Emeka Egbuka shouts out two mentors in early days of Buccaneers tenure

For a piece published on May 1, Jenna Laine of ESPN noted that Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting quarterback Baker Mayfield and his wife treated Emeka Egbuka and Egbuka's family to brunch shortly after the Buccaneers made the Ohio State wide receiver the 19th overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft. 

During a Thursday appearance on NFL Network, Egbuka spoke about what Mayfield has offered the 22-year-old as a mentor throughout springtime workouts. 

"Kind of after practice, whenever, [Mayfield and I] connect on a pass even if we don’t connect on a pass," Egbuka explained, as shared by the JoeBucsFan website. "We’re always learning ways to grow and get better. He’s always giving me nuggets to analyze defenses and how to, you know, kind of change my route and all that type of stuff. So it’s a very cerebral approach when it comes to our conversations on the field."

Mayfield emerged as the undisputed leader of the team's offense long before offensive coordinator Liam Coen left the club to become head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars this past winter and before the 30-year-old moved full-time to Tampa earlier this year. 

Along with Mayfield, Egbuka has also found a reliable mentor in veteran wideout Sterling Shepard. 

Shepard and Mayfield were teammates at Oklahoma, and the signal-caller campaigned for his buddy to sign with Tampa Bay last offseason. 

"Every time I come back from running a route — or maybe I ran a good route or if I didn’t run a so-good route — Sterling is one of the first ones to tell me," Egbuka added during the NFL Network segment. "And we’ll watch it together on film post-practice, and we’re always studying the game." 

The Buccaneers grabbing Egbuka during the draft raised eyebrows regarding the status of veteran Tampa Bay receiver Chris Godwin. Godwin suffered a gruesome dislocated left ankle in October 2024 and then left some money on the table when he agreed to a three-year, $66M contract with $45M guaranteed at signing to stay with Tampa Bay. 

It's unclear what Godwin will and/or won't be by Labor Day, but it certainly seems like Mayfield will need Egbuka to be ready to contribute when the Bucs open the regular season at the rival Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 7.