The Tampa Bay Buccaneers used their first-round pick (No. 19) in the 2025 NFL Draft on Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, and their general manager was ecstatic to land the former five-star recruit.
“He was super high on our board, top 10 on our board,” Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said about Egbuka on Wednesday’s edition of “The Rich Eisen Show.” “[He] kind of stood out like a sore thumb. Unbelievable character, football character … it was just clear he was a cut ahead of the players at that point in the draft.”
Last season, Egbuka logged a team-high 81 receptions for 1,011 yards (12.5 yards per reception) and 10 touchdowns for the national champion Buckeyes. Two years prior (2022), the 6-foot-1 receiver totaled 74 receptions for 1,151 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Egbuka joins a Buccaneers wide receiver room that includes six-time Pro Bowler Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan, who had eight receiving touchdowns in his 2024 rookie season, among others. Furthermore, it’s a Tampa Bay offense that was third in the NFL with 250.4 passing yards per game last season, orchestrated by quarterback Baker Mayfield, who threw for a career-high 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns, posted a 106.8 passer rating and completed 71.4% of his passes.
The Buccaneers made Egbuka the third wide receiver selected in the draft behind Travis Hunter (No. 2) and Tetairoa McMillan (No. 8). Then, on Day 2 of the draft, Tampa Bay selected a pair of cornerbacks in Notre Dame’s Benjamin Morrison at No. 53 and Kansas State’s Jacob Parrish at No. 84.
When Tampa Bay was on the clock in Round 1, there was no hesitation about whom to take.
“We had made a decision there was a group of players that we talked about that we thought could be there at [No.] 19. Emeka was one of them, and we had made the decision that no matter how many of that group of players that we coveted at that pick [were still] there, we were just going to take him,” Licht said.
The Buccaneers are coming off a 10-7 season that saw them win the NFC South for a fourth consecutive season but lose to the Washington Commanders in the NFC wild-card round. Licht is entering his 12th season as Tampa Bay’s general manager.
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