The surname shows up twice in NFL databases, attached to two different men, and only one of them catches passes. Maybe you just met the name on a fantasy draft board, a Buccaneers depth chart or a training camp clip. Here is the answer first, then the detail.
Egbuka is Emeka Egbuka, a 23-year-old wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Ohio State produced him, and Tampa Bay drafted him 19th overall in 2025. He then led the Bucs in catches, targets and yards as a rookie: 63 receptions for 938 yards and six touchdowns. Year two starts with Mike Evans gone. For a closer look at this, see Halsin BG3.
The other name, by the way, is Emeke Egbule, a linebacker the Chargers took in 2019. Different spelling, different position, different decade of relevance. Pro Football Reference files them one URL apart, which is how half the confusion starts.
The quick file on Emeka
Everything below was pulled on July 29, 2026, from the Buccaneers roster, the NFL player database, and Pro Football Reference.
| Item | Detail |
| Team and number | Tampa Bay Buccaneers, No. 2 |
| Position | Wide receiver, mostly out of the slot |
| Born | October 14, 2002, in Tacoma, Washington |
| Hometown | Steilacoom, Washington |
| Size | 6 feet 1 inch, 205 lbs |
| College | Ohio State, 2021 through 2024 |
| Drafted | Round 1, pick 19, 2025 |
| 2025 rookie line | 17 games, 127 targets, 63 catches, 938 yards, 6 TDs |
| 2026 status | Second NFL season, still on his rookie contract |
Key takeaways
- He led Tampa Bay in receiving yards, catches and targets as a rookie and missed no games.
- He owns Ohio State’s career receptions record with 205, one ahead of K.J. Hill.
- Mike Evans is a 49er now, which frees up a large share of the Bucs’ passing game.
- His rookie year was front-loaded, and the fade after Week 9 is the thing to watch in camp.
- Zac Robinson takes over the offense, and his history with slot receivers matters here.
Numbers on this page come from official league and team pages rather than aggregator summaries, which is the standard we hold every profile to. You can read about Gamerlume and how we source these pages if you want to see how that works.
Steilacoom to Columbus, and a record that lasted five years
He came out of a small waterfront town south of Tacoma that most people outside Washington could not find on a map. Steilacoom had an estimated 6,648 residents as of July 1, 2025, according to the US Census Bureau. That is tiny. Plenty of high schools carry more students than the whole town carries residents.
Ohio State won a long recruiting fight for him, then made him wait. His freshman year produced nine catches. Then the numbers arrived.
| Season | Receptions | Yards | TDs |
| 2021 | 9 | 191 | 0 |
| 2022 | 74 | 1,151 | 10 |
| 2023 | 41 | 515 | 4 |
| 2024 | 81 | 1,011 | 10 |
| Career totals | 205 | 2,868 | 24 |
That 2023 dip came in a 10-game season, and it is the reason he came back for a fourth year instead of leaving early. The decision worked twice. He finished the 2024 run as a national champion, and his 205th career catch pushed him past K.J. Hill’s 201 for the most in program history. Chris Olave sits third at 181.
Four years in one program is unusual now. It also explains why he arrived in Tampa looking finished rather than raw, and why he was on the field ahead of veterans by September. That slow-build shape shows up again and again in our athlete career profiles.
What Egbuka’s rookie season actually looked like
Start with availability, because it is the part nobody writes down. Seventeen games, 13 starts, no absences, all of it for an 8-9 team that missed the playoffs. The two veterans ahead of him could not say the same: Evans managed eight games, Chris Godwin nine.
So the rookie ended up as the Buccaneers’ leading receiver almost by attrition, then kept the job on merit. The debut went well: four catches, 67 yards and two scores at Atlanta on September 7, 2025. A month later he went home to the Pacific Northwest and put up seven catches and 163 yards against Seattle, his career high.
Then the season split cleanly in half.
| Stretch | Catches | Yards | TDs | Yards per game |
| First 9 games | 40 | 677 | 6 | 75.2 |
| Last 8 games | 23 | 261 | 0 | 32.6 |
Six touchdowns, all of them before November 10. None after. Defenses adjusted, Baker Mayfield spread the ball, and the volume thinned out as Tampa Bay’s season died. Only two of his last eight games cleared 45 yards.
