Emeka Egbuka And The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Emeka Egbuka And The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

You’ve got Chris Godwin playing flanker slot and then they drafted a Mecha Ibuka in the first round. I love Amecha Ibuka. Ibuka could catch the most passes of all rookie receivers and I wouldn’t be shocked. Look at the release. There’s your separation stutter and go gets by clean. That is unbelievable. May be the greatest catch I’ve ever seen. [Music] We close out with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is a team that seems absolutely like dead set in concrete what they’ve got at wide receiver. You’ve got Mike Evans playing on the outside. You’ve got Chris Godwin playing flanker slot. And then they drafted a Mecha Ibuka in the first round. I love Amecha Ibuka. Uh we’ll see what role he plays um on this team as well. And then last year’s third round pick, Jaylen McMillan. Man, he had a really strong close to the season in 2024. Uh obviously that was when the team was decimated with injury, but still showed some some signs of life uh after a very early season struggle. Came on uh late uh came on strong late uh and again just adds a a really interesting wide receiver four to a a incredibly strong um you know frontline top three. Yeah. And I think it’s one of these rooms that um it looks really good on paper, right, when you just lay lay all those names out there. And that’s why I think people sort of scratched their head like why do they draft a mecha? And honestly, like I think we can we should really talk about him in this section because he’s he’s been very buzzy in camp and and like Baker Mayfield’s just been very ausive in his praise of him. Um and I think there’s a reason for that because this guy’s going to be really important for this team. Uh because again like Chris Goddin is coming off a serious injury. They’re sort of kind of saying, “Oh yeah, we’re expecting him to be ready for week one, but they’re not fullthroated like, “Oh yeah, he’s gonna be ready for week one.” Like he hasn’t uh been like practicing in team stuff yet in training camp as to this point we’re recording this in late July. Um so I think that like a mechuka, yeah, you’re like why did they draft him? Because like it’s what what are we doing here? But Mike Evans, 30 plus year old receiver on the last year of his deal. I don’t think I see any reason to think like, oh yeah, Mike Evans is on the decline. But you never know with receivers in their 30s, right? You never know. It just we talk about this all the time. The hardest thing to forecast is like wide receivers when they’re going to hit the age cliff. Um, you know, he’s aging. Maybe he’s a guy that continues to age gracefully. Was very good last year, but he also missed time with injuries and he’s kind of always got like a hamstring thing or something going on. And you don’t want to be in the position you were in last year where oh boy, we’ve lost Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Let’s run the whole offense through Kateton for like three weeks, which was great. Liam Cohen did an awesome job with it. We we’re throwing screens to Bucky Irving and Chris Kateton is like replacing Chris God as our number one read power slot player. Again, Liam Cohen’s awesome. You don’t have Liam Cohen again this year, so you never know. Like I think Josh Grisard like sounds like they’re it’s going to be a good hire there, but we just don’t know. So I think like this is what good organizations do. They zero out like uncertainties, right? They make sure these things we’re talking about, well, we don’t know like this, that, and the other could happen. It’s like, well, we’ll just throw a first round wide receiver who is an absolute dog into the mix here in Acha Buuka. I mean, this guy is so good. Uh, I had him as a clear-cut second tier prospect, not a guy that’s like, oh, he’s a fringe first round. Like, no, this guy’s a firstround wide receiver in my eyes. And it’s because like yes, he was a mostly a slot receiver at Ohio State with an 82nd percentile success rate versus zone coverage, but he still beat man coverage at 68% uh 92nd percentile success rate verse press. He didn’t see a ton of press coverage because he obviously was playing from the inside. But what he did see um we saw some pretty good results there. And not to mention, this is one of those offenses that similar to what we talked about with the Falcons where everybody gets reps from the slot because there’s so much motion and there’s so much like pre-nap eye candy, they were able to take a colleate college a college slot receiver in Jaylen McMillan last year who was actually relatively better against man coverage than zone coverage as a prospect and take him and move him from the slot and make him a primary outside receiver in his uh rookie season to great success because they are able to blur for these receiver role lines because they’re pretty condensed and they also have so much motion. Like I don’t think Amecha Ibuka is just Chris Godwin’s like backup or his replacement like his injury kind of handcuffed player or whatever you want to say. Like he’s got he’s going to have his own role here and I think he’s like he’s probably a sneaky candidate to be the most I don’t know if it’s sneaky because he’s a first- round