Position Group: Wide Receivers
Players: Mike Evans, Chris Godwin Jr., Emeka Egbuka, Jalen McMillan, Sterling Shepard, Kameron Johnson, Tez Johnson, Garrett Greene (practice squad), Dennis Houston (practice squad)
2025 Evaluation: Future Hall of Famer Mike Evans missed six games due to a broken collarbone and was placed on injured reserve on October 22. He had missed three games earlier in the year with a hamstring injury and had appeared in four contests prior to the second sustained ailment. Evans returned for the Week 15 Thursday Night Football matchup with the Atlanta Falcons and quickly returned to peak form, finishing the 2025 campaign with 30 catches for 368 yards and three scores. He is the Bucs' all-time leader in nearly every receiving metric, and in 2025 he led the Bucs with 74 receptions for 1,004 yards and 11 touchdowns, tying Jerry Rice's record by eclipsing the 1,000-yard marker for the 11th consecutive season. Evans played 357 offensive snaps in 2025 and is the club's Bona fide deep threat. The A&M product consistently commands double teams and is nearly unstoppable at executing back-shoulder catches off the fade or winning on go routes. He uses his length to climb the ladder with ease and has a feel for coverage, utilizing trademark routes to set up opportunities – baiting cornerbacks by appearing to work outside for the fade then cutting inside for the slant in the red zone. He has the ability to power through the jam and once again stunned with captivating play in 2025 when he was on the field.
Chris Godwin Jr. missed five games in 2025 due to a fibula injury and played 428 snaps. Two games into his return from the significant ankle injury he suffered last November, Godwin sustained the aforementioned leg injury in Week Five at Seattle. He was leading all NFL players in receptions at the time of his injury in 2024 and had already scored five touchdowns in seven games. This past season, Godwin resumed his role in the slot and showcased his physicality at the catch point and willingness as a crack blocker to spur rushers. Godwin makes contested catches look routine and plays with a fiery demeanor. The RAC threat helped bolster the Bucs' aerial attack when on the field to move the chains.
Emeka Egbuka became an integral cog in the Bucs' 3-1 start, emerging as the team's leading receiver during a month in which Evans, Godwin and Jalen McMillan missed time. He concluded the month of September with 18 receptions for 282 yards (15.7 average) and four touchdowns, including a game-winner with 59 seconds left in the team's Week One victory over the Falcons. Egbuka became just the second player since the 1970 merger to record a game-winning touchdown reception in the final minute of regulation in his first career game. In Weeks One-Four, Egbuka was one of four NFC wide receivers, and the only rookie, with 75-plus yards from scrimmage in three-or-more games in September alongside Justin Jefferson, Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Per NextGen Stats, Egbuka led all rookies and ranked second behind only Amon-Ra St. Brown in passer rating when targeted (128.0) among all players with 25-or-more targets in 2025, while also leading his class in receiving EPA with 11.2. Since 2000, Egbuka is one of four players with 15-plus receptions, 250-plus receiving yards and four-plus touchdown receptions through four career games joining Ja'Marr Chase, Calvin Ridely and Roy Williams. He played the most snaps of any Bucs receiver this past season at 886 and lined up at all three receiver spots along the formation. His production hit a lull in the latter half of the year due to a variety of factors, but overall, Egbuka showed the route-running acumen and detailed subtleties that made him a first-round selection out of Ohio State.
Jalen McMillan suffered a serious neck injury in a preseason contest with the Steelers that landed him on injured reserve and kept him in a constrictive brace for several months. He made his highly-anticipated return against the Falcons in Week 15 and quickly made his presence felt between the hashes. McMillan played 138 snaps in 2025, including his first 100-yard receiving game against the Dolphins. He hauled in seven catches for 114 yards, including a 33-yarder off a Baker Mayfield pump fake in the clash. McMillan, a long-strider, has an innate feel for how to generate separation mid-route with leverage and fakes. He plays with effective acceleration and elite body control and can manipulate defensive backs with an expansive release package. McMillan has impressive control of speed on routes, with the capability of making sudden stops.
Both Sterling Shepard and Tez Johnson recorded 495 snaps in 2025 and helped boost the receiver room, particularly when it was thinned by injuries. Shepard played with a competitive disposition, reliable hands and quick cuts. The smooth route runner can hit the gas pedal out of his breaks and once again created a rapport with his former Oklahoma Sooners' teammate, Mayfield. Johnson, the Bucs' seventh-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft out of Oregon, displayed his explosiveness and prowess before and after the catch. He is hard to bring down by open-field pursuit and is adept off screens, jet sweeps, verticals and short-to-intermediate routes with speed to blow past defenders.
Kameron Johnson tallied 105 snaps in 2025 but made most of his impact on special teams as a kick/punt returner. In Tampa Bay's season-opener against the Atlanta Falcons, Johnson sparked a pivotal go-ahead, second-half touchdown drive with a 54-yard punt return in the third quarter. It marked the Buccaneers' longest punt return since Bobby Rainey took one 58 yards on Oct. 11, 2015 vs. Jacksonville. In addition to his contributions as a returner, Johnson also served as a gunner on Tampa Bay's punt team, which ranked seventh in the NFL, and third in the NFC, in Week One in net yards per punt (44.0). Johnson was responsible for one of two punts downed inside the 20-yard line by the Buccaneers in that game – tied for the second-most among any NFL team in Week One. Since joining the Bucs as an undrafted free agent out of Barton College in 2024, Johnson has solidified Tampa Bay's return game. In 2025, Johnson averaged 25.4 yards per kick return and totaled 685 yards on 27 kick returns, with his longest being a 44-yarder. He amassed 26 punt returns this past season for 291 yards, including a 54-yarder and an 11.2 average per punt return.
2026 Outlook: Mike Evans and Sterling Shepard are impending unrestricted free agents in March and the Buccaneers will have some decisions to make regarding the room. Evans will take time to reflect and make his resolution regarding the future, similar to that of teammate, Lavonte David.
"We both had long talks today, individually, separately, and we had our private conversations," said Head Coach Todd Bowles on discussions with Evans and David following the conclusion of the season. "I think they've earned that right to make that decision when the time comes. They're both [the] heart and souls [of] the Buccaneers and it's just a matter of once they get over the pain and the wound and see how they feel and think clearly, then we'll kind of go from there. But, we've allowed them to make that decision so we'll wait and see."
