Jenna LaineOct 4, 2025, 06:00 AM ET
- Jenna Laine covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for ESPN. She started covering the Bucs for ESPN in 2016, but she has covered the team since 2009. Jenna is a former cheerleader at the University of South Florida and speaks to the consistency of the program as being one of the top best in the nation.
TAMPA, Fla. — In the alternate universe proposed to Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka in a question asked by ESPN on Wednesday, the wideout isn’t catching passes from Baker Mayfield or slow-walking into the end zone and triumphantly pumping his fist. In an alternate universe, he’s not playing at Lumen Field on Sunday when the Bucs visit the Seattle Seahawks — or playing football at all.
Instead, he’s shagging baseballs and making acrobatic catches in the outfield across the street like one of his boyhood idols — 10-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove Award winner, two-time AL Batting Champion and 2001 AL MVP Ichiro Suzuki. Instead, Egbuka is playing at T-Mobile Park, where the Seattle Mariners will host Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the Detroit Tigers later that evening.
“I’ve definitely thought about that, but God has me here for a reason,” said Egbuka, who was just named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month for September — with four touchdowns in the first four games of his NFL career.
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“I thought he was going to be a baseball star for sure,” his father, Henry Egbuka, told ESPN.
After all, the Mariners were the first big-time sports team that bore witness to the talents of the DuPont, Washington, native. It was at then-Safeco Field where he won the 2011 MLB Pitch, Hit & Run Team Championship for athletes from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia after advancing through the local and sectional rounds.
That earned him an all-expenses-paid trip to Phoenix for the 2011 MLB Aquafina National Pitch, Hit & Run Finals, held before the MLB’s Home Run Derby at Chase Field.
Wearing a Mariners ball cap, a determined Emeka Egbuka pounded the strike zone target that stood 45 feet away. Then, on his third try in the hitting competition, he smashed a baseball nearly 200 feet — the farthest an athlete can hit in the competition, emerging as the national winner in the 7-and-8-year-old age group.
“I think it was the first time anybody had won it from the Pacific Northwest,” Henry Egbuka said. “So it was a big deal.”
As part of his award, he got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Mariners-Chicago White Sox game the next spring. On the receiving end of that ball? Six-time All-Star and 2010 Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez.
“He was the one I threw my first pitch to. He caught it, so that was awesome,” Emeka Egbuka said. “I got to meet all my favorite players, pretty much the entire team. I [still have] signed memorabilia from all them, so I think it’s really cool.”
Henry Egbuka added, “It was a huge, packed stadium and everything. And I was like, ‘At 8?‘ It was incredible.”
Thirteen years later, when he was selected 19th in the 2025 NFL draft by the Buccaneers, the Mariners surprised Emeka Egbuka with a congratulatory message featuring an image of Hernandez and 8-year-old Egbuka on X, Instagram and Facebook.
“I was not expecting that,” he said of the shoutout. “That was pretty cool.”
EGBUKA HAD THE chance to potentially be drafted out of Steilacoom High School by the MLB. As a freshman on varsity in 2018, he batted .316 with a .376 on-base percentage as professional scouts sat in the stands. But football eventually took over, as he was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Washington after his junior season in the fall.
Then COVID-19 came in the spring of 2020.
“I believe the door to the baseball in my life closed by no means of my own,” said Egbuka, who received his first offer as a freshman from Florida State — a school whose dual-sport athletes include Heisman Trophy winners Charlie Ward and Jameis Winston and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.
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“We were three days out from my junior year [in baseball] — our opener and the whole season got canceled,” said Egbuka, who had just been named MaxPreps High School Football Junior Player of the Year after a 25-touchdown season with 1,600 receiving yards.
He helped Steilacoom reach the WIAA 2A state championship in 2019, finishing with a title-game record of 18 receptions for 163 yards and three touchdowns to go along with eight tackles and an interception. After COVID wiped out his senior season in the fall of 2020, Egbuka would end up enrolling early at Ohio State in January, ranked as the No. 2 wide receiver by ESPN in the 2021 class.
“There was COVID, there was a bunch of things that went into it to where baseball just made its way out of my life,” Egbuka said. “But I feel like God has me here for a specific reason, a specific purpose. So I’m definitely grateful to everything the game of football has given me, too.”
But baseball has helped aid his football success.
“I believe one strength that I’ve always had that I’ve [taken] a lot of pride in was ball tracking and catching the ball,” he said. “I think there’s never been a ball in the air that I felt like was a difficult catch or that I couldn’t track. I have an extensive baseball background, so I think that’s helped me out a lot — playing center field and stuff like that.”
In his NFL debut in Week 1, he scored two touchdowns, including the game winner with :59 left. At one point on the play, he momentarily lost track of the ball in the lights of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but in baseball, an outfielder must rely on instincts.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka was named Rookie of the Month for September this week. Jason Behnken/AP
“The ball got hung up in the lights a little bit, so I had to make sure I really concentrated to be able to haul it in,” Egbuka said. “It was a very memorable moment.”
