TAMPA, Fla. -- Immediately after making the 19th overall selection in the 2025 NFL draft, Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht reached out to quarterback Baker Mayfield.
"I texted him right away and said, 'You're going to like this one,'" Licht said.
The Bucs' playoff pursuit ended in the wild-card round last season in a 23-20 loss to the Washington Commanders that was marred by two problems: An inability to get off the field as a defense and the loss of cornerback Jamel Dean late in the third quarter, with cornerback health an issue all season.
But Licht and coach Todd Bowles didn't budge from their belief in selecting the best player available, even if it meant a surprise first-round selection: Ohio State's Emeka Egbuka, adding to a wide receiver room already featuring two Pro Bowlers in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, who already count for nearly a combined $39 million against the cap (32.56% of the offensive cap) for the upcoming season, according to Roster Management System.
"We felt this was a pick for the future, but also for the present," Licht said," adding that it had "nothing to do with [Godwin's] injury rehab" after he suffered a dislocated left ankle in Week 7 that forced him to miss the remainder of last season.
"We're still shooting for Week 1 with him," Licht said of Godwin, who underwent surgery in late October.
When asked if Godwin had encountered any setbacks, he said, "No, Chris is doing a great job."
Like Godwin, Egbuka also lines up in the slot, but he can line up anywhere on the field. Egbuka had 205 career catches at Ohio State, which is the most in school history, and his 2,868 receiving yards are second most.
"[He is the] total package," coach Todd Bowles said of Egbuka. "He's a playmaker, he can play all three positions -- he plays in the slot, he plays the 'Z,' he plays the 'X,' he can run with the ball, he can throw the ball, he can catch the ball, he's a very good route runner, he's a winner, he makes contested catches, he's a very precise route runner as well, has a lot of speed at the same time, he blocks at the same time. ... He checks all of the boxes as a player and as a person. That made it an easy choice."
Vice president of player personnel Mike Biehl added, "Emeka was just a guy that we felt so strongly about that it really didn't matter what position -- he just was a really good football player."
The Bucs place a heavy emphasis on the integrity of their locker room, drafting players with high football character. They look for players who are self-motivated, thrive in adverse situations and who put the team above self, which has allowed them to depend on rookies so heavily the last two seasons post-Tom Brady, and to climb out of mid-season holes and reach the playoffs.
"It's just hard to find guys that you feel really good about the talent and the person," Biehl said. "It was unanimous in the building, too. When you get guys like that, it's just hard to pass up on them. We felt comfortable taking him there. ... There were a lot of defensive guys that were in the mix, but at the end of the day, we think we got a really good one."
Mayfield and his wife, Emily, took Egbuka and his family to brunch two days after the Bucs made him the 19th pick overall. Egbuka, who was also joined by members of the offensive line during the outing, said he's "excited to be able to learn" from Mayfield.
"You can't find anybody to say anything bad about this guy, in terms of his leadership, his commitment, his passion, his accountability. ... It's all top notch," Licht said of Egbuka. "In fact, we have a football character grade, and he's the highest of the high."
With Godwin and Evans both going down with injuries last season -- Evans was lost for three games with a hamstring strain injury -- the Bucs fell to the Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, and all of those games were one-score games.
Licht said that "100 percent" factored into their decision to select Egbuka.
"You saw what happened last year," Licht said. "We had some injuries and the coaches did a great job with what we had, but adding another great receiver. ... Todd has said all along, I think he told you guys back in March [at the annual league meetings]: 'A good offense can help a defense.' It's about scoring points."
Evans will be 32 and is entering the last year of his contract, so his future is uncertain, but he has a chance to break Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice's all-time record for most consecutive 1,000-yard seasons (they're currently tied at 11).
They re-signed Godwin, 29, to a three-year extension worth $66 million and $44 million guaranteed this offseason. They then selected Jalen McMillan in the third round of last year's draft, and after a slow start to his career that was marred by a hamstring injury, McMillan wound up leading the NFL with seven touchdowns in the final five weeks of the regular season, playing a key role in the Bucs' postseason push.
