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00:00Bucs wide receiver Emeka Ugbuka probably had the best NFL rookie debut this past weekend
00:06out of a lot of pretty solid NFL rookie debuts. Luke, you wrote a piece in Athlonsports.com
00:12titled, Letting the Bucs get Emeka Ugbuka was a huge mistake. What stuck out to you about this
00:18rookie performance? Yeah, like I said in the article, it just, the image I keep getting is
00:22Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad just screaming that he can't keep getting away with it. Like,
00:27Jason Light as a general manager, the first pick he ever made as general manager in 2014
00:32was Mike Evans, wide receiver coming out of Texas A&M. And all Mike Evans has done is become
00:37the greatest offensive player in Bucs history and an easy Hall of Famer. We kind of know his
00:43resume at this point. 11 straight thousand yard seasons and he's ninth over, he's ninth all time
00:47in touchdown catches already. And he's still, he's still balling at 32 years old and is still one of
00:51the best receivers in the league. But when you start your tenure off with that guy as, as your
00:56first draft pick, I guess maybe you, you've got something to, to your process when it comes to
01:00evaluating wide receivers. And when you look at the rest of that room, Chris Godwin was a third
01:04round pick in 2017. He became one of the most complete prolific receivers in the league. A
01:09couple of season ending injuries are the only things that have kept him from really being an
01:13elite, elite receiver consistently, but he's, he's hurt. You got Jalen McMillan, who was a third round
01:18pick last year, who caught seven touchdowns in the last five games of the season last year.
01:22So that Jason Light just keeps nailing these wide receiver picks. And then this year,
01:26everybody is pegging them to go defense in the first round, right? They're picking 19th overall.
01:32They're loaded on offense. They bring back every starter on that offense that was top five in
01:36passing, top five in rushing last year. And their defense, the pass rush is awful. They need more
01:41big plays on the back end. So everybody's thinking edge rusher. They're thinking secondary something.
01:46And then what does Jason Light do with the 19th overall pick? He takes another wide receiver
01:50and everybody's like, what are you doing? You guys have arguably the best receiver core in the NFL
01:55already. What are you doing? And then you, you pull back. Jason Light knows better. Okay. He knows
02:01better than to expect a strength to remain a strength. If you don't keep investing in it. And
02:07what happens? They knew Chris Goblin wasn't going to be ready for week one. He's targeting, I think week
02:11five returned from last year's leg injury, but Jalen McMillan goes down with a scary neck injury in the
02:16preseason. So immediately Emeka Ibuka goes from like wide receiver three, four to definitely wide
02:22receiver two for the first month of the season next to Evans. And so he, he planned ahead for that,
02:28knowing that injuries happen all the time and he's already got one to Goblin, but it's also about the
02:33type of player, the Bucks value. They have this mural on the wall in their, in their draft room that
02:40takes up an entire wall and it's a silhouette of a player. And then they have these traits listed on the
02:45wall that are always like core traits that they're looking for in every prospect that they draft
02:50first round or otherwise. And the silhouette is of Levante David. Like you can't see him,
02:55but you know, that's who it is. And they talk about this all the time. So when you, when you start to
02:59evaluate prospects that are like, okay, you remember like, we'll, we'll see prospects, Doug, you know,
03:04this we'll see a guy and be like, that's a stealer. Like we did with Derek Harmon this year.
03:08You know, we'll look at a guy and be like, that's a Raven. Like we did with Malachi Starks
03:11that will look at these guys and say, Hey, there's a, a clear vision and a culture for
03:17how a team drafts Packers come to mind as well. The Buccaneers have done that. And when, when you
03:22take away the, the, Oh, they should draft for need and look at just, you know, defense and look at who
03:28Emeka Abuka is as a player. You're like, Oh, of course, of course the Bucks took him. Like, of course
03:32they took the guy who, you know, could have been a high pick last year, but went back for another year
03:37along with so many other teammates at Ohio state, because they had unfinished business and they
03:41couldn't go out like that. And they go and win a national championship. Of course, they took a guy
03:45who's got more receptions, career receptions than any receiver in Ohio state history. Okay. If you
03:51know anything about Ohio state history at the wide receiver position, you know, how impressive
03:55that record is. And so this is a guy who, regardless of position going into this draft,
04:01I said it multiple times on Athlonsports.com. This was maybe the most pro ready player in the entire
04:07draft, the guy in terms of experience, polish, how he wins as a route runner, his versatility to be
04:13able to play outside, to be able to play inside, which again, has been vital for the Bucks because
04:17Chris Godwin's versatility is missing right now. So Abuka is playing that role where he can move any
04:22inside or outside and line up anywhere you want. So this was again, a team that is a contending team
04:28and they drafted a player who is ready to make an impact right away. Just a polished, everybody in that
04:33building talks about how he's already a pro can't believe he's a rookie the way he goes about his
04:38work, the person he is off the field, the leadership, the intangibles that he brings to the table.
