Cerebral receiver.

Yet again, we have another piece of evidence that 40 times at the combine was a waste of time and electricity.

In an exhaustive, long yet very fun read from Tyler Dunne of GoLongTD.com, Bucs star rookie wide receiver Emeka Egbuka is featured. A lot of the stuff is well-known to Bucs fans.

Bucs fans know Egbuka is smarter than the average bear, was a stud baseball player, etc. But there is some new stuff in Dunne’s feature (at least new to Joe).

Joe often cites how dummies hung up on how Tez Johnson isn’t Usain Bolt and therefore was garbage as one of the biggest pieces of evidence on the Bucs that the 40 times at the combine are a worthless distraction.

Chris Godwin is yet another example.

Well, make room for Egbuka as another piece of evidence that it is how a guy plays football, on the field of play, not how he runs in an indoor track practice.

Egbuka’s perfectly fine time in the 40 (4.45) clouded real speed. Similar to what [Bucs assistant general manager Rob] McCartney witnessed as a young scout with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Slow in shorts (4.55), Hines Ward was rarely caught from behind on the field. Egbuka was a similar gamer. Egbuka could get open and catch the ball with ease.

Another interesting piece of intel Dunne dug up was how Egbuka appeared on the Bucs’ radar and some of the in-house scouting the Bucs did on Egbuka.

His tape sizzled all the way back to his sophomore season. In a 42-41 playoff loss to Georgia, Egbuka lit up a defense full of future NFL prospects for 112 yards and a TD. Ex-Bulldog and current-Buccaneer Tykee Smith recently brought that game up to McCartney. “Emeka killed us!” the safety said.

Other cool things Dunne discovered are that Egbuka has zero social media apps on his phone (he does have Instagram on his iPad at home). Also, Egbuka went to Ohio State, even though he likely could have gone to top-shelf academic schools like Stanford or Northwestern, but chose Ohio State not just because it had an excellent business school, but, Egbuka reckoned, if he could make it with the Buckeyes with a totally loaded wide receiver room, he could play in the NFL.

Sharp guy, this Egbuka.

Boy, the Bucs would be screwed without him.