{"id":120510,"date":"2025-06-11T04:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T04:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/120510\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T04:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T04:56:10","slug":"tampa-bay-buccaneers-qb-baker-mayfield-praises-rookie-wr-emeka-egbukas-ownership-of-the-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/120510\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield Praises Rookie WR Emeka Egbuka&#8217;s &#8216;Ownership of the Offense&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/nfl\/tampa-bay-buccaneers\/tampa-bay-buccaneers-qb-baker-mayfield-praises-rookie-wr-emeka-egbukas-ownership-offense\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield Praises Rookie WR Emeka Egbuka&#039;s &#039;Ownership of the Offense&#039;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield Praises Rookie WR Emeka Egbuka&#8217;s &#8216;Ownership of the Offense&#8217;<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Athlon Sports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers&#8217; first day of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, the players had a chance to answer questions from the media.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the first time many of the players have had a chance to work out with the rookies and the newcomers to One Buc Place.<\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s just one day, and chemistry and relationships still need to be manifested, quarterback Baker Mayfield says he&#8217;s impressed with first-round draft pick Emeka Egbuka.<\/p>\n<p>Mayfield was so impressed with Egbuka ahead of mandatory minicamp that he texted general manager Jason Licht to congratulate him on the pick.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/z1ZTc4YT4ts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:He also spoke highly of Egbuka;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">He also spoke highly of Egbuka<\/a> after Day 1 of Bucs&#8217; mandatory minicamp on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At this point, it&#8217;s the physical tools, obviously, at this level, you have to have talent, and he has that, being a first-round draft pick,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/z1ZTc4YT4ts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mayfield said via JP Peterson of Fan Stream Sports - Tampa Bay;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Mayfield said via JP Peterson of Fan Stream Sports &#8211; Tampa Bay<\/a>. &#8220;The thing that sticks out is how cerebral he is. He&#8217;s so smart. Right now, I think we could probably put him in any receiver spot. I think he understands the offense that well. He&#8217;s not a rookie; he doesn&#8217;t act like it, at least. It&#8217;s been really good to see him take that ownership; he takes it extremely serious.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s in constant communication. He always wants to be sure he&#8217;s in the right spot at the right time. &#8230; It&#8217;s a nice luxury to have.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Egbuka could be thrust into a meaningful role in the offense sooner than expected if Chris Godwin hasn&#8217;t fully recovered from his gruesome ankle injury suffered in Week 10 last year against Baltimore.<\/p>\n<p>Godwin looks like he won&#8217;t be ready to play the beginning of the year, and the combination of second-year wideout Jalen McMillan and Egbuka could help pick up the slack in his absence.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/hes-pissed-off-tampa-bay-203904557.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: &#039;He&#039;s Pissed Off!&#039; Buccaneers Expect Haason Reddick to Attend Mandatory Minicamp;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: &#8216;He&#8217;s Pissed Off!&#8217; Buccaneers Expect Haason Reddick to Attend Mandatory Minicamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/rachaad-white-says-tampa-bay-224036320.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: Bucs &#039;Starving&#039; in 2025 per Star RB;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: Bucs &#8216;Starving&#8217; in 2025 per Star RB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This story was originally reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/nfl\/tampa-bay-buccaneers\/tampa-bay-buccaneers-qb-baker-mayfield-praises-rookie-wr-emeka-egbukas-ownership-offense\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Athlon Sports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield Praises Rookie WR Emeka Egbuka&#8217;s &#8216;Ownership of the Offense&#8217; originally appeared on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[1842,211,699,702,7,4080,7778,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-120510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-baker-mayfield","9":"tag-buccaneers","10":"tag-chris-godwin","11":"tag-emeka-egbuka","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-jalen-mcmillan","14":"tag-jason-licht","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-tampa-bay","17":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","18":"tag-tampabay","19":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114662957693323725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}