Raiders Lurking For A Receiver From Bucs’ Top-6 Receiving Corps?
June 20th, 2025
The Bucs’ have a loaded and diverse passing attack with a full stable of quality receivers.
Is it the best receiving corps in the NFL? No chance says a buddy of Todd Bowles and a former personnel man.
Joe’s referring to Pat Kirwan, the former Jets linebackers coach and Jets front office chief. Bowles appears often on Kirwan’s SiriusXM NFL Radio show with co-host and former Bucs backup QB Jim Miller.
Kirwan and Miller finished their annual deep dive into every team’s receiving corps this week. Damn, these guys agonized over grading the Bucs, especially Kirwan.
Simply stated, Kirwan can’t put his finger on the Bucs’ plan and isn’t 100 percent on board with their roster-building at the position.
“Why did you draft this kid (Emeka Egbuka) when you could have gone out and maybe taken a pass rusher?” Kirwan asked rhetorically. “If you love [Jalen] McMillan that much, why’d you do it and pay [Chris] Godwin? There’s the problem.”
Now Kirwan doesn’t think having a lot of receivers is a “problem;” it just makes the Bucs hard to grade at receiver.
In Kirwan’s mind, there is no possible way Godwin sits on the bench, even if he’s still getting back to full health. And, per Kirwan, any first-round-pick receiver would be on the field ahead of McMillan — no matter how McMillan plays.
Joe always finds it interesting to explore the politics and egos of NFL teams. Joe has talked about this on the Ira Kaufman Podcast. Godwin got huge money on a new three-year contract, but what if Egbuka clearly is a better player from Day 1 of the 2025 season?
No shame there, but how might Godwin handle a reduced role if he’s healthy? And would the Bucs dare to do something like that? Teams want players with fat contracts on the field.
Baker Mayfield has said the Bucs offense very much revolves around Mike Evans, and it’s obvious, so Joe is confident Mike Evans’ role will stay the same. But what if McMillan continues his late-season surge from last year?
These are great potential challenges/problems for the Bucs, but a potentially tough spot for a rookie offensive coordinator who would be under tremendous pressure to keep players and management happy.
Kirwan speculated that former Bucs assistant GM Jon Spytek and his new receiver-needy team, the Raiders, will be looking for a Bucs receiver that doesn’t make the roster or falls on the Tampa Bay depth charge. Of course, it’s unclear who that might be.
Overall, Kirwan ranked the Bucs as the No. 6 receiving corps in the NFL, though he struggled to pin that down because he doesn’t know who will be on the field and in what roles. Miller put the Bucs at No. 5.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:05 pm
Falls on the depth charge? Kind of a nautical versionof depth chart?
June 20th, 2025 at 6:07 pm
They dumb
June 20th, 2025 at 6:20 pm
Hmmm. The FORMER front office chief doesn’t understand what the Super B*wl winning GM (entering season 12) is doing? Not concerned. Maybe with typical NFL receivers, but these are special young men.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:21 pm
I’m sure we’re all very interested in how the WR room will look when the smoke clears after training camp. Personally very happy to have so many talented guys competing for spots.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:27 pm
What has Pat Kirwan ever won or done? For God’s sake he was a Bucs scout in the 80’s…..nuf said.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:28 pm
Trey Palmer in the Silver and Black.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:37 pm
Better to have too many talented players than not enough. I don’t see how this is a problem unless you’re looking for problems.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:38 pm
I think the Bucs WR room will be fine. I think with all the talent we have BM could throw for 5k yards and 50 TDs. ME, CG, and JMac or EE will each have 1000 yards.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:45 pm
Give them Trey Palmer, Rakim Jarret, or Kameron Johnson for a pick and max crossby lol
June 20th, 2025 at 6:47 pm
So who are the top 5WR teams???? I’ll wait…. What a joke!
June 20th, 2025 at 6:57 pm
Imagine the odds someone will be open with these receivers- virtually 100% on every single play someone gets open. Or multiple someones. Moving the ball would be insanely easy in these circumstances. Maybe even run some 4 WR sets or put Evans in at TE occasionally.
