Bucs Clips
Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka has talked about the heightened expectations that are coming his way with Mike Evans now on the 49ers and the team’s offensive coordinator thinks he’s up to taking more on his shoulders.
Zac Robinson used to coach Cooper Kupp with the Rams and he said on Tuesday that Egbuka has a very similar approach “just in terms of the way his brain works with the game of football and his natural instincts.” Robinson believes that will make it easy for Egbuka to slot into the offense that is being installed this offseason.
“He doesn’t have to change a thing,” Robinson said, via the team’s website. “I think he’s come back, he’s refreshed. He played a ton of snaps and obviously played a lot of college football leading into that season and played a ton of snaps [there]. I think Mek’s just going to take huge, huge strides. He knows the new terminology and is asking great questions. Mek’s just got to be Mek and do his thing and he’ll be just fine.”
Robinson said that the plan is for Egbuka to settle into the flanker role in the team’s base offense, but that his football instincts make it easy to move him around in order to exploit matchups and maximize the production of the passing game this fall.
The Buccaneers signed running back Kadarius Calloway, long snapper Scott Daly, outside linebacker Yasir Holmes and wide receiver Dean Patterson IV on Monday, the team announced. All four players were tryout participants in Tampa Bay’s rookie mini-camp last weekend.
In corresponding moves, the club also waived long snapper Wesley Brown, wide receiver Noah Short, outside linebacker Benton Whitley and running back Owen Wright.
Also, the Bucs’ claim of linebacker John Bullock off waivers from the Colts was processed on Monday.
Calloway played collegiately at New Mexico State University (2025), the University of California (2024) and Old Dominion University (2023). He combined to appear in 32 career games and totaled 1,185 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns across 229 carries, while adding 35 receptions for 223 yards and one score.
Daly entered the NFL as a college free agent with the Cowboys in 2018. The sixth-year veteran has appeared in 76 career games between the Lions (2021-23) and Bears (2024-25), recording nine special teams tackles and two fumble recoveries.
Holmes played collegiately at Tarleton State University (2025) and Frostburg State University (2021-24), totaling 46 career games and recording 188 tackles, 22 sacks, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
Patterson IV played collegiately at Georgia Tech (2025) and Florida International University (2022-24), appearing in 52 career games and totaling 106 receptions for 1,556 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The Buccaneers are adding some competition on special teams.
Per Greg Auman of FOX Sports, Tampa Bay has agreed to sign long snapper Scott Daly.
Daly participated in Bucs rookie minicamp over the weekend on a tryout basis.
Auman notes Daly will compete with Evan Deckers to be Tampa Bay’s full-time long snapper.
Daly, 32, spent the last two seasons with Chicago, serving as the team’s LS. He was previously with Detroit for three years.
The Buccaneers made two roster moves on Saturday.
They signed Nebraska linebacker Javin Wright, bringing their total of undrafted rookies to 15. In a corresponding move, they waived first-year running back Michael Wiley with a non-football injury designation.
Wright appeared in 46 games in six seasons at Nebraska, moving into the starting lineup as a senior and leading the team with 86 tackles and nine tackles for loss. He also added three sacks, one interception and four passes defensed while playing in 12 games and starting 10.
Overall, Wright made 13 starts for the Cornhuskers and finished with 180 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and three interceptions.
Wiley first joined the Bucs last October, spending the second half of the season on the team’s practice squad before re-signing on a futures contract in January. He played his college ball at Arizona and originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Commanders in 2024.
Veteran receiver Scotty Miller, who spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons in Pittsburgh, has found no takers in free agency. He’s participating in the Bears’ rookie minicamp on a tryout basis, in an effort to win a spot on the 90-man offseason roster.
As Larry Mayer of the team’s official website explains it, Miller made a “dazzling diving catch deep down the right sideline” on the last snap of Friday’s minicamp practice.
“He’s got a history with [receivers] coach [Antwaan] Randle El,” Bears coach Ben Johnson told reporters. “Randle El was with him when he was a young buck there in Tampa, so there are some shared experiences. Looking forward to seeing him run around and compete a little bit. From afar, I’ve been able to see the speed, quickness. [He’s] certainly very intriguing.”
