Emeka Egbuka Fit Bucs’ Character Profile
April 24th, 2025
The Buccaneers guard their culture like Joe guards Hooters tater tots when Ira Kaufman is within 10 feet.
Getting the right kind of guy is a massive priority at One Buc Palace.
Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht made that very clear tonight after Tampa Bay stunned a lot of fans and picked wide receiver Emeka Egbuka at No. 19 overall.
Licht spoke about how Egbuka fit the team’s character profile and implied that within whatever scoring system the Bucs used to grade character, Egbuka was an A+ performer.
Nobody anywhere says anything bad about the guy, Licht added.
Joe is not surprised. Licht would have to be a moron to stick a questionable dude in with all-business Chris Godwin and Mike Evans.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:12 pm
Golden is a diva. Mark my words, Egbuka will be the better pro. My wife’s a Packer fan so I get to evaluate them both over their careers. Attach yourself to Chris and Mike!!!
April 24th, 2025 at 11:15 pm
Our Offense is Loaded!!!!
April 24th, 2025 at 11:16 pm
All good….now we hit D rest of the way.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:17 pm
I literally could care less if he’s a good guy or not. It’s really easy to have a team full of nice guys who give 110% and go 4-13. I just want guys who ball out on the field – and if they push your kid down when they harass him while he’s eating dinner, well, that’s on you for having such an ill mannered brat.
Anywho, I do like the pick. #19 is a bit high, he looked like more of an early 2nd round type of WR, but that doesn’t mean much – those guys tend to be ultra productive.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:20 pm
When’s the last time an Ohio state wr has been a bust?
April 24th, 2025 at 11:22 pm
Caracter profile for bucs, where is Antonio Brown in that profile
April 24th, 2025 at 11:23 pm
Seems like a lot of defense is still going to be there in Round 2.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:25 pm
Srbija Says:
April 24th, 2025 at 11:22 pm
Caracter profile for bucs, where is Antonio Brown in that profile
———-
I think his profile says Super Bowl Champion, 7x Pro Bowler and 4x ALL-Pro.
Also, he’s a fantastic follow on Twitter, is absolutely hilarious.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:26 pm
Golden was dressed in gold, Egbuka was home with his family. Smart, humble, hard worker. The perfect Buccaneer. We got a good one in all aspects. Last time Licht picked a first round receiver it worked out pretty good. I trust him on this one.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:27 pm
I think Licht’s obsession with character is becoming a liability. Of course high character is a desirable trait, but when that becomes your #1 qualification, over talent, it becomes a problem.
This just seems like another safe, low-floor, medium-ceiling pick that will keep us hovering around 9-8. This team is becoming too comfortable with ‘good, not great.’
April 24th, 2025 at 11:27 pm
Emeka Egbuka finished his career with 205 catches for 2,868 yards and 24 touchdowns. His receiving yardage is the second-most in Ohio State history. In 2024, he had 81 catches for 1,011 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Been some awfully good Ohio State receivers. Love that he’s going to be mentored by Chris & Mike.
Golden is a diva. We got the hard worker.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:27 pm
This is all fine and dandy—character, leadership, being a locker room guy, helping old ladies across the street, all that. But at some point, you need dogs. You need some guys who wake up mad, who want to rip helmets off, who play like every down is personal. You can’t go full James Pearce Jr. mode—“we shoot cops in our neighborhood” on police cam, that’s obviously dumb—but football isn’t a game for choir boys either.
You need a little edge. A little menace.
The Buccaneers are clearly committed to culture—like Jason Licht is drafting with a church committee in the war room. They love character fits. And yeah, Emeka Egbuka seems like a clean-cut, perfect-fit kinda guy. An A+ on the mysterious character scale. Nobody says anything bad about him. He probably returns shopping carts and calls his grandma twice a week.
But football isn’t about winning a community service award. It’s about smashing another grown man in the mouth for three hours, then doing it again next Sunday. There’s a balance here. Yes, protect your culture. Yes, avoid locker room poison. But don’t let the pursuit of squeaky-clean dudes keep you from bringing in a few savages who might not say the right thing but will absolutely bring the heat on 3rd and long.
You can’t win a Super Bowl with nothing but nice character guys.
