The Tampa Bay Buccaneers looked like they were ticketed for a deep playoff run when the 2025 NFL season first started. Baker Mayfield was putting up crazy, MVP level numbers under center, and it felt like nobody could stop the Bucs offense from slamming points on the board and winning games.
But the Bucs fell apart as key players started to get injured and the defense collapsed, and, in the end, the Bucs could not win crucial games against rivals like the Atlanta Falcons in prime time, falling apart in the end to cede the NFC South to the Carolina Panthers when it had appeared the division was almost guaranteed to be theirs.
There is a lot of bad blood brewing between Tampa Bay and Carolina after what happened last season, and the Bucs are out for revenge to take their division back. And there are some really interesting individual player battles to watch, too. Baker Mayfield wants to prove he is still light years beyond young Panthers quarterback Bryce Young. But the most compelling duel will be of young wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan from the Panthers and Buccaneers new No. 2 wideout Emeka Egbuka.
Carolina Panthers young star is a force to be reckoned with
Although Egbuka is getting a ton of hype in Tampa Bay and is viewed as the next big thing at the wide receiver position in the NFL, he still can't get out of the shadow of Carolina's McMillan. Not only did McMillan win the Offensive Rookie of the Year award over Egbuka, but he also finished the season much stronger and outgained the Ohio State grad.
Now, CBS Sports analyst Garrett Podell named the five sophomore players who are poised for massive breakout seasons, and, like so many others, he bypassed discussing Emeka Egbuka as a breakout star and instead named Tetairoa McMillan one of those breakout sophomores.
There have been some analysts hyping up Egbuka as a possible All Pro contender in 2026, but Podell thinks McMillan will be the one to be in contention for the All Pro team and not, ostensibly, the young Tampa Bay Buccaneers star.
All of this should be served up to Egbuka as a bulletin board material. There have been some surprising doubters in Egbuka over the last year, even though he was great on the field despite facing too much responsibility. But that's the thing. Even as a rookie, McMillan was responsible for about a third of his team's yardage and showed he was ready for a big role. Egbuka has to step up and compete with him in 2026.
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