of speed that can make him an elite threat down the field at the next level in the NFL.
There are so many great wide receivers from small schools who didn't go in the first round but ended up having legendary careers, and whlie the Buccaneers faithful shouldn't ascribe such unfairly high expectations onto Hurst for no reason, it's clear that, behind the scenes, there are a lot of people excited about bringing Hurst into the building.
And this was the ideal way to help replace Evans. The Bucs already had a number of talented wideouts in their ranks - and Tez Johnson's name hasn't even been dropped yet - so they didn't need to blow a first round pick on a receiver to replace Mike Evans with so much defensive talent on the board. So the Bucs scooped up a new pass rusher and inside linebacker then landed Hurst, who could very well be as good as any receiver prospect in this class not named Carnell Tate.
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