No more punt returns, please.
As [Joe pointed out](https://www.joebucsfan.com/2025/08/can-anyone-return-a-punt/) last night, if you can return a punt, you may try emailing the Bucs. They may have a job for you.
With the top two punt return candidates on the shelf in Trey Palmer and Tez Johnson, anyone who can be a little proficient returning punts is likely going to get the job.
Apparently, one of those candidates is rookie receiver Emeka Egbuka. And that shouldn’t be.
Joe knows the Bucs gave their first-round pick a spin at punt return in practice. But that’s practice.
Playing on a wet field last night at The Licht House after a downpour just before kickoff, Joe had acid reflux seeing Egbuka out there to return a punt, even if it turned out to be a fair catch.
Egbuka is way too important to be returning punts.
No one outside of One Buc Palace knows when (or if) Chris Godwin will be ready to go. Here we are less than a month before Week 1 and to Joe’s knowledge, Godwin has yet to work out running on a side field with a trainer at One Buc Palace.
If Godwin is running, he is doing it away from the public eye.
So until Godwin comes back, Egbuka is vital for the Bucs’ chances to make a playoff run this winter. He’s too vital to be farting around returning punts, risking getting his head knocked off.
You don’t see Baker Mayfield or Mike Evans or Antoine Winfield returning punts. Egbuka shouldn’t, either. Don’t do it.