No player on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has been discussed more by the national media this year as a potential breakout superstar than Emeka Egbuka, the former first-round pick out of Wide Receiver U itself, Ohio State, who had a strong first-year campaign, especially before the Bucs completely collapsed. Egbuka had 63 receptions for 938 yards and 6 touchdowns in his first NFL season.
But it still felt like Egbuka wasn't able to have the impact that his talent and effort merited, as Baker Mayfield had a horrendous second half of the season that many Buccaneers fans chose to ignore, perhaps out of fear that he was sinking back to the mediocrity of his career before arriving in Tampa Bay.
To start the 2026 NFL regular season, Mayfield has been even worse. He has been the main culprit behind the Buccaneers losing their first three games, playing as poorly as any quarterback in the league by turning the ball over, missing wide open receivers or failing to even locate them, and running into sacks with some of the most selfish quarterbacking of the season so far.
Buccaneers need to get Emeka Egbuka more involved
And Emeka Egbuka has been hurt the most by it. His numbers to start the 2026 season have been poor, with the young wide receiver only hauling in 13 passes for 141 yards for a paltry average of 7.1 yards per target. His success rate is actually quite good at 55 percent and the only one of his numbers that looks better than last season, but that also speaks to Egbuka becoming more of a bail-out option for Baker Mayfield.
Now, Mayfield is sidelined after dislocating his thumb against the Minnesota Vikings, and that puts in a relative unknown under center in rookie undrafted free agent Jalon Daniels. But Daniels was one of the big sensations of the preseason and seems to be tabbed by people in the know as a hidden gem quarterback prospect despite going undrafted; the Bucs, after all, were watching him very closely with multiple interviews in the pre-draft process.
Even from the few plays we have seen, Daniels has a live arm, he makes better decisions than most rookie quarterbacks, and he isn't afraid to challenge defenses by accurately hitting receivers down the field. He is more mobile and takes fewer sacks, and while it's a stretch to say he will replace Mayfield, it is not a stretch to say that he can't be worse than Weeks 1-3 Baker.
Egbuka has been open so often for the Buccaneers, and just like the second half of the last season, Mayfield has ignored him or failed to accurately find him further than 20 yards down the field, outside the numbers. It's the same exact problem he had with the Cleveland Browns. Daniels can be the one to actually find Egbuka, use him as a superstar receiver, and feed the actual stars of the Bucs offense instead of falsely trying to be the star himself.
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