04:42And he's just a guy who gets open. So what did we see on Sunday? All that to say, what we saw on
04:46Sunday was everybody, you know, the Falcons trying to take away Mike Evans, which everybody tries to do
04:51and usually fails. He still had five for 51 on Sunday, but Abuka was the guy who got the one-on-one
04:56matchups. And what does he do? He catches a 30 yard touchdown in the first half to give them the lead for
05:02the first time. And then he catches a 25 yard touchdown with a minute left to go to put them
05:06ahead for good. And, and just the trust that he's already built up with Baker Mayfield. If you,
05:11if you just play this backwards and look at every step of the way where we thought, why would the
05:16Bucks take a wide receiver or why, you know, is Emeka Abuka really worth a top 20 pick? You'll find
05:22plenty of literature that tells you, Emeka Abuka, he's good. He's okay, but he's not going to be a
05:28superstar wide receiver. He's not elite. You know, he doesn't have elite speed. He's not
05:32super big. He's, you know, he's probably going to be a pretty decent number two. I don't know,
05:36man. If we play what, play out what we saw on Sunday, I think it's going to look really silly
05:42moving forward. And I think that's why I wrote that it's, it's a big mistake to let an offense
05:45that was already so dynamic. Think about what this offense is going to look like the second half of
05:50the season. When Chris Godwin gets back healthy, when Jayla McMillan comes back, whenever that
05:54happens, Emeka Abuka on the field with any combination of those two, three, four guys,
05:59Baker Mayfield is just going to have a field day. And again, allowing that guy to get to 19 now feels
06:05like a steal when before people were like, Oh, that's a little early. And I didn't think he would
06:08go there, but it just makes perfect sense when you look back at it, back at it in retrospect,
06:12and it's going to make a dangerous offense, even more dangerous. And I think going to lead to a chance
06:17to win a fifth straight NFC South top. Well, I remember doing the mock draft madness, a two-parter on
06:22DPA that you and I did, and I had him going to the lions because I could see, yeah, he's a
06:27buccaneer, but he's also a lion. And both of his touchdowns were on in breaking routes,
06:31dig balls, go figure. Who caught the most dig balls last year? Who threw the most dig passes
06:37last year? I believe it was Jared Goff. So I could see him going there. And you got to ask yourself,
06:42I mean, they lost in the playoffs, what, 23 to 22 to the commanders. If Godwin's in that game,
06:46you look at Godwin's career in the playoffs, how far did they go? So Agbuka is in one
06:52way a complimentary, not replacement, but now you have that guy who understands the entire
06:59offense right off the bat, even if Godwin isn't there. They didn't really have that without him.
07:04And those guys are usually underrated and undersold and they become so important. And
07:10the, the pre-draft analysis with Agbuka, and I told you this earlier today, reminded me a lot of
07:16when Justin Jefferson came out of LSU and he played mostly in the slot. So people thought,
07:21oh, all he is, is a slot receiver. And Justin Jefferson went 22nd in his draft. Agbuka went
07:2619th. Well, Agbuka's explosive plays were all, I mean, they were tight splits, but they were all on
07:31the outside. I believe he had two thirds of his snaps were on the outside. So just because a guy
07:37played slot in college, I mean, when you consider who else Ohio State has at receiver, you would
07:44understand it. But when he comes to this particular situation, then you look at the preseason,
07:49you look at, you know, what people are saying about him. I'm not saying he's going to be Justin
07:54Jefferson, but the pre-draft analysis reminded me a lot of what I heard about Jefferson. Like,
07:59well, if he played the slot in college, that's all he can do. And I think anytime you're analyzing
08:04a draft prospect and you base your entire assessment on his NFL potential on what he did in college,
08:10you tell me that's not the way I do it. And again, look, Jason Light, the general manager
08:18in Tampa is not a prisoner of the moment. And if you look at what's going to happen in a couple
08:23of years, Mike Evans is 32 years old. I know he can't play forever, even though it sure looks like
08:27he can at this point. Chris Godwin's going to turn 30 next off season. You know, now you have a
08:33seamless transition between, obviously you're never going to find another Mike Evans. Those guys are
08:37super, super rare, but you're going to have this one, two transition between Evans and Godwin as
08:42your two guys to maybe a Buka and McMillan as your two guys and not have to worry about what's
08:47going to happen with that passing game. Baker Mayfield's looking at his depth chart, looking
08:50at the future and be like, Hey, I'm going to be, I'm going to be 37 years old before I have to worry
08:55about the wide receiver position. This is just incredible. And again, team that brought back the
08:59entire offensive line. I know they're banged up right now, but man, Buka is just one of those picks
09:04where when it happened, almost everybody was like, wait, what? That is not what we had the last four
09:09months. None of us had this happening. And then when you look back in retrospect, you'll be like,
09:13it makes so much sense. Why didn't we have this happening? And again, it's all playing out on the
09:18field. Like we saw on Sunday, it's going to be a big problem for the NFC South and the rest of the
09:22NFC for a long time. Well, one thing Baker said in the preseason, even before the game started with
09:27the new offensive structure is they want to throw the ball deep more. And a guy like a Buka, everyone thinks,
09:33oh, well, he's one of those savvy slot receivers. Well, first part wrong. Second part wrong is he's
09:38not really a deep receiver. Well, he caught six passes on 11 targets of 20 or more air yards for
09:43Ohio State last year, 193 yards, two touchdowns. And he had two explosive plays in his first NFL game.
