Bucs Clips
For many years, Mike Evans was the leader of the Buccaneers’ receivers room.
But that is no longer the case, with Evans electing to sign a three-year deal with the 49ers in March.
Tampa Bay still has plenty of talent at wideout, including 2025 first-round pick Emeka Egbuka. In an interview with Up & Adams this week, Egbuka noted that while the Bucs feel the loss of Evans, they have the players to fill the void.
“Obviously, I think there’s a passing of the torch, and it needs to be received by someone,” Egbuka said. “I think that our management — our G.M., our owners, and everything like that — they’ve done a great job of bringing guys in who are up to the task. So, obviously, they drafted me last year. But we have Chris Godwin, we have Jalen McMillan, and we have a bunch of guys who are ready to make an impact. We just drafted a wide receiver [Ted Hurst out of Georgia State], so we’re really excited to see what he can do.
“But obviously, we’re feeling the effects of Mike being gone. He’s so loved within the building, within the Tampa community. There’s nothing but love for him. There’s no hard feelings or anything. We all believe he’s going to do amazing things in San Francisco. But, yeah, there’s a little bit of a passing of the torch, and handoff, and I think everybody in our room is up to the task.”
Egbuka, in particular, seems up to the task of leading Tampa Bay’s wideouts, telling Kay Adams that he feels leadership is “always something that’s come very natural to me.”
“I remember in draft prep and everything like that, when the Bucs were evaluating me, that was something that they put a lot of high emphasis on, was me being a leader, and stepping into leadership roles,” Egbuka said. “I was a captain at Ohio State — been a captain on pretty much every football team I’ve been a part of. So, it’s definitely something that’s always come naturally to me when I was younger.”
Egbuka, 23, caught 63 passes for 938 yards with six touchdowns as a rookie in 2025.
The biggest story in the opening days of the 2026 league year was the Ravens’ decision to pull out of a trade for Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby and the fallout from that move went beyond Baltimore and Las Vegas.
During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht shed some light on how Tampa was impacted by the deal. The Bucs took edge rusher Rueben Bain with the 15th overall pick, but Licht thinks things would have played out differently had the trade gone through.
The Raiders would have landed the 14th pick and pass rusher would have been an obvious need for General Manager John Spytek in a post-Crosby world, but the pick remained in Baltimore. Spytek had also agreed to sign former Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum during the period when the trade was set to go through, which meant that the Ravens had an acute need on their offensive line at No. 14. They didn’t have as big a need for an edge rusher after signing Trey Hendrickson, so guard Vega Ioane became the choice.
“Then I think going back to free agency when, you know, the Raiders-Ravens trade didn’t work out, I think that in some way I’d like to think helped us a little bit. I was a little afraid if the Raiders made that trade, Spytek, he and I are very close, he was taunting me a little bit, hey, we’re sitting right in front of you, I know what you need,” Licht said “And then, you know, Crosby goes back to the Raiders, then the Ravens are sitting there again with their pick, and I know they love their edge rushers, too, so that had me nervous. They took Vega, which is an awesome pick, you know, they need offensive linemen. Maybe the fact that the Raiders signed Linderbaum helped us get Rueben. We’re all trying to help each other out here, especially the people that are good friends, so thanks, Spytek.”
Licht said the Bucs were in on Hendrickson “a little bit” before he agreed to terms with Baltimore, but the way everything came together left them with a “shiny new toy” at the top of the draft.
Mike Evans spent more than a decade as the top receiver on the Buccaneers, but that run ended when he signed with the 49ers earlier this year.
Emeka Egbuka is one choice to take over that mantle. The 2025 first-round pick had 63 catches for 938 yards and six touchdowns, which made him their leading receiver during a season that saw Evans and Chris Godwin miss considerable time with injuries.
Godwin is back for 2026 along with Jalen McMillan, Tez Johnson, Kameron Johnson, and third-round pick Ted Hurst, but Egbuka appears to be the logical pick to inherit the kind of role that Evans played while in Tampa. Egbuka believes he’s ready for that or anything else the team might ask him to do.
