Another week, another wild, last-minute win for the Buccaneers, who took down the Seahawks, 38-35, on Sunday. Just as incredibly, it was also another huge game for rookie receiver Emeka Egbuka, who has done more in his first five NFL games than any other rookie receiver in NFL history.
“He’s kind of one-of-one,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said after Sunday’s win at Seattle, which saw Egbuka go for 163 yards and a touchdown with seven catches on seven targets.
That he did it so close to home in his native Washington, continuing to help the Bucs survive with their best receivers injured, only added to the legend.
“Meka had a homecoming today,” coach Todd Bowles said. “He continues to amaze and compete and do the things that everybody has seen him do like he did in college, and again, he was outstanding.”
In five games, Egbuka has 25 catches for 445 yards and five touchdowns — leading the team in all three. His receiving yards and touchdown catches are more than double that of his closest teammates. Eguka leads all NFL rookies in all three stats as well.
The 2025 Bucs are the first NFL team ever to win four of their five games all by three points or less, and Egbuka has been central in all the comeback wins.
“Time and time again, it happens,” Egbuka said after the game. “I forget the saying. It’s like, one time is luck, the second time’s a fluke, the third time it’s the real deal. I think this is the fourth two-minute drive we’ve had this year, out of five games. The NFL is down to the wire a lot of the time. I’m glad to have a quarterback who has the capability, and Baker has that capability.”
Egbuka, taken 19th overall out of Ohio State, was the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Month for September, and he’s off to a strong start in October, outplaying the league’s rookie quarterbacks and running backs to become a legit Offensive Rookie of the Year front-runner. Here are Egbuka’s notable contributions in each of the Buccaneers’ first five games:
- Week 1 at Falcons: Egbuka catches two touchdowns, the latter with 59 seconds left for the lead.
- Week 2 at Texans: Egbuka catches a touchdown early as the Bucs win with six seconds left.
- Week 3 vs. Jets: Egbuka has a team-high 85 yards, including a 28-yarder to help set up game-winning kick as time expired.
- Week 4 vs. Eagles: Egbuka has 101 yards, including a 77-yard touchdown as the Bucs tried to rally from a 24-3 deficit.
- Week 5 at Seahawks: Egbuka goes for 163 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown and a 57-yard catch to the 2.
The Buccaneers are 4-1 despite injuries all over the field, including receiver, where their top three from last season have missed a combined 10 games. Mike Evans has missed two games, Chris Godwin missed three and Jalen McMillan has yet to play due to a neck injury. Tampa Bay didn’t know most of that was ahead when it drafted Egbuka — doing so instead of addressing more glaring positional needs — because it loved him not just as a player, but as a person. Long before he was winning games for the Bucs, he had drawn consistent praise for a mature demeanor and professional approach, not what you expect from a 22-year-old.
Emeka Egbuka was able to get by the Eagles’ defense for a long touchdown grab in the Buccaneers’ Week 4 loss. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
“He’s well-rounded and not just in football, in life,” Mayfield said. “I think he’s grounded, and I think he’s just genuine in everything he does. He’s intentional. You just don’t see that often, and especially as a rookie with the talent that he has, you really don’t see it often.”
Egbuka’s prolific start has put him in elite company, historically. The only other receivers with 20-plus catches, 400-plus yards and five touchdowns in their first five games are Ja’Marr Chase (2021), Terry McLaurin (2019) and Randy Moss (1998). He has enough yards that he’s on pace to break Puka Nacua’s NFL rookie record of 1,486 yards, and his touchdown-a-game pace would match Moss’ NFL rookie record of 17 touchdown catches, albeit with one more game than Moss.
Egbuka left Ohio State as the school’s career leader in receptions, and he was surrounded by NFL talent while in Columbus, playing with Marvin Harrison, Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave, Jameson Williams and a future NFL star in Jeremiah Smith. He went head-to-head with Smith-Njigba, a close friend, on Sunday and left with the victory.
Former Ohio State stars Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Emeka Egbuka caught up after both showed out in Sunday’s Buccaneers-Seahawks game. (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)
He has managed to do all this with relative humility, too. He did slow-walk into the end zone on his touchdown against the Eagles while the Buccaneers were trailing by 18 points, but otherwise, Egbuka has shown a rare selflessness in not only his success but how he’s handled the spotlight.
“I don’t enter any seasons of my life with too many expectations when it comes to statistics or anything,” he said. “Really, I’m just trying to honor and glorify God, be obedient to whatever it is he’s called me to. I feel like he has me in Tampa for a reason, and that purpose is bigger than football, I believe. So just trying to use my platform to be able to impact people any way I can.”
The Bucs played Sunday without Evans, leading rusher Bucky Irving, McMillan and two starting offensive linemen, and as they get healthy, they’ll be better equipped to win games with time left on the clock and avoid the wild finishes they’ve had so far. Egbuka has been the unexpected star in their 4-1 start, but it isn’t surprising to those who know him best.
“It’s the whole package,” Bowles said. “It’s his mentality. It’s his physical makeup. It’s his willingness to work. It’s his intelligence. It’s his athleticism. He’s just one of those guys. He has the entire makeup and the entire package, and that’s hard to get, and that’s hard to see in a rookie.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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