Even so, 938 yards ranked second among all 2025 rookies, behind Carolina’s Tetairoa McMillan at 1,014. Fifth place in AP Offensive Rookie of the Year voting followed, with 66 points on the ballot, an award McMillan won in a landslide.
On the franchise list, those 938 yards sit fourth for a Buccaneers rookie. Only Michael Clayton (1,193 in 2004), Evans (1,051 in 2014) and Mike Williams (964 in 2010) did more in a first season. Our wider football coverage tracks how those rookie curves usually bend in year two.
One number to keep: 63 catches on 127 targets is a 49.6% catch rate. That is low, and it is partly on the quarterback and partly on a route tree that asked for contested throws down the field.
His role in 2026 with Evans gone
This is the part that changed everything, and it happened over the offseason. Mike Evans, 32, is on the San Francisco 49ers roster now, wearing No. 5. Sterling Shepard is off the roster too.
Between them, they absorbed 115 targets in 2025 that are simply no longer spoken for. Godwin is back at 30 and coming off a nine-game year. Jalen McMillan and Tez Johnson return, and Tampa Bay spent a third-round pick on Georgia State’s Ted Hurst III.
The depth chart the team published before camp lists him first in the slot, with Godwin outside. ESPN’s version has him as a starting receiver next to Godwin. Either way, he plays. Tampa Bay has him on the field for nearly every passing down.
The bigger change might be the play caller. Zac Robinson is in his first season as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator, hired after two years running Atlanta’s offense. Before that, he coached quarterbacks and the pass game for the Rams from 2019 through 2023. That is the staff that turned Puka Nacua into a 105-catch rookie. Robinson also worked with Mayfield during his brief 2022 stop in Los Angeles, so the two are not starting cold.
Veterans reported to the AdventHealth Training Center this week. The preseason opens August 14, 2026 at the Jets, and the real thing starts September 13, 2026 at Cincinnati. Camp reports out of Tampa read best alongside the rest of our sport and athlete coverage.
Fantasy outlook for 2026
The case for him is volume. It is a strong one. Sharing the field with two established receivers, he still drew 127 targets. Now 115 of the targets those veterans used have left the building, and the only new competition is a third-round rookie.
The case against him has three parts.
- The second-half fade. Twenty-three catches and no touchdowns over his final eight games is not a rounding error.
- The catch rate. Under 50% means a lot of his fantasy weeks depend on throws he cannot control.
- Touchdown supply. Six scores on 127 targets is thin for a receiver being drafted as a weekly starter.
Add it up, and you get a strong third fantasy receiver who will hand you a few second-receiver weeks. He is not a top-15 pick. If Robinson’s offense pushes him back into the short and intermediate work he ate in college, the catch rate climbs and so does the floor.
Watch two things in August: whether he runs with the first team outside as well as inside, and how healthy Godwin looks. Both answers land before your draft.
Where this goes next
Year two is the honest test. A rookie who leads his team in yards while two Pro Bowl receivers sit hurt has proven he can play. A receiver who scores nothing across eight weeks has not proven he can carry an offense. The 2026 season answers that question one way or the other.
Frequently asked questions
A wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, drafted with the 19th pick out of Ohio State in 2025. He wears No. 2 and plays mostly in the slot.
In 2025, he caught 63 passes for 938 yards and six touchdowns across 17 games, leading the Buccaneers in all three categories.
Yes. He finished with 205 career receptions, the most in Ohio State history, passing K.J. Hill’s 201. He also won a national title with the Buckeyes in the 2024 season.
His 24th birthday lands on October 14, 2026. He was born in Tacoma and raised in nearby Steilacoom, Washington.
Yes, as a third fantasy receiver with room to climb. The vacated targets are real, and his role is safe. Just do not draft him on the strength of his first nine games while ignoring the last eight.
Evans left Tampa Bay after 12 seasons and is on the San Francisco 49ers roster this season, which is why the Buccaneers’ passing game has room in it.
