Greg Cosell Considered Ted Hurst A First-Round Talent
April 29th, 2026
Rookie Bucs third-round pick receiver Ted Hurst.
Joe’s good friend Ross Tucker decided to share this video snippet Monday. But it sure seems to be old.
Tucker, who may have the best pure football series of podcasts out on the interwebs, does a lot of stuff with NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell.
Those who follow Cosell know he is damn good breaking down tape. And Joe knows NFL folks value Cosell’s read on players.
Cosell mentioned how he studied film of a small school receiver and was very impressed. He said he texted a friend who is in the football world and asked, “Why is this kid not as [high] as Jordyn Tyson?”
It turns out, that “kid” is Bucs third-round pick Ted Hurst out of Georgia State in the Fun Belt.
Cosell seems to love Hurst and thinks he has a super-high ceiling.
“I really like this kid on tape,” Cosell said. “Now, obviously, he played at Georgia State. It’s not a power-four school. They were terrible this season.
“I think he’s one of the most intriguing wide receiver prospects in this class. He has the size, speed, stride-length. That’s his profile. Obviously, there’ll be questions about the level of competition, but you’re talking about a long dynamic receiver.
“He was a weapon at all three levels of the defense. Look, what I always say about players like this, if he showed the same traits profile with this kind of production in a power-four conference, Ross, we’d be talking about him as a first-round pick without question.”
Cosell added his only quibble with Hurst is that he may drop a few too many passes. “That’s got to be cleaned up,” he said. But, Cosell added, Hurst more than made up for the drops with really strong catches.
“I was fascinated by Ted Hurst of Georgia State,” Cosell said.
Given Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht’s prowess drafting receivers, even in the late rounds, Joe has confidence Hurst won’t be another bad Dexter Jackson.
“There's a receiver whose tape I REALLY, REALLY like… Ted Hurst from Georgia State…”
“If he went to a P4 we’d be talking about him as a first round pick WITHOUT question…”@GregCosell shares one of his hidden gem WRs in the 2026 NFL Draft:@Gametime pic.twitter.com/Kw2C3Kg8xw
— Ross Tucker Podcast (@RossTuckerPod) March 27, 2026
April 29th, 2026 at 7:38 am
I second Cosell’s notions.
A “capital X”/true X WR is worth a first round flier. Licht scored the rarest of commodities with a lowly third rounder.
April 29th, 2026 at 7:43 am
Evans dropped passes also, its true.
April 29th, 2026 at 7:47 am
Dexter Jackson is a throwback
April 29th, 2026 at 7:54 am
This draft keeps looking better and better for the Bucs.
April 29th, 2026 at 8:01 am
Reminds a lot of George Pickins, who was also a bit raw and got drafted in the 2nd round, but had 1st round talent.
It may take this kid a year or 2 to fully develop, but I think they will have some packages for him this year.
April 29th, 2026 at 8:06 am
“But it sure seems to be old.” Not sure what you see that makes you think the tape is old Joe. I must have missed the indicator that you saw. I noticed Cosell is wearing a 2026 hoodie. Regardless…I love what I’ve been reading about Hurst tearing it up at the Senior Bowl shindig.
April 29th, 2026 at 8:26 am
I’ve heard this type of hype before…
The kid played at Georgia State against low level competition and dominated.
I hope he can continue to develop and live up to the hype.
As always – time will tell.
April 29th, 2026 at 8:45 am
He probably would’ve been if he was coming out of the ACC SEC or any other conference.
April 29th, 2026 at 8:51 am
He probably needs a couple of years to produce. It’s a deep WR room and Ted has to adjust to NFL DBs. That said, he looks great running end zone fade routes.
April 29th, 2026 at 8:54 am
David Sills is his competition so if he can’t beat him out for playing time by week 4 he’s gonna be mostly invisible this year cause he’s not taking reps from out top 3 guys
April 29th, 2026 at 8:56 am
Lt. Dan is right. The 2026 sweatshirt is a dead giveaway. Cosell looks old, though.
