Jason Licht: Ted Hurst May Be Better Than Expected
September 2nd, 2026
“Steady.”
No one really expects a third-round draft pick to have an impact with a team right away. Unless someone is crazy enough to draft a kicker in the third round.
So when the Bucs landed rookie Ted Hurst from Georgia State, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht thought there may be a little bit of a learning curve. The NFL is just a little higher competition than the Sun Belt Conference.
But the more Licht watched Hurst in practices, the more he began to realize Hurst could have an impact this year, forget down the road.
“After we drafted him, I personally thought, ‘OK, this is a great situation for him to be behind these guys and learn.’” Licht said. “He may not make a big impact for us this year, but one for the future.
“I think he’s proven to us throughout camp, even OTAs, and practice every day that he’s been very, very steady. I think it’s kind of evolved into, ‘OK, we can use him this year and he’s going to play a role.'”
Licht hit the nail on the head when he referred to Hurst as “steady.”
Joe hates to be repetitive, but here goes:
Joe has seen every Bucs practice from the OTAs, through minicamp and training camp. While Hurst doesn’t look anything like Chris Godwin, he plays like Godwin.
You know how Godwin makes contested catches look routine? That’s Hurst. It doesn’t matter if he has a defender draped all over him. Hurst, time and again, day after day, smoothly and routinely, makes contested catches look ho-hum.
If Hurst can continue to do that on Sunday afternoons, he will be a Bucs fixture for years.
September 2nd, 2026 at 12:22 am
As a fan I felt ripped off when Mike packed his bags and moved out.
That young fellow in the photo above? I’m thinking of him as Ted “Justice” Hurst.
September 2nd, 2026 at 12:46 am
Picked him off the waiver wire in one league already. Maybe he’ll be as good as Emecka was early last year.
September 2nd, 2026 at 2:13 am
LOL
September 2nd, 2026 at 2:57 am
Given his speed and ability to track the ball and make contested catches, if he becomes a good route runner, he’s going to give nightmares to 31 defensive coordinators,
September 2nd, 2026 at 3:15 am
JL reminds me of an old hand-cranked siren. With each comment he makes (which has no basis in fact, just hoped for hype) the hype machine gets louder and louder. The only thing is…we don’t hear it. We’ve learned to ignore him.
September 2nd, 2026 at 3:50 am
@Crazyhorse54, my opinion of Hurst has nothing to do with comments by Licht. It’s based on comments from multiple people who either have watched him in practice or watched film, including @Joe’s comment in this post above.
For Licht to characterize Hurst as “better than expected” isn’t an unreasonable assessment. He didn’t tell us that Hurst is going to shock the world. 😉
September 2nd, 2026 at 3:52 am
As long as he can draw the safety deep in coverage and let tez and egbuka and McMillan find those holes underneath against linebackers he will be a very good addition. Tez in space is a scary thing. Especially with the extra 12 pounds he’s put on this off season. If Hurst can catch just enough balls deep to force defenses to roll an extra safety he will be a steal. Hurst has the speed to do just that too. If this team can stay healthy I think its got a legitimate chance at 11-6.
As always Go Bucs
September 2nd, 2026 at 3:53 am
If the Bucs can stay healthy and go deep into the playoffs, THAT is what will shock the world. 😁
September 2nd, 2026 at 4:35 am
I’m fired up about Hurst.
GO BUCS
September 2nd, 2026 at 5:31 am
“Joe hates to be repetitive”? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
September 2nd, 2026 at 6:25 am
“And like I’ve talked about before, with Braswell, I’m excited about what he can do this year.
“I think he’s going to [have] a little bit of a coming out party in his role.”
— Jason Licht, April 10, 2025
Ain’t believing a word he says.
September 2nd, 2026 at 6:52 am
“We’ve learned to ignore him.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wish I had done the same with You. 😒
September 2nd, 2026 at 8:53 am
Translation:
“Our 2nd & 3rd receivers are already injured. Hurst was an excellent draft pick if I must say so myself!”
September 2nd, 2026 at 8:55 am
Let him play a few games.
September 2nd, 2026 at 8:56 am
IDK? I hope he is consistent and can get separation. I really don’t trust anything Jason says, so we will find out in a few weeks if he is as good as advertised. I want to see how he performs in the red zone and if he is good at punking CBs and drawing fouls like ME13?
September 2nd, 2026 at 9:37 am
If Hurst ends up with 30 catches and 3-4 TD’s then consider it a win. It’s a talented room and he’ll only be used in certain packages
September 2nd, 2026 at 9:49 am
Part of the problem with Hurst is we haven’t really seen him with Baker or even all that much with Daniels for that matter.
You can’t expect him to do much in any preseason games with the likes of Browning and Ballsack throwing to him from behind an offensice line of turnstiles soon to be delivery drivers for Amazon, Walmart+ and Doordash. He looks great in practice because he was thrown accurate balls from time to time. Looking forward to seeing what he can do for us in live games.
September 2nd, 2026 at 9:59 am
Rob,
That’s ridiculous.
I guarantee that Hurst has a better season than Egbuka had last year.
Why? Because Hurst is better than Egbuka in every way. Measurables and intangibles.
Hurst will have 1000 yards, 80 catches, and prob 10 TD’s.
September 2nd, 2026 at 12:54 pm
I was mock drafting this kid in the 7th round in December. 6th in January, 5th in February, 4th in March and we got him in the 3rd. If Hurst had Transferred to Georgia instead of staying at Georgia State he might have been a 1st round pick.
September 2nd, 2026 at 2:01 pm
He’s going to have to play a significant role this season. EE isn’t coming back at full throttle, and you can for sure expect JM to get hurt again this year.
We have no one with his skill set on the team, height, body and speed.