Jason Licht Confident All Receivers Will Be Cincinnati-Ready
August 28th, 2026
Expected Week 1.
Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht brought good news to his annual summer visit to the WFLA-TV Channel 8 broadcast booth.
Bucs color analyst and Hall of Famer Rondé Barber asked Licht during his second half visit how he will put the last few names of the roster together when the team is dealing with injuries.
While the Bucs are not beat up, some starters are dealing with nagging injuries. Barber didn’t mention names or positions, but Licht did.
And Licht added the injuries shouldn’t keep fans awake at night.
“Well, you know the injuries that we’ve had, like with ‘Meka [Emeka Egbuka] and J-Mac [Jalen McMillan], we’re just being very cautious and smart about it,” Licht said. “And not rushing them back out here for this preseason.
“And we’re we’re pretty sure that we’re going to have [both] back Week 1, and everything’s trending that way.”
That’s very good to know. And as Joe mentioned Friday, if Ted Hurst doesn’t play that may be a sign that Egbuka and/or McMillan are a little more injured than the Bucs are letting on, but perhaps that’s not the case.
And if that is the case, the Bucs really are being smart about it. There’s no need, zero need, to have starters get beat on by dudes who will be driving trucks, stocking shelves at Publix or processing payrolls next week.
August 28th, 2026 at 10:30 pm
7 wins maybe 8
August 28th, 2026 at 10:30 pm
Didn’t seem to mind our backup quarterbacks getting beat on behind garbage offensive lineman.
August 28th, 2026 at 10:35 pm
I can’t wait to see all our top WRs running 15 WR screens a game and sandlot routes.
August 28th, 2026 at 10:38 pm
7-10
August 28th, 2026 at 10:39 pm
The WRs tonight mostly looked awful. I counted at least 4 drops, with 3 on third down, plays that would have kept drives alive, and all 4 drops costing the Bucs a 1st down. It completely derailed the offense.
Also what happened to Greene? Last preseason, he really looked great in games, was great at returns, showed a ton of life at WR – and this year, he’s looked pretty awful, and the camp notes have said he’s had a lot of drops. Really disappointing as he seemed like a legit guy to make the team as a returner last year at this time.
August 28th, 2026 at 10:39 pm
GOD I HOPE THIS IS NOT LEFTWITCH 2.O. RUN ,RUN, RUN. 😠
August 28th, 2026 at 10:40 pm
GOD I HOPE THIS IS NOT LEFTWITCH 2.O. RUN ,RUN, RUN. 😠 not duplicate
August 28th, 2026 at 10:41 pm
5-12
Good point Irish but they had to play someone. Bucs have depth problems all over the roster. We’ll see what that injury report looks like in 10 days. Keep your fingers crossed.
August 28th, 2026 at 10:44 pm
We had some 3rd string lineman that couldn’t block at all – I think Zac got frustrated and just started calling plays to get out of there
August 28th, 2026 at 10:47 pm
If you made a foreign sports watcher sit through that they would run screaming back to soccer, cricket or lawn darts. What an awful game to watch.
August 28th, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Hurst is our new Starting X Receiver. Congratulations, Ted
August 28th, 2026 at 10:51 pm
Also, Z-Rob’s playcalling looks quite terrible so far.
Hopefully, he takes a page out of Liam Coen’s playbook and throws or does play-action on 1st downs instead of running the ball. That was one of Liam’s greatest successes here: throwing on 1st downs and running on different downs and only running on 1st down occasionally when they are actually not expecting it because we’ve been throwing on 1st down so much.
August 28th, 2026 at 10:52 pm
If Baker can stay healthy, and the rest of the team stays mostly healthy: 10-7. If not, I have no idea.
August 28th, 2026 at 11:03 pm
It is,amazing the Daniels doods,want the Bucs to fail so their dood can play. Baker will thrive under the Rams offense. 10-7 playoffs.
August 28th, 2026 at 11:18 pm
We had better hope our Oline stays healthy because our backups suck badly…
August 28th, 2026 at 11:28 pm
TampaBayBucFan Says:
August 28th, 2026 at 11:18 pm
We had better hope our Oline stays healthy because our backups suck badly…
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In fairness, we didn’t really even see the backups. The top 8 offensive lineman didn’t play – so we saw probably only one guy that even makes the team on the field.
With that said, I agree, if the offensive line can’t stay healthy this year, they’re going to be in trouble unless Billy is ready to play early.
We have in the line room, Ben, Bill, Cody and Luke. It really does sound like a Dukes of Hazzard episode.
August 28th, 2026 at 11:56 pm
Right, just like Braswell was going to shock the world and Wirfs would be back for TC last season.
It’s getting harder and harder to believe anything Gas Licht says.
Between EE’e awful second half of last season, his subpar TC, and missing the last 3 weeks, it’s getting hard to be optimistic about him.
August 29th, 2026 at 12:04 am
Hey joe nothing wrong with stocking shelves i know a lot of good men they do it or did it so lay off my brother
August 29th, 2026 at 12:08 am
bucs 10/7 this year there going to come out hot and have and have a late season collapse but hang on so lets go bucs
August 29th, 2026 at 12:12 am
Funny my post get declined and not posted what a man joe
August 29th, 2026 at 4:42 am
Really weak WR room.
If the aging Godwin doesn’t have chronic injuries( I think he does-ankle), then he is our only decent WR.
MacMillian has never played great, and has to recover psychologically from getting his neck broken!
The rest are Rookies and over rated First year players.
EE had 7 great games, then was invisible for last 10 games.
Tez and Kameron only look good- compared to our other WR.
Hurst may become a player. But he’s a rookie. And rookies suck.
Add Bad WRs to a weak defense and horrible backup Offensive linemen,
And Mayfield can’t wait for the season to end- so he can get outta here
August 29th, 2026 at 7:54 am
jeff chick Says:
August 29th, 2026 at 12:12 am
Funny my post get declined and not posted what a man joe
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You must be new here
August 29th, 2026 at 11:09 am
Easy there @Capt.Tim,
Of all the issues the Bucs face, the WR room probably is the least of them. Beat up the coaching, GM, owners, 3rd string OL, QBs or corners before you hit up the WRs. Plenty of low hanging fruit there. Ask anybody.
August 29th, 2026 at 11:33 am
6-11 because half the team will be injured by the third game. I don’t know if we draft injury prone players or we have a lousy conditioning program!
August 29th, 2026 at 6:17 pm
After last year it is hard to be very enthusiastic, but I hope there is real improvement. Win or lose i will still watch. Have since the first season. Hope that some of the new players make big impacts. If not, then rebuild from the head coach on down. GO Bucs!
August 29th, 2026 at 7:05 pm
Capt.Tim Says:
August 29th, 2026 at 4:42 am
Really weak WR room.
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A very dumb take.
God bless.