A sixth-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2019, Miller won a Super Bowl in 2020 with Tampa. After four seasons there, he spent a year in Atlanta before joining the Steelers.
The 2020 season was his best, by far, with 33 catches for 501 yards and three touchdowns.
Linebacker John Bullock is rejoining the Buccaneers.
Tampa Bay claimed Bullock off waivers on Friday, a day after the Colts waived him. Indianapolis had claimed Bullock off waivers in January after the Bucs released him.
Bullock signed with the Bucs as an undrafted free agent in 2025, and he was one of three undrafted free agents to make the team.
He played 15 games with the Bucs in 2025, seeing action on five defensive snaps and 253 on special teams. Bullock totaled 10 tackles.
The Buccaneers are down to one unsigned draft pick.
Wide receiver Ted Hurst signed with the team on Friday. The third-round pick is the sixth of their seven picks to seal their four-year contracts in Tampa.
Second-round linebacker Josiah Trotter is now the only pick without a deal.
Hurst had 127 catches for 1,965 yards and 15 touchdowns in his final two seasons at Georgia State. He’ll join a receiver group led by Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillian.
The Buccaneers also announced that they have signed 14 undrafted free agents. They are Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels, Georgia Tech wide receiver Eric Rivers Jr., LSU linebacker Jack Pyburn, Charlotte safety Ja’Qurious Conley, Rutgers tight end Kenny Fletcher Jr., Arizona cornerback Ayden Garnes, Duke defensive lineman Josiah Green, Kentucky punter Aidan Laros, Nebraska guard Henry Lutovski, Arizona defensive tackle DeShawn McKnight, UCF tackle Paul Rubelt, Army wide receiver Noah Short, and North Carolina State linebacker Caden Fordham.
The 49ers secured a significant addition to their offense in March by signing veteran receiver Mike Evans.
While Evans will be 33 in August, he was still considered one of the top talents available at receiver this offseason. The 2025 season was the first in Evans’ career that he did not reach 1,000 yards, having played only eight games due to injury.
Even as Evans tallied just 30 catches for 368 yards last year, the 49ers are confident he can continue to be effective in their offense in 2026.
“I mean, he’s a Hall of Fame wide receiver,” 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said on Thursday, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “He’s a one-on-one match-up that you can take advantage of when he’s on the field, and when he’s got one-on-one coverage, you want to get the ball to Mike. You feel like he’s going to win.
“He’s about as competitive as they come. He’s a guy who’s going to win his match-ups, and it’s just really cool to have that alpha type of player out on the field at that position for us again. … And we’re going to use him the way he’s been used his whole career, and hopefully, get a few more things out of him, too, along the way, as we get him in our program.”
A six-time Pro Bowler, Evans has recorded 866 catches for 13,052 yards with 108 touchdowns so far in his 12-year career.
The Buccaneers not only signed their top pick, Rueben Bain Jr., but they also got nearly their entire draft class under contract on Thursday.
The Bucs have signed third-round wide receiver Ted Hurst, fourth-round cornerback Keionte Scott, fifth-round defensive tackle DeMonte Capehart, fifth-round offensive guard Billy Schrauth and sixth-round tight end Bauer Sharp, Jenna Laine of ESPN reports.
Those six signings leave only second-round linebacker Josiah Trotter unsigned.
All six signed four-year deals.
The Buccaneers have their top draft pick under contract.
Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports that edge rusher Rueben Bain has signed his rookie deal with the team. It’s a four-year contract and, as is the case with all first-round picks, the team holds an option for a fifth season.
The four-year deal is worth over $23.76 million with a signing bonus of just over $13.74 million.
Bain was usually projected to be drafted before the Bucs were on the board at No. 15, but he wound up sliding to that spot in what the Buccaneers believe was a piece of good luck. They benefitted from another slide in 1995 when they picked up defensive tackle Warren Sapp and Bain might have been channelling that common thread when he donned Sapp’s jersey for Thursday’s arrival to Tampa’s rookie minicamp.