June 20th, 2025 at 6:57 pm
It’s clear these two don’t know something that the Buccaneers front office may know. All of their questions will be answered in the regular season and they will look back and say I knew it! The fact is nobody knows if Chris will come back the same as he was in 24, or when, nobody knows when Father Time will start biting at the great Mike Evans’ heels (or hamstring), nobody knows if Egbuka is better than Godwin or hell even McMillan. With that being said I think the probability we will need Egbuka to start at X, Z, or slot in 25 is probably near 100% so it was a wise move in my humble opinion. QB, LT, Edge, then WR are the most important positions on a team.
June 20th, 2025 at 7:08 pm
I heard this. Basically he was frustrated because he couldn’t figure out how to plug the Bucs WR room into his made-up scoring system, so he just said they aren’t as good as the other teams.
Kind of sad, he was one of the talking heads I still had a little faith in.
June 20th, 2025 at 7:23 pm
Someone is going to get hurt. That was the point of drafting EE.
This will not be a problem IMO.
June 20th, 2025 at 7:24 pm
This WR room including the TE’s has it all. You want physicality, see ME and Goddy. You want speed,see Palmer, and Culp. You want one of the best route runners(despite taking an NFL snap) see Ebuka. You want craftiness and quickness, see Tez. You want Mr reliable, see Otton. You want an X-factor see Mcmillian. How is this even a convo??????
June 20th, 2025 at 7:49 pm
Who are the 5 teams with better receivers??
June 20th, 2025 at 7:53 pm
Not sure who they all are, but I know he gave the Cowboys a perfect score.
June 20th, 2025 at 8:08 pm
Baker threw for 41 tds even with the two top receivers missing 12 games or so. Do the math. They were #2 last year.
June 20th, 2025 at 8:12 pm
@First Last
I’d keep Kameron over Rakim & Trey. At least you can use Kameron in different ways, too!
June 20th, 2025 at 8:54 pm
Rotate at the position. You can run more deep patterns more often if you’re throwing waves of dudes at it. Tire out the opposing corners. Make them run all day.
June 20th, 2025 at 9:09 pm
So they think depth at the position is a bad thing?
As usual, I’m confused. Lol
June 20th, 2025 at 9:30 pm
The two fellows may be pushing a common perception. Maybe the Buccaneers’ brain trust was thinking outside the box a bit. They had a draft board configured a certain way that none of us know about. I don’t know, but I do trust the process that Jason Licht follows. He has credibility over time.
Go Bucs!!
June 20th, 2025 at 9:56 pm
LOL
The ridiculous take. Evans is older. Godwin probably isn’t ready at the beginning. McMillan and Egbuka are the future and will be three and four or higher if Godwin is not ready. Why is this such a mystery to Kirwan?
As far as Edge Rusher, they signed Reddick and they drafted two more.
My only concern is ILB depth
June 20th, 2025 at 10:03 pm
I guarantee that Godwin starts the year on IR and comes back after the 1st 6 games or however long he has to be out when starting the year on IR.
Then, things will get murkier at the receiver position, role-wise.
June 20th, 2025 at 11:03 pm
the front office is preparing for life without mike or chris…
it’s a good plan…careers can wash out in a heartbeat sometimes…and they are getting no younger…
and yeah somehow seems to be over kirwan’s head for whatever reason…
maybe kirwanito is a low key buc hater lol
June 20th, 2025 at 11:24 pm
So the Raiders will sign Shepard when he gets cut?
June 20th, 2025 at 11:47 pm
I hope Evans gets 80+ catches this year and 16+ TDs. If the offense goes through him show it. He can still have a monster year and should be aiming for AP/OPOTY. Those stats plus rep would help his case
June 21st, 2025 at 12:35 am
we need all these guys, Mike Evans and his hamstrings and Godwin is not likely back on week one. I plan on seeing lots of Jalen McMillan and Egbuka and some of Tez Johnson as well.
June 21st, 2025 at 1:08 am
Anyone who watched the Bucs lose 4 straight games when Godwin and Evans went down understands why Licht made that pick.