April 29th, 2026 at 9:02 am
Charles Davis had Ted Hurst as one of his sleepers
I’m not sold on our WR room from last season
They really stunk the field after the San Francisco game
We can blame the OC, injuries or whatever, but they were mediocre .
Ted Hurst is an upgrade at WR, he should play immediately
April 29th, 2026 at 9:07 am
Honestly its year 3 for most receivers when they explode.
We aren’t talking about a sleeper 3rd rounder beating out David Sills.
His roster spot is secured regardless of #3,4,5,6,7?
April 29th, 2026 at 9:07 am
Our so call top WRs disappeared when we needed them most
They are not top in my book, they all should be fighting for a job
I have more faith in the rookie than them
Every player on the roster from last year squad
Should be on notice, I’m not sold on any of them
April 29th, 2026 at 9:15 am
“They really stunk the field after the San Francisco game
We can blame the OC, injuries or whatever, but they were mediocre.”
Cade Ottons’ numbers spiked after the SanFran game, so somebody was getting the ball. So we’re going to make the WRs accountable but not, nevermind.
April 29th, 2026 at 9:15 am
Licht picked another pretty good WR in the 3rd round not too many were looking at — Chris Godwin
April 29th, 2026 at 9:21 am
Anyways, Hurst is a weapon. Don’t care about who he played against or their level of talent there’s plenty of WRs that come from power 4 schools and get to the pros just to stink the field up or not be nearly as good as they were on the collegiate level.
Best thing for Hurst, is we don’t need him to start day 1, but we could be put him to use in spots as he continutes to develop. The awesome thing about him, is even with our offensive staff getting overhauled(again) Bowles kept coach Bryan McClendon has a connection with Hurst which should help the rookie assimilating to the pro way of doing things.
April 29th, 2026 at 9:23 am
“Old” as in before the draft. Notice Cosell never mentioned the Bucs or Hurst playing for the Bucs? Never spoke of him in past tense, like he was drafted lower than expected?
April 29th, 2026 at 9:35 am
““Old” as in before the draft. Notice Cosell never mentioned the Bucs or Hurst playing for the Bucs? Never spoke of him in past tense, like he was drafted lower than expected?”
Yep, that clip is from the end of March. So about a month before the draft.
April 29th, 2026 at 11:11 am
Our new Starting X Receiver/Wideout.
Ebuka can’t be effective against teams CB1 on the outside, neither can Godwin, McMillan and Tez Johnson POSSIBLY can to a certain degree.
But Hurst is definitely more equipped to, so he will be our WR1 essentially right out of the gate in Week 1.
April 29th, 2026 at 11:23 am
Good thing he will have Mike Evans as a mentor to help him along.
Oh, wait.
Well, at least he drops footballs, that’s what you want from a WR who played in a junior college league.
April 29th, 2026 at 11:40 am
Another player lacking in marketing skills
Jason and todd really need to stop doing this. They need guys that can get ratings on the rookie profile shows. Not this kind of a guy that was team first in the midt difficult situation possible. They just dont understand the game any more. They are doniosaurs and they picked a short arm dinosaur in the first round!
April 29th, 2026 at 1:40 pm
I see what your doing there Mveal .?
April 29th, 2026 at 5:24 pm
As long as he doesn’t drop any more passes than Evans did (and he dropped some whoppers), he’ll be just fine. Great pick by the Bucs!
April 29th, 2026 at 9:00 pm
I really love this 3rd round pick. ?? he’s great
April 29th, 2026 at 9:27 pm
He better be good. The offense doesn’t really work without a deep threat (see Bucs output without Evans) and like Erik said he is basically the only candidate in the receivers room….and he still only barely runs a sub 4.5 40.
May 3rd, 2026 at 12:20 pm
People need to temper expectations. The level of competition is soo low at Georgia State he’s going to have serious challenges going against NFL corners and schemes. Drops are typically not something you correct at the next level.