![\"Jaden](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GVRxgQkWoAAFvT6-e1775175828976.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHeavy\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Jaden Smith. <\/p>\n
After 1 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>, in which he spent the entire time on injured reserve, the team is parting ways with 6-foot-6, 210-pound wide receiver Jaden Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBucs have waived receiver Jaden Smith, who spent his entire rookie season on injured reserve,\u201d Fox Sports NFL reporter Greg Auman wrote<\/a> on his official X account on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cSmith signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> and joined the team\u2019s ongoing training camp,\u201d Nevada Sports Net\u2019s Chris Murray<\/a> wrote in July 2025. \u201cSmith spent rookie minicamp in Green Bay and Tampa Bay. Smith is the 13th wideout on the Bucs\u2019 training camp roster. The 6-foot-6, 210-pound Smith spent one season with the Wolf Pack, leading the team with 62 catches for 849 yards and seven touchdowns last year after stints at Montana State and Tarleton State. He was All-Mountain West honorable mention. In 45 games with those three programs, he caught 138 passes for 2,100 yards and 20 touchdowns. Nevada head coach Jeff Choate originally signed Smith when he was Montana State\u2019s head coach before adding him as a transfer at Nevada last year.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith had 1 reception for 9 yards in 2 preseason games for the Buccaneers in 2025.<\/p>\n Jaden Smith Could Have Been Red Zone Threat<\/p>\n It\u2019s too bad the Buccaneers never got a chance to see how they could use a player with Smith\u2019s height and skill set in the red zone, where he thrived in college.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s an elite red zone threat,\u201d Nevada head coach Jeff Choate said<\/a> in 2024. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve ever been around a guy, and I\u2019ve coached some places, that has anybody any better than Jaden Smith is in the red zone.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith had a pair of 800-yard receiving campaigns in 6 college seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cHe also had another 800-plus-yard season with Tarleton State in 2022,\u201d Heavy\u2019s Michael Obermuller wrote<\/a> in 2025. \u201cPlus, he achieved double-digits receiving touchdowns that year with 10. The remainder of Smith\u2019s collegiate career was less notable.\u201d<\/p>\n Bucs WRs Facing Uphill Battle in 2026<\/p>\n While there\u2019s a chance Smith could still return to the Buccaneers in the near future, whatever the team trots out in 2026 will be a group of wide receivers pretty much unrecognizable to the football world at large.<\/p>\n That\u2019s in large part because legendary wide receiver Mike Evans<\/a> decided to leap at the opportunity to leave for a 3-year, $42.4 million free-agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>.<\/p>\n That leaves a group led by a pair of receivers who seem to have a similar skill set in 2nd-year wide receiver and former 1st-round pick Emeka Egbuka<\/a> and veteran Chris Godwin<\/a>.<\/p>\n Egbuka and Godwin both come with their own sets of problems. Egbuka faded down the stretch as a rookie, and Godwin had the worst season of his career in 2025 after signing a 3-year, $66 million contract.<\/p>\n At least with those 2, there\u2019s some understanding of what they can be if they play well and both have an elite upside.<\/p>\n Beyond that, there are more questions than answers in a group that includes 3rd-year wide receiver Jalen McMillan<\/a>, who is coming off a serious neck injury that cost him 14 games in 2025, and even further beyond that, there\u2019s 5-foot-10, 165-pound wide receiver Tez Johnson<\/a>, who had 28 receptions for 322 yards and 5 touchdowns as a rookie but has spent part of the offseason dealing with a unique off-field issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTony Adame<\/a> covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Buccaneers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heavy Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Jaden Smith. After 1 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-850380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116338070638243368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850380","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=850380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}