Solving The Emeka Egbuka Riddle
January 23rd, 2026
What happened?
So, now that the Bucs have new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson on board, he has to solve three riddles to unlock the offense.
* The first riddle is, what the hell happened to Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield? Mayfield was an MVP candidate before the bye. After the bye, he was damn near a candidate for the bench.
Joe hasn’t lost faith in Mayfield. But questions are out there. Was Mayfield too beat up to be effective? Was the injuries to the offensive line affecting his play? The near future of the franchise is on hold until these questions are answered.
* The second question is, what the hell happened to Bucky Irving? Joe is just going to guess former offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard wasn’t so great at devising a run game. Still, that doesn’t excuse Bucky from having a worse season than Rachaad White and Sean Tucker.
* And the third question is, what the hell happened to Emeka Egbuka? Before the bye, Egbuka looked like a slam dunk Rookie of the Year winner and seemed to have been the best rookie wide receiver to come into the NFL in years.
Then, about the same time Mayfield went downhill, so too did Egbuka. Why? It wasn’t just that Egbuka virtually vanished from the Bucs offense; it was that when he was targeted (not often), he developed a case of the dropsies. Toward the end of the season, Egbuka played like he lost all of his confidence. He finished the season splitting snaps with Jalen McMillan.
Before the bye, Egbuka was red hot. He displayed the same traits as Chris Godwin with a little bit of Amon-Ra St. Brown mixed in.
After the bye, Egbuka looked more like Sterling Shepard.
What happened? Because when Egbuka was playing fast and loose, the Bucs offense was humming. When he fell off the map, so too did the Bucs offense.
Egbuka showed he can play in this league. He showed he can be an elite player. Getting him back on track will go a long way towards the Bucs returning to the playoffs and Baker Mayfield being a top-shelf quarterback again.
