The Buccaneers went into the 2026 NFL Draft thinking Ted Hurst was a move for later, not right away. A third-round pick with a crowded receiver room in front of him, he looked like a long-term project behind Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin Jr., Jalen McMillan and Tez Johnson.
That plan has already changed.
General manager Jason Licht has admitted he misread how quickly Hurst would come on.
“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.”
Hurst’s training camp forced the issue. With Egbuka and McMillan dealing with injuries, the rookie got more chances and kept making the most of them. He was showing up on the field so often that comparisons to Mike Evans started to follow him around.
Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said the early version of Hurst looked overwhelmed by the speed of it all. As the rookie settled in, though, the talent started showing up in a hurry.
“And when he first got here, obviously, he was thinking so much it looked like he was playing half-speed. Even the first two days of training camp, but when the receivers went down and gave him a chance to play real-time and learn it, he got the playbook down; you started to see the talent come out on him.
And one day in practice, he was just coming down with everything and you could see the confidence growing. Then you could see the routes that he really started running, and you could see it grow from there.
That was outstanding.”
That rise has put Hurst in position for a meaningful role as a rookie, something the Buccaneers didn’t expect when they drafted him. McMillan is still dealing with his injury and was listed as doubtful for the opener on Friday’s injury report, which could open the door even wider for Hurst in Week 1.
McMillan’s health also adds another layer to the depth chart. He flashed as a rookie in 2024, then missed most of last season, and now he’s at risk of being seen as injury-prone if the issues keep piling up. If that continues, Hurst could move ahead of him simply by staying on the field.
It’s a big jump from Georgia State to the NFL, and Tampa Bay clearly expected Hurst to need more time. Instead, he has beaten that timeline. His size, speed and body control have already made him look like a dangerous piece of the offense, and the Buccaneers may have found a contributor far sooner than they planned.
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For a team that entered the year hoping to build on its strengths, the sloppiness was hard to ignore. Cincinnati did its part, too, with Evan McPherson drilling long field goals that kept pressure on Tampa Bay, but the bigger issue for the Bucs was self-inflicted. They had enough good moments to show the pieces are there, yet the opener also made clear that protecting the ball is going to decide whether those pieces add up to something more. [Read more 🡒]