“I try to do whatever my coaches ask of me,” Egbuka said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “If they want to call my name on third-and-10 and fourth down and all that type of stuff, I’m gonna be the guy who’s there to execute. If they want me to stick my nose in there and block and do whatever I need to help the team win, that’s really where my head’s at. There’s no room for ‘me, me, me’ in this industry.”
A full picture of how the Bucs will deploy their wideouts under new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson will have to wait for a few months, but it will be a surprise if it doesn’t show Egbuka in a prominent position.
The Buccaneers have their quarterback, in Baker Mayfield. But Mayfield has a contract for only one more season.
Where do things stand when it comes to Mayfield getting a new deal?
G.M. Jason Licht recently appeared on WDAE radio in Tampa, and he was asked whether discussions have commenced.
“Baker is at the forefront of our mind at all times,” Licht said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “All of our plans revolve around Baker, and that’s something that we’ll get to at some point. I have had a lot of discussions with Baker about the team. We texted during the draft about some of the picks. I know he’s excited about the players that we took. We have a great relationship. Listen, nobody here wants Baker playing for [any] other team. So I’ll just leave it at that.”
It’s one thing to want to keep him; it’s another thing to land at the right numbers.
After playing under a one-year deal in 2023, Mayfield became eligible for free agency. Even though the Bucs didn’t apply the franchise tag, no other serious contenders emerged (even though they should have). Mayfield ultimately signed a three-year, $100 million contract.
So what’s the right figure now? Look at the market. Consider where Mayfield fits in it.
The market is the market. The cap is the cap. And both keep going up.
Delay never makes it any cheaper. New deals will be done to push the bar higher.
If there isn’t a new contract before the start of the 2026 regular season, things could get interesting. A big season could put the franchise tag in play. And if the Bucs decide not to tag him again, he could become an attractive option for anyone looking for a new starter in 2027.
Every year, there will be.
ESPN won’t comment on whether it will be reviewing the reporting of former ESPN (and The Athletic) reporter Dianna Russini, given the photos published last week of Russini with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel in March 2020. That won’t stop others from reviewing her reporting as to matters relating to Vrabel’s team at the time.
As it relates to the 2021 trade that sent receiver Julio Jones from the Falcons to the Titans, it’s fair to wonder whether the reporting was calculated to help Tennessee secure the player under the most favorable terms.
Tony Farmer, who has been extensively covering the situation on Twitter, has found another report that objectively merits scrutiny.
As Farmer notes, Russini reported — only four days after the March 2020 photos reportedly were taken — that the Titans were “not interested” in quarterback Tom Brady, and that they were instead focused on extending the contract of quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who had been named the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year in 2019.
While this item lacks the potential strategic benefits to the Titans of the Julio Jones reporting, it’s another bread crumb on a trail that people are now examining. And it’s fair to question whether the Titans were simply putting a positive P.R. spin on the possibility that the Brady had said “no thanks” to the Titans before the Titans created the impression that they were saying “no thanks” to Brady.
Although the 2020 negotiating window had not yet opened, rampant Brady tampering was happening. Teams were talking to him (and about him) before the official window for talking to him (or about him) had opened. It’s not unreasonable to think that, by March 15, he had crossed Tennessee off the list.
For now, it’s another piece of a puzzle that spans at least six years. And it underscores the reality that the NFL insider game isn’t about gumshoe reporting. It’s about leveraging the right relationships in order to be in position to be handed key pieces information, sometimes in ways that potentially benefit the source.
This latest nugget also helps explain ESPN’s relative silence regarding the entire story. ESPN largely ignored it until it had no choice but to cover it. While some have suggested it’s a result of the NFL’s recent acquisition of a 10-percent stake in ESPN, it’s possible ESPN doesn’t want to face the question of what it knew, and when it knew it.
Buccaneers defensive tackle Calijah Kancey is now under contract for the 2027 season.
The Bucs announced on Monday that they have exercised their option on Kancey’s contract for a fifth year. Kancey is now guaranteed $15.451 million for the 2027 campaign and the door remains open for him to sign a multi-year contract extension with the club.
