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.
49ers tight end George Kittle remains on track in his rehab from a torn Achilles.
That gives coach Kyle Shanahan hope that Kittle can get back in time to play in the 49ers’ season opener on Sept. 10. The 49ers will play the Rams in Melbourne, Australia, to open the season.
“I know there’s a chance to,” Shanahan said Thursday on The Rich Eisen Show, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I know he’s working his butt off to do it. I don’t want to say he’s on track, but I think that’s what he’s shooting for. And I don’t put anything past Kittle. He works as hard as anyone.”
Kittle tore his right Achilles during a Jan. 11 playoff game against the Eagles. That gave him only eight months for surgery and rehab, prompting an initial fear that Kittle would miss some of the 2026 season.
Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed the surgery on Kittle’s Achilles in Los Angeles the week of the injury.
Kittle, 32, made a seventh career Pro Bowl last season despite playing only 11 regular-season games due to hamstring and ankle injuries.
The 49ers dropped a player from their roster on Thursday.
The team announced that they have waived defensive back Tre Tomlinson. The 49ers did not make any corresponding moves, but signed running back Sincere McCormick, safety Patrick McMorris and eight undrafted rookies earlier this week.
Tomlinson was claimed off of waivers from the Rams last offseason, but missed the entire season on injured reserve. He was a 2023 sixth-round pick in Los Angeles and he had 13 tackles in 15 games during his rookie season. He also spent the 2024 season on injured reserve.
The 49ers could clear more space on their roster for rookie additions before or after next week’s rookie minicamp.
The 49ers twice traded down and out of the first round last Thursday. Their first pick was wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling with the No. 33 overall pick.
The 49ers have defended their pick of Stribling that high, and coach Kyle Shanahan said on The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday that the team accomplished what it wanted. The 49ers added two picks to their draft class, going from six to eight, and they got the player they would have drafted in the first round with the first pick of the second round.
“That’s kind of what we were hoping for,” Shanahan told Eisen, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “Our first goal was that the guy we wanted would fall to 27, but we got our second goal, and that was to trade back twice, accumulate some more picks, and still get the guy.
“We would have taken Stribling at 30, if we had to pick, but to get to 33 and still get the guy we wanted [was ideal]. . . . I think we added eight players who all have a very good chance of making our team, and on top of that, we added a sixth-round pick for next year, which I think’s huge because we didn’t have one.”
Shanahan said the 49ers viewed the second round through the end of the third as the strongest part of the draft. However, the team went into the draft with only one pick in that range after trading its third-rounder for defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa.
“I was really concerned going into it, because I also felt we needed to add more than six players — not necessarily for this year, but also for next year,” Shanahan said. “All the stuff’s tied together on how many free agents you lose and things like that. So I was worried that if we were going to go get players that we were targeting, we were going to end up using some of our fourth-round picks to come up.”
The Cowboys have made a lot of moves to address their defense throughout the offseason, including trading for linebacker Dee Winters during last weekend’s draft.
A Texas native who played his college ball at TCU, Winters told reporters on Thursday that he was actually moving things into his new home in Arlington when he got the call that he was being traded to the Cowboys.
He added that he was definitely surprised by the trade.
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it at all,” Winters said, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “Everything happens for a reason. I’m excited to be back home, and I get to play for the Dallas Cowboys.”
The current expectation is that Winters will serve as Dallas’ middle linebacker, though he told reporters he’s not entirely sure what his role will be. He likes that the scheme will have him “move in open space,” calling it a perfect fit.
Winters, however, has not played in a game as the “green dot” linebacker, having the calls come into his helmet from the defensive coordinator.
“I’ve only done a few practices with the green dot,” Winters said. “That’ll be new, but there’s a first time for everything. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
He’s also entering the final year of his rookie contract, making his performance over the course of 2026 that much more important for his career moving forward.
“It’s very big,” Winters said. “This is where you help your family and your football career. I think this is a huge year for me. I’m excited to work in this scheme, be in space and make plays. That’s the biggest thing.”
Winters started all 17 games for the 49ers last season, recording 101 total tackles with eight tackles for loss, three QB hits, five passes defensed, and one interception.
