Every year, the NFL Draft injects a ton of new talent into the league. Naturally, this shakes up fantasy football values. With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers spending a first-round selection on Emeka Egbuka, what does this mean for the fantasy values of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Baker Mayfield?
Fantasy Impact of Buccaneers Drafting Emeka Egbuka
Well — this was a surprise. I never really understood the Matthew Golden love and, apparently, neither did the NFL. The Bucs made the Ohio State product the second wide receiver off the board. It’s great draft capital and a great offense for Egbuka, but not exactly the cleanest depth chart.
There’s certainly a path for Egbuka as a rookie. Evans is 32 years old, and Godwin is coming off a major knee injury. The former is no lock to stay healthy, and the latter is no lock to be healthy to start the season. Nevertheless, this pick very much felt like a best-available-player selection, as the Bucs certainly don’t need a wide receiver.
Long-term, this is a great landing spot for Egbuka. Given Evans’ age and Mayfield being just 30 years old, Egbuka has a clear path to being a fantasy WR2 for most of the next decade. Unfortunately, it’s going to be tough for him as a rookie. He could be destined for a Rome Odunze-like rookie season.
Baker Mayfield
This is fantastic for Mayfield. There is absolutely no negative to a quarterback when his team decides to give him more weapons.
Mayfield is coming off the best season of his career, averaging 22.5 fantasy points per game. He completed 71.4% of his passes, throwing for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns. Now, he has yet another talented pass-catcher at his disposal.
There’s an easy argument to make that Evans, Godwin, Egukba, and Jalen McMillan form the deepest wide receiver group in the NFL.
Mayfield is not about to sneak up on anyone this season, but his QB1 status is firmly secure.
Mike Evans
Arguably the safest player in all of fantasy over the past decade, Evans is a machine. He is the alpha, and no one is threatening his role. Whoever Egbuka steals targets from, it won’t be Evans.
The only concern with Evans is his age. It’s certainly possible that his body can no longer handle the rigors of professional football at 32 years old like it could when he was in his 20s. We saw some of this last season as Evans missed three games with a hamstring strain.
However, when he was on the field, Evans showed no signs of decline, averaging 17.2 fantasy points per game and going over 1,000 yards for the 11th consecutive season. Whatever you thought of Evans before, Egbuka is how you should think of him after.
Chris Godwin
It’s entirely possible the Egbuka pick was Godwin insurance — at least for the 2025 season. Godwin has suffered several serious injuries, the most recent of which occurred in Week 7 of the 2024 season.
Now 29 years old, Godwin isn’t exactly young, nor is he guaranteed to be ready for Week 1. If Godwin cannot get back to his pre-injury self, Egbuka will have a chance to eat into whatever workload Godwin was going to have when healthy.
Godwin saw a 26.6% target share last season and was averaging a career-best 19.7 ppg at the time he went down. Even though a fully recovered Godwin would be firmly ahead of Egbuka, it stands to reason that the presence of the rookie renders Godwin unlikely to match his production from last season. Consider him more of a mid-to-low WR2 than the elite WR1 he was for the first half of last year.