Another Bucs Believer Emerges
May 7th, 2025
So famous FS1 host Colin Cowherd, a one-man hollering show, has altered his 2025 prediction for the Buccaneers.
In March, Cowherd saw the Bucs as a second-place finisher behind Atlanta. Now, he’s singing the song of Rodney Harrison and many others, but not all.
“I like their draft. I always like their draft,” Cowherd said of the Bucs.
“I did not like the Atlanta Falcons’ draft, and I don’t know what Michael Penix is. By the way, I thought Emeka Egbuka to that receiver corps and that offense, he will be an 80-catch guy potentially as a rookie. Every GM I talked to, when I said, ‘Did anybody reach for Emeka?’ They’re like, ‘No. That guy could have been the fifth pick and it’s a smart pick.’ He will deliver Day 1.”
As Joe noted yesterday, the preseason hype for the Bucs is everywhere. It’s a first for the Todd Bowles-Baker Mayfield era.
The Mayfield-Bowles teams have not played well overall when the hype swings their way. This year, they’ll have to overcome that from Day 1.
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May 7th, 2025 at 6:42 pm
Shhhhhhh.
May 7th, 2025 at 6:45 pm
I’m gonna wait for the schedule.
May 7th, 2025 at 6:48 pm
High character guys should still work hard and not be affected by hype.
Let’s hope this remains true.
May 7th, 2025 at 7:05 pm
Somebody needs to tell our OC to bring back the run and shoot 4 receiver sets to take advantage of lack of depth in cornerbacks on certain teams. Also, would make it easier for Bucky to run against lighter defenders. Even using it part of the time would mess with defensive coordinators quite a bit.
May 7th, 2025 at 7:06 pm
“I did not like the Atlanta Falcons’ draft ….”
ATL’S DRAFT WAS RIDICULOUSLY GOOD!!!
ATL landed 3 players who at one time were projected to the Bucs in the 1st Round – Walker, Pierce, Watts. That’s 3x1st rounders!!! Bucs fans would be doing cartwheels if we had that draft.
Did they give up a bit of their future? Sure. Pitts said the team is all in on winning the NFCS NOW! The players they got have massive talent.
>6 of 9 ATL’s losses were by 1 score
>Penix is year 2
>ATL beat us 2x
It’ll be a close race.
May 7th, 2025 at 7:19 pm
Watts was a second 2nd pick, between 40-60, right about where he went. I do like him. But I like Morrison better. ATL took a risk with Pierce. Lots of teams took him entirely off their draft board. They also mortgaged their future for that pick. No 1st round pick ‘26 has to be calculated in.
May 7th, 2025 at 7:20 pm
Pump the brakes, Collie. EE ain’t getting 80 catches, unless Godwin and Evans get kidnapped.
May 7th, 2025 at 7:29 pm
Stop the hype let them work
May 7th, 2025 at 7:36 pm
Definitely more catches for everybody if the defense can get the other team’s offense off the field. Our offense was pretty good considering that didn’t happen much a large part of the season.
That’s what it’ll take pur offense into fully top three, having a top 10 defense.
One thing I really liked about our offense last year is how often we scored in the first quarter. That was a nice change of pace. Now if we can quit sucking in the second quarter and playing the third and fourth quarters about the same, well over 30 points a game. A guy can dream.
May 7th, 2025 at 7:38 pm
If we can score fairly regularly in the second quarter and play decently stout defense, we won’t have to try and come back in the 4th very often and instead just hold a lead.
May 7th, 2025 at 8:00 pm
As nice as it is get some respect, I still prefer when we’re the underdogs.
We never seem to handle praise very well, historically as a franchise.
May 7th, 2025 at 8:04 pm
Rod Munch
Was Saqoun Barkley “Washed Up” last offseason when the Giants no longer wanted him?
We just seen how that turned out for the Eagles.
Yall think every great player is Washed Up as long as he doesnt play for the Bucs lol
Then somebody said Jalen Ramsey isn’t Hall of Fame
He’s literally the best corner in the NFL the past decade.
Cmon now Guys!
May 7th, 2025 at 8:20 pm
Don’t agree Joe. The Mayfield-Bowles team has played above at least all oddsmakers predictions in the 2 years they’ve been together. The hype has steadily grown and they are still getting better. They laid an egg against Denver, that’s it. That Denver game followed the upset at Detroit. Those two guys, Bowles and Mayfield, are the last guys who’ll let hype affect their game. When is anybody gonna give the Commanders a little respect? They had to play the perfect game to beat us and they did. Let’s be glad we’ve got a coach and a QB are out working every day to get better. Pretty soon we’re gonna see how good they can be. Can you say Perennial Contender?
