Ted Hurst entered this Tampa Bay Buccaneers draft class with far less noise than the names around him, and that may have been the first clue that he was being underestimated.
The attention early on belonged to the defense. Jason Licht and the Buccaneers were stunned to see Rueben Bain Jr. still on the board at No. 15 overall, enough that the team passed on a significant trade offer to move down just two spots because Licht didn’t want to risk losing him.
In the second round, Tampa added Josiah Trotter, the Missouri linebacker who has already turned heads in training camp. Ronde Barber even said the organization believed Trotter could start right away and maybe emerge as the defense’s best player, Bain included.
With all of that going on, Hurst’s arrival in the third round barely registered outside the building. The wide receiver from Georgia State had the kind of size-speed combination that catches eyes, but the small-school label made plenty of people figure he’d need time before he could handle the jump to the NFL.
That assumption also fit the roster Tampa Bay already had in place. Even after Mike Evans left in free agency, the Buccaneers still had Emeka Egbuka, last year’s first-round pick, along with Chris Godwin Jr., who had been a major part of the Evans-Godwin pairing for years. Jalen McMillan had flashed down the stretch as a rookie in 2024 before a neck injury wiped out most of his second season, and Tez Johnson, a 2025 seventh-round pick, also showed plenty after injuries opened the door for more snaps.
Put all of that together, and Hurst looked like a pick for later rather than right now.
That picture has changed fast. Hurst’s offseason work has brought him into the conversation in a much bigger way, with comparisons to Evans adding to the buzz. Licht has now admitted he misread the rookie, and the expectation inside the organization has shifted with it.
“After we drafted him, I personally thought, okay, this is a great situation for him to be behind these guys and learn, may not make a big impact for us this year but, one for the future. But I think he's proven to us throughout camp, even OTAs, practice every day that he's been very, very steady. And I think it's kind of evolved into okay, we can use him this year and he's going to play a role.”
Licht’s read on Hurst has clearly moved from long-term project to someone who should get on the field sooner than most expected.
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