“Probably The Best Compliment You Could Get”
October 27th, 2025
Emeka Egbuka is learning about life as the Bucs’ No. 1 receiver.
With Mike Evans injured through more than half of the young season, Egbuka has taken on a steady diet of double teams in Evans’ absence.
He talked about it this evening on the Buccaneers Radio Network.
“It’s probably the best compliment you could get,” Egbuka said.
“Then, you know, after the game, the coaches from the other team run up to me and they’re like,’Yeah, I’m sorry we had to do that.’ And it’s like, ‘man, just let me play football.’ You know what I mean? But it comes with it. That just opens up the door and gives opportunities to more guys. The last like two or three weeks have been some of [Tez Johnson’s] best games. And I think that’s attributed partially [to the double-teaming]. … And I think what people don’t realize is how dangerous the other receivers in our room are. So you can’t do that too much.”
Of course, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Evans was to be the top dog and Chris Godwin was supposed to be on the field.
In the long run, Joe believes, it’s great for Egbuka to shoulder the challege of being a double-team target of defensees, and it’ll let the Bucs see if he can handle being a No. 1.
Joe thinks Egbuka will be just fine, but Joe also would love to see the Bucs add a receiver by the Nov. 4 trade deadline, a guy good enough to relieve pressure on the rookie.