Yes, The Bucs Are Deep At Receiver
June 18th, 2025
Leader of deep WR room.
Earlier this week, Friend of Ira, Judy Battista of NFL Network, hosted the primetime show “The Insiders.” A chunk was devoted to the Bucs.
Battista was with Sara Walsh, who is sort of the NFL Network Bucs beat reporter, since she lives in Pinellas County and often is at One Buc Palace and Bucs.
Battista asked Walsh what she learned about the Bucs after underwear football season. Walsh’s takeaway was the receivers room is no joke.
“I think what we learned, Judy, is what we already thought we were going to see when you look at this roster on paper,” Walsh said. “And that’s the fact that the receivers group is completely stacked for this Tampa team.
“You already have the two Pro Bowlers, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, Jr. By the way, that is a name change [Godwin] is going by as a nod to his father.
“And then you already had Jalen McMillan, who is an emerging star now going into his second season. They added first rounder of Emeka Egbuka in this draft. They also added a speedster and Tez Johnson.”
Now since the Bucs are so loaded at receiver, Joe wonders since new Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard wants more explosive plays, if he’s going to go with a four-receiver set and if so, how often.
If the Bucs are truly loaded at receiver, why not use that depth to create mismatches in the secondary and put defenses on their heels.
There is no sense in having such a deep receiver room if you aren’t going to use it to its fullest.
June 18th, 2025 at 4:25 am
Rakim “the rock Jarrett” is also a solid WR.
Ryan Miller had some huge blocks and catches in the playoff game.
I hope we can trade Palmer for a 7th.
June 18th, 2025 at 4:35 am
If you’re wondering about explosive plays, and how many four receiver sets Grizz might use, look at the Miami Dolphin offense. Remember Coen got Grizzard from McDanials. We assume Grizz’s offense will be Coen’s, when it might look a lot like McDanials. Better yet, it’ll be Grizzard’s, with hopefully the best of both.
June 18th, 2025 at 4:44 am
The Bucs already had WR’s, I’m more happy they got some Corners.
June 18th, 2025 at 5:30 am
Yes the Bucs are stacked at WR, but much more important IMO, we’re stacked in weapons … WRs, TEs, RBs and yes QB. If you use the criteria Yards From Scrimmage (Receiving AND Rushing Yards total) for each ‘weapon’, plus the TDs each scored, it’s easy to see the options that this offense has all over the field.
Impressive to note that the Bucs accumulated 7,041 Yards From Scrimmage and 57 Total TDs last season. That ranked us 3rd in Yards from Scrimmage and 4th in Total TDs Scored. There are some pretty high-powered offenses out there (Ravens, Lions, Bills?) and we played 2 of those last year and we play 2 of those this year.
Bucs have THREE players who got over 1,000 Yards from Scrimmage last year: Irving (1514 yds – 8 TDs), White (1006 yds – 9 TDs) and Evans (1004 yds – 11 TDs). Those 3 guys got roughly HALF of our Total Yards and Total TDs.
Bucs have THREE players who got between 500 – 1000 Yards From Scrimmage last year: Otton (596 yds – 4 TDs), Godwin (578 yds – 5 TDs) and McMillan (504 yds – 8 TDs). Those 3 guys got roughly a QUARTER of our Total Yards and Total TDs.
Bucs have THREE players who got between 300 – 500 Yards From Scrimmage last year: Tucker (417 yds – 3 TDs), Shepard (403 yds – 1 TD) and Mayfield (378 yds – 3 TDs).
All the rest of our ‘weapons’ (7 others) combined for 634 Yards From Scrimmage and 5 TDs on the season.
Yup, the Bucs are deep in weapons. And the player who makes it work is Baker Mayfield; multiple ‘options’ to sort out on each play. And thankfully we’ve got an OLine that can provide him the time to do exactly that. It all ties together on great teams IMO, and we’re getting closer.
June 18th, 2025 at 6:19 am
Evans, Godwin, McMillan, Egbuca, Tez Johnson, and Sterling Shepard. Baker probably has to pinch himself after waking each morning.
June 18th, 2025 at 6:42 am
3 WR with White in the backfield. Puts the defence into a major pickle. If the go light he runs, if they stay in base he can motion to the 4th WR spot…. With his receiving chops…Defences can’t defend that!
June 18th, 2025 at 6:42 am
In the early, hot games of the season the Bucs should use their WR depth to wear down opposing DBs. Our WR’s should run a ton of go routes, and rotate out on every play, to gas the opposing DBs.
June 18th, 2025 at 7:50 am
I share Hodad and DR’s takes on things. (1) Grizz may not be molding the 2025 offensive scheme entirely off Coen’s playbook, and (2) the Buc’s offense is stacked at every position group. Joe posted earlier about both Bucky and our running game as well as the depth of the WR room. We also have a pretty deep and diverse TE group. If we have creative play calling from Grizz, there’s no way defenses will be able to double team all of our weapons. If we don’t at least match last year’s production (hopefully surpass), I will be very disappointed.