First Impressions From Coaches Pretty Telling About Emeka Egbuka
May 20th, 2025
Bucs QB coach Thad Lewis reacts to hearing Emeka Egbuka’s name the first time in Tuesday’s press conference.
Joe is big on first impressions. They often tell the whole story.
And two Bucs assistants played a very bad hand of poker this morning at One Buc Palace when asked about Bucs’ first-round draft pick Emeka Egbuka.
A guy who was heavily involved in the research on Egbuka is Bucs’ first-year offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard. When he fielded his first question about Egbuka, the very first words out of his mouth were citing Egbuka being a “tough” player.
In football coaches’ vernacular, “tough” is a coveted virtue.
Shortly after, Grizzard reinforced his initial comment by repeating how “tough” Egbuka is.
(Of course, this begs the question about how one can display toughness in underwear football when you cannot hit and there’s no contact.)
But the best reaction about Egbuka was non-verbal. It was a coach bursting out in glee as if a young boy just found a creamsicle Bucky Irving jersey under the Christmas tree.
When quarterback coach Thad Lewis was asked about Egbuka, he nearly erupted and openly began giggling the moment he heard Egbuka’s name.
It’s been a while since Joe has seen/heard coaches gush about a rookie like that just from OTAs. Joe’s not much on underwear football guy but the way Grizzard and Lewis reacted, Joe’s looking forward to next week when the Bucs allow the local pen and mic club to watch an underwear football practice.
Yes, Joe has seen Egbuka in underwear football at rookie minicamp. But Joe is eager to see what he does with a competent quarterback throwing him the ball and Egbuka finding space against the Bucs’ defense.