Eventually, you need some dogs.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:30 pm
Baker is happy. I think Godwin goes more outside now, after the injuries, since we have our new slot….its just what was needed. He was going in the first anyway so I cant call it a reach…he might have lasted 3 or 4 more picks.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:30 pm
Grizz needs to start working on 4 WR packages.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:31 pm
@Josh – amen
April 24th, 2025 at 11:34 pm
If the Bucs win a SuperBowl this season (which IS the objective), it wouldn’t surprise me to see Evans retire.
Both he and Godwin are getting up in age. The team needed to plan for that possibility, even if it seems unlikely.
Good WRs are very expensive these days in free agency, and the Bucs may not be in position to draft one as good as Egbuka next season. And for Egbuka to be able to learn under both Evans and Godwin, that should accelerate his learning curve.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:37 pm
Class guy. Heard him interviewed on NFL Satellite Radio. Reminds me of 13. Love the pick. We grabbed a linebacker and passed rusher in free agency. We will get a safety, cornerback, and linebacker in rounds 2-4. This kid has pro bowl talent and was #1 receiver on the National Champion college team.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:44 pm
All these guys we’ve been talking about are all still available guess 31 other teams thought they weren’t 1st rounders also, this kid is a stud do we need Defense yes but you don’t pass up on great players and great human beings. All defense the rest of the draft the kids from Marshall, Boston College, Michigan, East Carolina, South Carolina, UCLA and Norte Dame still there trust the process!
Tampa Bayyyyyyy
April 24th, 2025 at 11:46 pm
For Rod munch character is not important till matresses show up in the yard and then oh no cut him. Stop talking nonsense.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:49 pm
Who gives a crap about character when they needed to sure up the defense? Were all the defensive options poor in the character department?
April 24th, 2025 at 11:51 pm
CBell idk what you’re talking about, Barron went right after at 20 and Campbell went to the Eagles who obviously know what they are doing.
April 24th, 2025 at 11:58 pm
I have no problem with the player. I have a problem picking a #4 WR when our entire defense is bottom 5 inches NFL.
April 25th, 2025 at 12:39 am
Bunch of chicken littles crying non-stop around here.
Clearly, the Bucs didn’t have as high of grades on the defensive guys who were still available at that spot, as they did on EE.
It’s been well established that the middle rounds of this draft are deep, particularly on defense. So everyone can go ahead and unbunch their panties, and let’s just see how it all shakes out before claiming we’re a .500 team b/c we didn’t draft a certain defensive player in round 1 tonight.
April 25th, 2025 at 12:40 am
All you people whining about overvaluing character – this team’s best players have similar character – Lavonte , Evans, Godwin, Vea. Last major attitude guy? Diva White. No thanks to anyone like that.
I think they have the right idea.
April 25th, 2025 at 12:56 am
That Bucs team doesn’t win the Super Bowl without **Gronk**—maybe not *the* best tight end ever, but definitely not there for leadership seminars. He was there to dominate and have fun, and he punked anyone who got in his way. **Antonio Brown**—say whatever you want about him off the field, but when it counted, he *produced*. **Suh** brought straight villain energy—guy was known for stepping on opponents, but in the trenches, he was feared.
And **Brady**? Yeah, the GOAT, but let’s not pretend he was Mr. Positivity. He yelled, demanded, and sucked the fun out of the room—just ask Baker he was quoted last year remember?—but he also brought rings. It was a team full of misfits, headcases, and legends who happened to have just meshed might not have worked anywhere else.
The Bucs had a solid core, sure—but it took some dogs with edge to get them over the top. And I haven’t even mentioned **RYAN JENSEN, THE RED TORNADO**—he was one of the most unhinged O-lineman in the league!
April 25th, 2025 at 1:26 am
@LeopoldStotch
Ted Ginn.
April 25th, 2025 at 1:51 am
I fargin love it. MadMax let’s have a beer. Even if it’s 7am when this post is released from the dungeon.
April 25th, 2025 at 2:12 am
I love that our team has the “character grade” that Licht mentioned in the press conference. egbuka is going to be a leader and a star for the bucs and the haters will be buying his jersey by next year and conveniently forgetting they dissed this pick.
also, to those saying we should have drafted defensive players in the first round… lavonte david, ronde barber, john lynch, antoine winfield… were all drafted in the second and third rounds.
April 25th, 2025 at 12:22 pm
Especially in the WR room. We have seen what could happen to a team when a diva strips down in the middle of a big game and dances off the field crashing in burning a back to back SB run. We want studs that are real strong men. Not babies spoiled rotten with money and fame