Last year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers surprised a lot of people by taking Ohio State Buckeyes grad Emeka Egbuka in the first round of the NFL Draft despite having bigger needs elsewhere and already having an elite wide receiver pairing in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr.
Well, after Egbuka rattled off a promising rookie season and looked every bit like the blue chipper he was advertised as coming out of Wide Receiver U, while Mike Evans called it quits on Todd Bowles and the Bucs, the move by Jason Licht has proven to be a wise one.
And while most people didn't call it on their draft board, NFL Network draft analyst Bucky Brooks, who has always been one of the smartest and yet one of the most humble in the business, called it all along.
Bucky Brooks predicts Buccaneers will draft OL Vega Ioane
So when Brooks releases mock drafts now, Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans pay close attention. This week, the draft expert released his final mock of the 2026 draft season, and he continued the trend of insiders and analysts tabbing a player nobody had the Bucs taking early on in the pre draft process.
Brooks thinks the Buccaneers are going to end up with offensive guard Olaivavega Ioane, and he beileves that the Bucs can nail down the left side of their line for a decade by pairing superstar left back Tristan Wirfs with the powerful Ioane. Brooks acknowledges that there are bigger needs elsewehere for Tampa Bay on defense, but he had effusive praise for Ioane as the top guard in the draft.
Although most Buccaneers fans will want their team to go defense after watching how badly that unit played last season under Todd Bowles, Jason Licht likes taking the best player available. And though the splashy offensive players like Jordan Tyson and Kenyon Sadiq will seem like the best available to most fans, if the Bucs are sold on Ioane, they could have a perennial Pro Bowler on their hands.
If you look at the teams that truly become dynsties in the NFL, they are all built around great offensive lines. For example, the Tom Brady teams that won it all compared to one that flopped all had superior offensive lines. That's something Licht and the Bucs will be thinking about after watching Baker Mayfield and Bucky Irving get battered and bruised to the oblivion while the offense failed to meet expectations.
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