The fact that they're all home-grown players is also likely why the Bucs have been able to keep two Pro Bowlers in Evans and Godwin their entire careers at very competitive but still manageable salaries versus having to try and lure players from other teams, which usually costs more as they're on the open market (Evans signed his 2024 deal before hitting the open market while Godwin signed his 2025 and 2022 contracts at the very beginning of free agency).
"Players like Chris and Mike, [McMillan] and Emeka -- they're unicorns," Licht said. "We're lucky to have them all right now. It's very difficult. We're just fortunate to have them and very fortunate to be in a position where we were able to get them."
And like McMillan's crowded receiver room at Washington that featured two 1,000-yard receivers in Rome Odunze and Ja'Lynn Polk who went ninth and 37th in last year's draft, Egbuka is used to sharing targets and relishes the chance to learn from the Bucs' current group.
"Chris and Mike, they've done it at a very high level for a very long time -- which is something that I'm looking forward to doing in my NFL career as well -- so I think just being able to learn from them, just the ins and outs of NFL football and just to pick their brains on stuff... I'm a student of the game," Egbuka said. "I love learning about it, so having those guys in the same room with me is a blessing."
The Bucs also selected a receiver in the seventh round in Oregon's Tez Johnson. At 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds and clocking a 4.51 40 time at the NFL combine, Johnson was still on the board when the Bucs made their last pick at 235. Johnson delivered the quickest three-cone drill time of 6.65 seconds at the combine.
However, the Bucs lined up in four receiver sets only one time last season. When asked who the odd man out would be, Licht said, "Well there is a rotation as well. We can play with four wide receivers, as well. There [are] a lot of things that [new offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard] is licking his chops about right now. You can't have too many good ones."
One thought is that with all the pre-snap motion the Bucs wideouts do, a rotation could be beneficial. Godwin played 87% of snaps before going down with the injury, up from the roughly 80% he's had throughout the rest of his career. Evans and McMillan each had 70.2%, with Evans' snap counts starting to drop over the last two seasons.
It should also be noted that during Grizzard's last two years with the Miami Dolphins -- coinciding with the arrival of head coach Mike McDaniel -- the Dolphins ran four receiver sets at the third-highest rate in the league at 54 plays, and more than any other team on third down specifically at 43 plays.
And the Bucs were still able to address important needs. They doubled up on cornerbacks, selecting Benjamin Morrison out of Notre Dame -- a first-round talent likely only available when the Bucs selected at No. 53 because he underwent hip surgery this fall -- and they took a nickelback out of Kansas State, Jacob Parrish, with the 84th overall pick in Round 3, who could have also gone higher if not for his 5-foot-10 frame.
They then spent their other two Day 3 picks outside of Johnson addressing their edge rushing needs with David Walker from Central Arkansas in the fourth round and SMU's Elijah Roberts in the fifth round, with Roberts having the ability to not only come off the edge but inside as well. So they were still able to address almost all of their needs, with the exception of inside linebacker.
As for Egbuka's role in Tampa, Bowles said, "He can do all three [positions] and we see him at all three so he's going to play all three. He's going to learn all three. ... He prides himself as a football player and being the smartest on the field. That allows him to learn all three positions and there's enough ball to go around for everybody."
Egbuka is eager to learn, and he also talked about being used to sharing targets.
"I think something that I learned throughout my time at Ohio State, especially sharing the wide receiver room with so many talented players, is [that] when you have a strong culture built around your program and around the wide receiver room, their success just feels like your success," Egbuka said. "I can't recall a touchdown where I was salty about my other teammate scoring -- I was just as happy, and it was just as if I scored.
"I think trying to carry that same mindset and that same culture into this wide receiver room, especially sharing it with so many talented people -- people who I frankly look up to -- it's just a blessing for me, honestly."