Then there was the touchdown in Week 4 against the Philadelphia Eagles where Mayfield laced the ball between two diving defenders. It had a completion probability of just 21.2%, according to Next Gen Stats.
“I honestly couldn’t tell if it was tipped or not,” Egbuka said. “It was tough. It kind of just popped on me quick. … You’re tracking it the whole way, and then you lose it last second. You just got to trust what you saw, put your hands where you thought the ball was going to be and then once it comes out the back end, just have the concentration.”
He also credits baseball with his ability to bounce back from mistakes.
“There’s nothing more demoralizing than going 0-for-4 on a day with two strikeouts,” Egbuka said. “So I think building that mental fortitude in baseball definitely has helped me with my levelheadedness in football.”
HENRY EGBUKA WAS adamant about not pushing his son. Instead, he allowed him to find his way. Along with Emeka Egbuka’s mother, Rhonda Ogilvie, he was simply there to support his son.
“He was so driven and focused,” Henry Egbuka said. “He used to beat himself up every time he missed something he was supposed to achieve. And I kept telling him, he was so hard on himself.
“He was his own worst critic. Even if he never thought he did anything perfectly, he was always trying to improve. He has always been very, very driven and very fiercely competitive.”
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That drive has taken Emeka Egbuka to a special place. He became the Ohio State all-time receptions leader during the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship game, surpassing K.J. Hill’s record (201) with 205 catches, along with 2,868 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns.
Now as an NFL player, he leads all rookies with 282 receiving yards and four touchdown receptions. He became one of just five players over the past 20 years to have recorded a touchdown catch in three of his first four games, joining Hakeem Nicks (2009), Martavis Bryant (2014), Terry McLaurin (2019) and Ja’Marr Chase (2021).
“He’s one of a kind,” Bucs receiver Chris Godwin Jr. said. “He’s definitely one of the more mature and pro-ready rookies that I’ve ever been around. He’s been a great addition to our room. Obviously, you guys see what he can do on the field. He makes unbelievable plays. Somehow, he makes even more unbelievable plays in practice, so now it feels a bit routine.
“He has all of the tools that you need to be a great pro. He has the speed, he has the playmaking ability, he has the mental capacity to understand the offense at all three positions, he’s unselfish. I think he has a really, really bright future ahead of him.”
If Egbuka notches two more touchdowns in his home state, he could tie Bryant and Calvin Ridley for the most through a player’s first five games since 2000 — although that will be a tall order given that the Seahawks have surrendered only six total touchdowns in four games — tied for second fewest in the NFL.
“It’s just incredible to watch him hit the ground running from the day he stepped on campus at Ohio State to today,” said Mariners general manager Justin Hollander, who’s a graduate of OSU. “It seems like his time to transition is just smaller than most, and that’s really impressive.
“In baseball, we have minor league levels, so you jump from A ball to AA, AA to AAA, AAA to the big leagues, and it seems like all the way through Emeka makes those jumps — and does it faster than most guys.”
Whatever he does next, it will be in front of some familiar faces, as Ogilvie has purchased what her son describes as a “very large section” of the stadium.
“The one thing is — if you want a ticket, you got to wear Tampa Bay gear,” Egbuka said. “I got a lot of Seahawks fans in my family and stuff like that, but they got to wear Bucs gear if they’re going to go to the game.”
There won’t be an issue with allegiances on the baseball diamond though. It’s the first time the Mariners have won the American League West title since 2001 — before Egbuka was even born.
He’s admittedly behind in his scouting of this current team, given how much time he’s devoting to football, but said, “I’m glad they made the playoffs and got some life for that city baseball wise. It’s awesome.”
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“They’re a very great team,” Egbuka said. “They got Cal Raleigh, they got Julio Rodriguez, so you got a lot of guys who are X factor playmakers. So in moments like those — in the playoffs and when it matters — it just depends how your entire team plays and how your best players play.”
And his brush with the Mariners at a young age has left a lasting impact, something he wanted to pass on to students when he visited Tampa’s Lockhart Elementary Magnet School on Tuesday, where he led kids in football drills.
It took him back to the moment that he spent with his baseball idols all those years ago. A moment that has helped propel all of his athletic achievements.
“It kind of just motivates you and makes you want to push harder to get to where they are. Inspires you with a lot of hope,” Egbuka said. “It’s a moment that I’ve never forgotten — something that will stick with me the rest of my life.”
Though his journey in the NFL is just starting, Hollander made a lighthearted gesture that if Egbuka wanted to come home and play, the door would be open for him to take the field with Mariners.
“If Emeka wants to make a change, I’d be happy to work him out,” Hollander said. “I don’t think he’s going to want to do that, but I would be happy to get him a glove and have him run around center field if that’s what he wants to do.”
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