The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made one of the more surprising moves in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, selecting Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka with the 19th pick. Egbuka was certainly worthy of being drafted where he was but the Bucs weren't exactly hurting for wide receiver talent leading into the draft, as they still had Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Jalen McMillan at their disposal.
Be that as it may, the Bucs went with their gut, took Egbuka, and it already looks like it's paying off for them. While attending Bucs training camp last week, ESPN's Dan Graziano wrote about how Egbuka has been the talk of Tampa's training camp so far, including quotes from Jason Licht, Todd Bowles, and Baker Mayfield.
Licht told Graziano that Egbuka "looks like he's been in the league for 10 years" while Bowles praised Egbuka's football IQ. Mayfield said that his new receiver has "stuff you can't teach" and couldn't stop gushing about the Bucs' first-round pick who will likely make his life easier as a quarterback.
"Sometimes when receivers are running through routes and the ball is somewhat high but they don't have to jump for it, some guys leave their feet. But he never leaves the ground. He stays grounded through the catch, so the potential for explosive plays with him is huge. Just the details of his routes, too, he learns from everything, watches other guys, understands the coverages. ... Some things like that you can tell a rookie but he can't exactly take it from the practice meeting to the field immediately, might have to do it a couple of times, but Emeka does it seamlessly."
Emeka Egbuka hype keeps growing as Bucs rookie dominates training camp
It made sense why fans were puzzled by the Egbuka selection because that's quite possibly the last position the Buccaneers needed to spend a first-round pick on. Licht previously spoke about what compelled him to take Egbuka over other possible needs and simply said that the Buckeyes wide receiver was the best player on the board so why ignore that?
Sure, it's only training camp right now but given this team's propensity to get the absolute best out of their wide receivers, it makes sense that Egbuka is already firing on all cylinders. Hopefully, he backs up this hype train by absolutely balling out once the regular season begins.