There will be a handful of tough decisions for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to make over the next few months, but rookie Tez Johnson is already doing his best to make one a little easier. Tampa Bay added to its already stacked wide receiver room, taking both Johnson and Emeka Egbuka to bookend the NFL Draft this year.
Egbuka is already a lock to make the roster, but Johnson is closer to the bubble thanks to his late-round status. What he might lack in draft stock, he's wasting no time in making up for with his antics around the team.
Johnson made waves with a boisterous claim after getting drafted, and has continued to leave an impression ever since. The good news is that everything he's done has left the right impression, up to and including gassing up his teammates.
While at the NFLPA Rookie Premiere event, Johnson was asked about Baker Mayfield and didn't hold back.
Buccaneers rookie Tez Johnson is already hyping up Baker Mayfield
"I mean, look what he did — he had [Nick] Bosa on one arm, just to throw the ball," Johnson said. "And you're like, 'Oh my god, Baker don't care.' Baker don't care about who you are, how good you are, he's [gonna] go out there and go head-up with you, every single day."
That's a great way to get on the good side of perhaps the most important person to Johnson heading into training camp. If he can establish a strong relationship with Baker, it's going to make giving him a roster spot even easier than it already might be given how well-liked he already is inside the building.
Talk is cheap, though, and Johnson needs to back all of his swagger up on the field. He impressed with what he was able to do at Oregon, which is a great sign of things to come if he can continue developing while at Bucs camp.
It would appear that at least four spots on the wide receiver depth chart are spoken for -- Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan, and Egbuka -- and there's not a lot of room left. Tampa Bay carried just five receivers into the season last year, but Johnson is already making a case for that number to increase so that he and Trey Palmer can make the final roster.
We have a long way to go before that decision needs to be made, but Johnson is already shaking the right hands and flashing his infectious attitude in all the right corners of the building.
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