Kancey missed all but three games last season with a torn pectoral muscle and he missed eight games over his first two season with other ailments. He has started 28 of the 29 regular season games and all three postseason games he has played since entering the NFL.
Kancey has 55 tackles, 11.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in the regular season as well as seven tackles and 1.5 sacks during his playoff action.
It wasn’t hard to find mock drafts predicting edge rusher Rueben Bain would be off the board in the first 10 picks, but it wound up being a little later in the first round before his name was called.
Bain remained available until the Buccaneers plucked him with the 15th overall selection, which is often the kind of scenario that leads to players saying they’ll have an extra chip on their shoulder toward the teams that passed on him. Bain avoided going to that well in his first press conference with the Bucs, however.
Bain said his “mindset is always to have a bit of edge to me” and that his experience with the draft last Thursday isn’t going to alter that.
“I feel like it won’t change anything,” Bain said, via a transcript from the team. “My motivation is myself. I always want to be the best player on the field no matter what. No outside factor is going to kind of weigh into that. I’m going to play the game just as if I was playing anybody else – that’s with all my effort. When you see that, people are going to see the kind of player I am.”
Bucs General Manager Jason Licht said it was a pleasant surprise that Bain was available to the team with the 15th pick and they’ll continue to celebrate their good fortune if his college production carries over to the NFL ranks.
Veteran offensive tackle Donovan Smith announced his retirement on Sunday.
Smith, 32, played nine seasons in the NFL but has not appeared in a game since 2023.
“Dear Football,” Smith wrote in his announcement. “When I first started out this journey in seventh grade, I didn’t know what the other side would hold. . . . Football has made me feel and experience every emotion imaginable.
“Thank you to all that has helped me through the years along my football career. It has allowed me to grow and experience life in ways I can’t put into words.”
The Buccaneers made Smith a second-round pick in 2015, and he played eight seasons in Tampa. He spent 2023 with the Chiefs.
Smith won two Super Bowl rings, one with the Bucs and one with the Chiefs.
He started all 136 games he played in his career.
Earlier this month, a report surfaced about Rueben Bain’s involvement in a fatal vehicular collision in March 2024. The Bucs were not caught off guard by the news, having done their homework on the University of Miami edge rusher.
Tampa Bay drafted Bain 15th overall on Thursday.
“We’ve known about this for a long time. I know it just came out a couple of weeks ago,” Bucs General Manager Jason Licht said, via Jenna Laine of ESPN. “It was a very tragic accident, tragic experience for the family, and it’s something you never want to see happen. But he’s a good person. He was involved in something that none of us ever want to be involved in or want any of our loved ones to be involved in. But he loves football. He loves football.”
Bain was driving on I-95 in Miami at 4 a.m. on March 17, 2024, when his Land Rover SUV rear-ended another car and slammed into concrete barriers. One of his three passengers, 22-year-old Destiny Betts, was in a coma for nearly three months before dying.
Bain was cited at the time of the incident, but charges were dropped before Betts’ death.
The crash became public knowledge on April 12. The story by The Read Optional included a statement by the Betts’ family, calling it a “tragic accident” and wishing “Mr. Bain the best as he continues his life and career.”
Bain was asked what the past two weeks have been like after the wreck became public.
“Yeah, you know everything has its ups and downs, but I just try to make everything simple as it could possibly be,” Bain said. “Try to prioritize whatever I prioritize in the moment. And right now, that’s just football and making sure I can just really make it as a main priority for me.”
Bain, at No. 15 overall, is the highest-drafted edge rusher the Bucs have selected since Licht became General Manager in 2014.
University of Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. was one of the most productive players in the country last season. His 30 7/8-inch arm length scared off some teams.
It did not scare off the Buccaneers, who ended up with a player who could prove a steal.
Tampa Bay used the 15th overall pick on Bain, who made 9.5 sacks for the Hurricanes last season and 20.5 for his three-year career.
The Buccaneers badly needed help at the position.
Yaya Diaby led them in sacks in 2025 with only seven, and Shaquil Barrett’s 10 sacks in 2021 was the last time the Bucs had a double-digit sacks leader.