May 7th, 2025 at 8:27 pm
I like it better when people are dismissing the Bucs, it’s more fun to dunk on people as you win, as opposed to pre-celebrating your SB win and then wanting to slit your wrists after a week 2 loss.
May 7th, 2025 at 8:32 pm
Agree with you @Kenton Smith
We should leapfrog Detroit this year or next. Their window is closing – ours is opening thanks largely to Baker, Todd Bowles, and JL !
May 7th, 2025 at 8:36 pm
SlyPirate, I generally agree with a lot of your takes and wouldn’t argue it being a close race but I would offer a couple counter points…
Watts replaces Simmons… rookie for a well thought of vet.
Pearce and Walker aren’t making Wirfs or Goedeke sweat.
They lost Grady Jarrett in the middle… Walker and Pearce don’t help there.
Falcons coaching would be appear to be worse than ours… division in their grasp with 2 game lead and they choked it, not even winning vs Carolina in a must win. That’s a pretty big red flag.
They won two 1 score games that should have been L’s … game 1 vs Bucs where we choked it away and vs Philly when Barkley couldn’t convert on a wide open pass.
Carolina is gonna be tougher this year and Falcons Saints have top 5 ranked easiest schedules. Certainly won’t discount the division at this point but if the Bucs stay healthy, they should win this division by 2 games… we shall see.
May 7th, 2025 at 8:47 pm
Slypirate:
I think the Falcons did fine on the their draft picks that you mentioned.
However, they also gave next years number 1 pick. Way too high of a price for Pierce — right you agree.
They gave up = pick 46 and next years 1st round pick for James Pierce Jr.
Pierce JR is less than 250lbs so certainly not going to be a 3rd guy like Verse was last year for the Rams
May 7th, 2025 at 9:16 pm
Mike Evans will be 32 when the season starts, and he is in the last year of his contract. Will Evans even play football in 2026?
The Bucs lost four games in a row last year when Evans couldn’t play because of injury.
Those were two excellent reasons for the Bucs to draft an Evans-ish player in the 2025 draft.
The Bucs never had a shot at Tetairoa McMillen. None of the other Evans-ish options were predicted to be a WR 1. But then, Evans wasn’t predicted to be a WR1 either. And, any Evans-ish player the Bucs might have chosen should be have been able to look forward to at least one season of playing opposite of Evans – a tremendous learning opportunity for any rookie and a matchup nightmare for most opposing teams.
The following somewhat Evans-ish options were all available when the Bucs picked in the draft:
1. Jayden Higgins – 6’4”, 215#, 4.47 forty, pick 34
2. Tre Harris – 6’3”, 210#, 4.54 forty, pick 55
3. Savion Williams – 6’5”, 225#, 4.48 forty, pick 87
Instead of drafting an Evans-ish player, the Bucs used their first round draft pick to take a player in the mold of Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan. Godwin will be 29 when the season starts and is under contract through 2027. The Bucs were winners last year with the rookie McMillan playing in place of the seriously injured Godwin. How was there so great a need for another Godwin-esque player that it demanded the use of the Bucs first round draft pick?
The Bucs used five of their six draft picks wisely.
The Bucs found some very interesting and promising UDFAs.
Egbuka is an excellent football player.
But, Egbuka was a poor pick for the Bucs at #19.
May 7th, 2025 at 9:38 pm
I think if Mike gets his 1k again he’ll probably retire. That would break Jerry Rices consecutive 1k season to start record.
I’m really pulling for him to stay healthy and get his 1k.
I’m also not overly worried if he misses some time or if Chris takes awhile to return to form, assuming he even does.
I think we have #1 and 1b (in waiting) with J-Mac and EE. And Mike and Chris have to be the best mentors in the league.
Hope we get another top notch reciever next year. Along with ILB, D-line, Edge, another corner and possibly another safety.
Going to be the Bucs 1st home grown dynasty fellows…. Hope my health holds out long enough for me to see it happen!! Lfg Bucs!
May 7th, 2025 at 10:20 pm
I think 80 catches is a bit rich for a guy who will likely come into week 1 as WR 4 and, outside of injury, has a ceiling of WR3. Don’t get me wrong, I have high hopes for EE as a long term play, but we need to temper our expectations for his rookie season and really his first few seasons.
May 7th, 2025 at 10:20 pm
The Denver loss was all about the head coach not having the team prepared because they get full of themselves and too often come out flat. Many other examples that don’t need mentioning. We’ve all seen the team.
Two years in a row of bottom five pass defense.
Hopefully he really found something “in the lab” to make the pass defense much improved. Hopefully he also can avoid the mid-season slumps and have the team playing like professionals for 17 games plus playoffs.
We shall see.
May 7th, 2025 at 10:21 pm
Toopanca–
You can suggest that there were Evan’s type players but you mention height like that is enough.
