{"id":857945,"date":"2026-04-07T02:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/857945\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T02:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:02:20","slug":"analyst-names-odd-position-for-buccaneers-surprising-draft-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/857945\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst names odd position for Buccaneers’ surprising draft need"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> will be an interesting watch this season, particularly on offense, as for the first time in over a decade, the franchise won’t have Mike Evans on the roster.<\/p>\n

Granted, Baker Mayfield and Co. have had good practice without Evans, with injuries over the last two seasons seeing others have to step up.<\/p>\n

With Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka, Tez Johnson, and Jalen McMillan, the cupboard for Mayfield isn’t exactly bare with Evans moving on.<\/p>\n

But still, for Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine, when naming a surprising draft need for every team, he chose receiver for Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

“When we’re talking about draft needs for the Bucs, it’s usually the defense that gets the attention,\u201d Ballentine wrote<\/a>. \u201cHowever, the Buccaneers offense is also hitting a tipping point. Baker Mayfield has just one year left on his contract and they’ll be dealing with losing Mike Evans. Chris Godwin is still on the roster, but his injury history and age (30) make it hard to count on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are more pressing issues, but the Bucs could still wind up opting to load up their receiver room with another young, affordable option to build around.\u201d<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Colts urged to find Jonathan Taylor contingency plan<\/a><\/p>\n

Do Buccaneers need WR help?<\/p>\n

For me, no. You ride with Godwin and the others, who should take the next step in their development.<\/p>\n

I get Ballentine’s thought process here, and taking a receiver in the draft could happen regardless, but shouldn’t in the first round.<\/p>\n

Mayfield is good enough to make things work with his current receiver options, but you can never have enough weapons. While stating receiver is a “need” might be a little strong, given Tampa Bay’s defensive needs, adding a late-round pick might not be the worst idea.<\/p>\n

Either way, the Buccaneers appear to be in ok shape heading into the offseason on offense, but franchises are always looking to get better, and if a receiver falls to them in the later rounds, taking a flyer isn’t out of the realm of possibility.<\/p>\n

More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be an interesting watch this season, particularly on offense, as for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-857945","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\/116360967070159471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857945","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=857945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}