09:51And on one of them beat Xavier Watts to Falcon safety. Well, I have to mention because we both loved
09:57him, didn't know why he went to the third round and he nearly had two picks. But overall, I think
10:01Buka is one of those receivers who he's a high floor, high ceiling guy disguised as a low ceiling
10:09guy. And a lot of people made a mistake with that. So going back to the title of your article and,
10:14you know, like we always say Howie Roseman got away with it again. I think Jason Light got away
10:19with a big one here. Well, and look at the way that game winning touchdown was drawn up to Doug.
10:24You talk about the complimentary, if they want to throw the football deep, how do you create that?
10:28Because it's usually Evans. That's the field stretching guy, right? Even at his size,
10:32he's the big play guy. Because even if, even if you hang with him speed wise, he's going to out
10:36muscle you for the ball at the point of attack when the ball gets there. But the way they drew
10:40that play up, Evans had caught a couple of digs, a couple of in breaking routes over the middle,
10:45one on that drive, but a couple earlier in the game. So how do they draw that up? It's a high,
10:50low concept where Evans is coming from the opposite side of the field.
10:53So he draws Jesse Bates up from the deep third to create that leverage that Ibuka now gets to just
11:01run to the post and run away from Mike Hughes. I believe it was, was the corner on that side of
11:04the field. But you, you, you go to Evans once you go to Evans twice and eventually Bates sneaks down.
11:10He's aggressive. He wants to make a play. That's going to end the game. He comes down,
11:14crashes on Evans on the dig route. You know, Baker gives him the little shoulder. Like he's going to go
11:19there, comes up over the top and he's got one-on-one with a guy that, like you said, didn't
11:22get enough credit for his field stretching ability. Definitely could do it there. They've clearly,
11:27and again, they're just scratching the surface. That was Josh Grisard's first game calling plays
11:31as the offensive coordinator for Tampa Bay. He's only going to get more comfortable and better from
11:35here. And I think as Ibuka gets more comfortable in the playbook, it's only going to unlock more.
11:39And again, look out for this team post-bye week. They've got a mid-season bye week in week nine
11:44when, when all four of those receivers are healthy on the field at once. And again,
11:48oh, by the way, you're going to get Tristan Wirfs back as your all pro tackle on the left side.
11:53Again, this is a dangerous, dangerous offense. It already was. The defense can figure it out and
11:57stay healthy. I don't know that there's anybody in the NFC. You could say the Eagles, but this same
12:02Bucs team, the Eagles lost one game last year by more than three points. And it's when the Bucs beat
12:07them by three scores earlier in the season. And so I don't think anybody's going to want to see this
12:13Tampa Bay team in the playoffs when they get healthy. And Ibuka is going to be a huge part
12:16of that. Well, you're talking about the first touchdown. The second touchdown was just as
12:20interesting. You know, you're talking about how Grizzard can sort of unleash the entire pallet.
12:24This was empty formation, three by two, three to the front side. So it was a front side,
12:29three level stretch. Ibuka is the one on the outside running the deep post. And Evans is the one
12:36running the dig from outside slot. And he's the one who clears everything out for Ibuka. Think about that.
12:42Mike Evans is clearing things out so that Ibuka has a one on one with Bates, who this time follows
12:49the deep post. It's a remarkable statement. Good luck. Good luck, everybody. It's going to be
12:56a fun offense to watch anyway. And I've been on Team Baker since the beginning. So I enjoy watching
13:01the Buccaneers. That's going to be real fun. Can Emeka Ibuka and the Bucs win the Super Bowl? Let us
13:07know in the comments below and like and subscribe for more NFL content.
13:12hoes that feel.
13:13I'll see you in the comments below.
13:14Bye.
13:15Bye.
13:17Bye.
13:18Bye.
13:19Bye.
13:21Bye.
13:21Whoa.
13:22Bye.
13:24Bye.
13:25Bye.
13:25Bye.
13:26Bye.
13:28Bye.
13:29Bye.
13:29Bye.
13:31Bye.
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