Evans is one of the three or four most elite red zone WR targets in the history of the NFL.
None of the three guys you mentioned will touch his skill set in the red zone.
Trying to match that with one of those guys hoping he will be an Evans match is a clear mistake. Evans has a bigger catching radius than any NFL receiver.
Now whether any of the receivers you like is better than the one Jason picked that is up for debate. But comparing any of them to ME in any way – is a clear huge misunderstanding of ME’s elite scoring ability.
May 7th, 2025 at 10:22 pm
Well yea they lost 4 in a row when Evans went out ,,, of course , Godwin was out as well,, you lose 1 and 1A and you may not have the best passing game around , this year we might just have 1, 1A and 1 B,,,, and yea I’m on board w 80 catches for the Rookie ,,, teams will have to decide which skill players they want to double ,,, Evans , Godwin, Otton , Bucky, EE, White , McMillan ,,,, Tez lol,,, lots of Skill!!!!
May 7th, 2025 at 10:30 pm
jarrett Says:
May 7th, 2025 at 8:04 pm
Rod Munch
Was Saqoun Barkley “Washed Up” last offseason when the Giants no longer wanted him?
———
I literally said last year that Barkley WASN’T washed up – and while I don’t like spending big money on RBs the Bucs, if they’re intent on getting a RB, they should go get him. Also Barkley wasn’t under contract and wanted a huge new deal, the Giants wanted him back. So you literally whiffed on every dumb point you attempted to make. Ramsey IS washed up, which is why no one is going to give up anything of value unless the Dolphins eat a huge chunk of his salary, and even then it’s probably no more than a 4th – likely a lot less.
May 7th, 2025 at 10:36 pm
toopanca – I have a name for you, Larry Brackins of Pearl River State. 6-5, 225lbs – you’d love him. Bucs did too, took him in the 5th round of the 2005 NFL draft. Had an amazing career I’m pretty sure, because at that height, who isn’t a sure fire HOFer!
May 7th, 2025 at 11:10 pm
I think 80 catches for EE is doable. I think he will definitely be the #3 WR ahead of McMillan before mid season if Mike or Godwin get hurt he might lead the team. EE was best receiver in the draft after Hunter.
May 8th, 2025 at 12:07 am
🤣🤣 Rod
May 8th, 2025 at 12:50 am
Uh, Mike Evans was most def considered a 1st round talent / WR1 when he came out in the draft, not sure what you’re talking about…
May 8th, 2025 at 6:47 am
Defense is the afterthought in all these discussions, but defense still wins championships. We are a couple years behind in talent on that side of the ball, especially with all the question marks around guys coming off injuries. Reddick should be solid, but VV will be 30, LVD 35. The rest of the lineup looks like a MASH unit or are unproven. We cleared up cap space, hopefully for an addition before training camp.
May 8th, 2025 at 7:11 am
Cowherds a c u next Tuesday if I’ve ever seen one
May 8th, 2025 at 8:04 am
The only way Egbuka gets 80 catches in his rookie year is if Godwin never returns as a starter.
If Godwin misses the first quarter of the season, he may lose the starting spot to Egbuka, but Godwin just got paid, so even that is unlikely.
The other possibility is if Evans goes down for an extended period.
At this point, I would take Evans over Godwin.
If Egbuka really shines, we could see Godwin traded…if he comes back healthy. In that case, we could get good value for him.
May 8th, 2025 at 8:07 am
And I hate to even suggest this, but…if Godwin comes back and is as good as before his injury…the Bucs might want to consider trading Evans.
Could get a first rounder from a hungry team with the cap space.
May 8th, 2025 at 8:09 am
Woodman Says:
May 7th, 2025 at 11:10 pm
I think 80 catches for EE is doable. I think he will definitely be the #3 WR ahead of McMillan before mid season if Mike or Godwin get hurt he might lead the team. EE was best receiver in the draft after Hunter.”
I’m not sure he’ll get the playing time to do it.
May 8th, 2025 at 8:15 am
Evans WAS the reason Johnny FOOOTBALL looked so good in college. height isn’t the requiem for a fantastic receiver, remember how much Evans was called for offensive interference, which I think was a bunch of crap mostly. My point being it’s the person that makes the needed adjustments and works at his craft the way all our receivers do. As Otto Graham said, “All the talent in the world means nothing if you don’t work at it”. He should know, won a championship every year, amazing player.
May 8th, 2025 at 9:24 am
Jinx. It’s better if fair weather jackwagons with microphones don’t hype Bucs.
May 8th, 2025 at 10:12 am
Gotta have playing time to produce.
He’ll get playing time, but depending on Godwin, not a lot throughout the season. The reach 80 catches, he’d have to play as a starter all season.