pick, but like he has a he’s a case because he’s a good offensively good quarterback. if something you Chris Conum doesn’t come all the way back like Mike Evans, you know, uh he could even he could even still be good and I still think Amecha could be the most productive rookie wide receiver this year. Um even though McMillan’s walking into a day one starting role because obviously Travis Hunter is the number two in Jacksonville and he’s going to move around between defense and offense. Like IA could catch the most passes of all rookie receivers and I wouldn’t be shocked. I love Ibuka. I think after the catch this guy’s an absolute savage. Um, you know, a contested catch. Oh, come on, man. Like, this guy’s going to go up and get it. Got great hands. Um, and and the one thing I’ll say about Ibuka, too, is I know his man scores as a prospect were not good. 68% success rate versus man. Uh, that was as the prospect average was the 42nd percentile. I get that. Um, that being said, Matt, and I don’t know if you agree or disagree, but I don’t see this guy as a slot only player. I I just think because of his hands and because of his overall route running and stuff like that, I I do think that he can play outside. And can I throw a little bit of a I don’t know if this is a crazy comp, but man, the I have similar feelings about Amecha Ibuka as I did about Aman Ross St. Brown coming out of USC. Um, I just think that if they put him in a position to succeed, you know, he’s gonna be, yeah, sure, maybe a flanker slot, you want him off the line, that’s fine. But I just feel as if, again, given the construction of this roster where you’re looking at Mike Evans on one side, you’ve got Chris Godwin on the inside, and hopefully, by the way, hopefully they keep Chris Godwin mostly in the slot because I think he’s just been so good there. But if Amecha Buuka is off the line playing flanker, I mean, you talk about pick your poison. You’re going to put your second best outside, you know, corner on this dude. I I just think again I I really have high hopes for achuka. And to me, again, he he has some of those same vibes as Amand Ra St. Brown because what I loved about Aman Raw was man he was just an absolute dog on the football field and that is something that you really can’t capture in all the numbers. Um and so that’s what I really like about Ibuka uh coming to this Tampa Bay prospect. Yeah. Uh last paragraph of the charting profile for prospect Ibuka. There are many parts of Igbuka’s RP data that reminds me of Aman Ross Brown’s early NFL data. So yeah, I do think I think the comp is similar. I think there’s a couple reasons why. Geez, I just went down. Knocked the knocked the lever. Anyways, um leave it in. Who cares? Uh so for St. Brown and Ibuka, one of the things that was is actually pretty similar. Um and Baker Mayfield talked about this in an interview, I believe, on the New Heights show with with the Kelsey brothers where he just brought up Ibuka unprompted. And this is something uh Daniel Jeremiah and I have talked about over the years on one of my shows uh he he that he was a guest on. We talked about like receivers who are grounded through the catch. Like they don’t, you know, leave their feet unnecessarily. They’re really confident through the catch. Like just stay grounded. You put it on them and then they just go like it creates a lot of yak opportunities because Ibuka I don’t think as much of a tackle breaker. Actually that was an area that I wanted to see like a little bit of growth from him. Uh he got he brought that went down on first contact on a relatively high 70% of his inspace attempts to prospect. Um, but he did make plays after the catch because of like he has good vision. He has he just is like good awareness of where is and he’s grounded through the catch. Like he runs in breakers, you put the ball on him and he can just like find grass, like find space. And yeah, again, I love to see him be like a guy who can stack multiple broken tackles on on it on itself. But that alone is going to make him a yak threat in the league. And that’s why St. Brown is like a really good Yak threat in the league because he’s very grounded through the catch. you see it consistently in Detroit that like he runs in breakers, he stays grounded and he and he just gets rolling. That’s one area where I think obviously Mayfield himself is talking about why that’s a really good thing for this offense. And elsewhere too, like two other reasons I think he’s a really good fit with Mayfield is you look at his uh reception, perception, success rate by route chart, all of the outbreakers, outs, comebacks, uh flat routes, corners, like they’re all green. They’re all above the prospect average. He ran them all at at least an average rate as a prospect. Ma Baker Mayfield, like I talked about, Dave Canals comes in there immediately like, “All right, how do I get Mike Evans activated on out routes?” Because Baker Mayfield likes to play them, likes to throw them. Uh Chris Goden last year, how do Liam Cohen, how do we get him running quick out routes from the slot? Um like that’s what Mayfield loves. Ibuka can do that. That’s a big part of it in addition to what he does over the middle of the field. And then secondly, like this guy probably had the best hands in the class last year. Um he’s somebody that