It just keeps happening to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At this point, we’ve kind of giving up trying to figure out the how and the why.
Every week, it seems like the Buccaneers lose just one more player to injury who it seems like they absolutely cannot lose and yet, somehow, they continue to win games.
In a 30-19 Week 6 win over the San Francisco 49ers, the Buccaneers improved to 5-1 behind another dominant performance from quarterback and NFL MVP candidate Baker Mayfield.
In what’s become typical fashion, they also suffered yet another injury loss that threatens to unravel their season with rookie wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, who left the 49ers game with a hamstring injury.
“All of Baker’s targets it seems, are out,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said on Monday, October 13. “You can add Emeka Egbuka to that list. He’s dealing with a hamstring injury … it doesn’t seem that serious but I do expect hin to miss some time. It’s not as serious as the Mike Evans hamstring injury but the Buccaneers are going to have to rely on Tez Johnson and Kam Johnson, who we saw make plays (against the 49ers).”
Egubka, Tampa Bay’s 2025 first round pick, leads his team with 27 receptions for 472 yards and 5 touchdowns and has been arguably the team’s best offensive player behind Mayfield.
âEmeka Egbuka is the 3rd player since 1970 with 425+ receiving yards and 5+ rec TD through 5 career games along with Randy Moss and JaâMarr Chase,â CBS Sports researcher Doug Clawson wrote on X on October 5.Â
Incomprehensible Run of Bad Luck for Bucs
It speaks to how brilliant Mayfield has been this season that the Buccaneers are somehow 5-1 despite dealing with injuries that would have caused most teams to come undone on the offensive side of the ball.
On the offensive line, at one point this season the Buccaneers had just one of their 5 projected starters protecting Mayfield and that was second year center Graham Barton, but he was playing left offensive tackle because that was Tampa Bay’s best option with NFL All-Pro Tristan Wirfs missing for the first 3 games with a knee injury.
Guard Cody Mauch, who started 37 consecutive regular season games to start his career, is out for the season with a knee injury. Right offensive tackle Luke Goedeke hasn’t played since Week 3 with a foot injury.
At running back, 1,000 yard rusher Bucky Irving has missed the last 2 games with a shoulder injury but there’s a possibility he could return for a Week 7 Monday Night Football game against the Detroit Lions.
At wide receiver, the situation has been the most dire.
Buccaneers Missing All 3 Projected WR Starters
NFL All-Pro wide receiver Chris Godwin missed the final 9 games of the 2024 regular season with a dislocated left ankle and missed the first 3 games of this season before returning for 2 games in which he looked ineffective. He missed the 49ers game with “irritation” in his injured left ankle.
Evans, another NFL All-Pro, missed 3 games with a hamstring injury in 2024, has been out the last 2 games with another hamstring injury.
Another starting wide receiver from 2024, Jalen McMillan, will miss at least the first 8 games with a severely sprained neck and his earliest possible return would be Week 10 against the New England Patriots.
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