didn’t drop a lot of passes and had a contested catch rate of 75%. Baker again like loves to throw into tight windows. Uh he always believes that his arm can write can cash those checks that he’s going to write. Um and I think that he is definitely a guy that he might be more slot mostly, but he’s not slot only. Um, and like McMillan here is somebody that can, you know, like do some of the vertical stuff too. Uh, is definitely more of like a downfield player than a layup guy. Whereas Ibuka, I think, is going to provide a lot of layups. So, yeah. Again, I I love Chris Godwward. I Chris Codin’s one of my favorite receivers in the league. Um, he’s he’s always been a guy that I like dating back to his prospect profile. I’m rooting for him, but uh definitely I think like he might be a slow start to the season candidate. And then just like Mecha Buka just gets rolling here. Like I think there’s enough room for all these guys. This is a good passing offense here. Yeah, it’s a good passing offense. It’s it’s a good uh passcatching group uh in my opinion. And the last thing I’ll say about Achabuka that I think and by the way when the pick first happened, if you guys go back and listen to the post-draft uh analysis that Matt and I did, I I didn’t like the pick for Tampa Bay, right? Because I’m like ah because I wanted a Mecha Ibuka to to go to a place where he could get a big runway. So, I didn’t like it for Amecha Ibuka, but after talking with Matt and and you know, having this conversation with you, man, like it’s it’s much more about like, okay, this was good for the team, right? It’s good for Tampa Bay. I don’t think it’s great for a Mecha Ibuka, especially in fantasy. Forget about the fantasy aspect of it. But from a team building standpoint, great for Tampa Bay. The last thing I’ll say about Amecha Ibuka in regards to the team building aspect is this wide receiver group while it is really good. It’s it’s again they’ve got their frontline starters. Acha Ibuka adds is the only player I think on this pass catching group roster that adds a lot of juice after the catch and just is a much more twitchy athlete in the short area than anyone else they have on the roster. From a combine standpoint, Amecha Ibuka and Jaylen McMillan have very similar numbers, but I don’t think you can compare what they do in the short area um at all. You know, Abuka is just a a just a much more quick twitch athlete in that like, you know, zero to five yard range. Yeah, a thousand%. And like you look at um Jaylen McMillan’s profile uh on the website, he’s like 24th percentile or fewer against man’s zone and press coverage, which like I said earlier, that doesn’t mean he sucks or whatever. Just like he has strengths and weaknesses. He’s not a full field player. Uh because like his best routes are like his corner route success rate is 81.8%. It’s obnoxiously high. Like good success rate on the nine route 63%. Post route success rate over 70%, dig route success rate over 70%. because he is definitely a guy that like when he gets rolling down field, he can be really snappy at the break points. Honestly, kind of like almost like a Jerry Judy type of player uh as well. Like you want to get him don’t don’t have him running these like short routes because yeah, he’s not like he’s he’s not as decisive enough as a router, but like when you can get him rolling down the field, he can snap off at the break point and give you these wide wide windows, which complements achuka really well. So yeah, I mean, look, let’s be clear. We’re talking about like I I think that like I said, Amech Buku could be the most productive rookie wide receiver this year like that because he’s talented and this is a very good offense. That being said, if what happened to like Roma Dunce last year where he’s just behind two w like veteran wide receivers because Mike Evans doesn’t get hurt, he doesn’t fall off and Chris Godwin comes back and he’s balling and we’re rolling. That’s also very very very possible and nobody should be surprised. Same thing happened to Jackson Smith Jigba two years ago behind DK Mechaf and Tyler Lockett. That being said, um this Bucks offense is uh way better than the Bears offense last year and I is definitely better than what the Seahawks were a couple years ago. So like this this it’s it’s a bet on the environment I think for Ibuka. Um, and also again like Mike Evans last year of his deal, Chris Godwin coming back from an injury getting up there in years like Ibuka and McMillan could be the one two for this team. I doubt that you know I think McMillan’s more of a three. Um, so again even if Mike Evans is gone after this year then it’s it’s Godwin and it’s McMillan it’s it’s it’s achuka. Like that’s a nice one two three there.

Matt Harmon and James Koh breakdown the 2025 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Is Emeka Egbuka a fantasy football target in this talented WR room?

Full Profile: https://receptionperception.com/emeka-egbuka-2025-prospect-profile/

Matt Harmon’s 2025 Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet – https://receptionperception.com/matt-harmons-2025-fantasy-football-ranking-tiers-cheatsheet/

Matt Harmon’s Dynasty WR Rankings: https://receptionperception.com/matt-harmons-dynasty-fantasy-football-wr-rankings/

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