The Buccaneers may not look like a classic rebuilding team, but their under-25 group is starting to stack up with some of the league’s better young collections.
That’s the takeaway from Aaron Schatz’s rankings, which are built to project future strength rather than judge who is best right now. Tampa Bay landed 14th, putting the Bucs in the top half of the NFL and giving the front office some credit for the way it has replenished the roster without leaning on premium draft slots. From 2020 to 2025, the Bucs picked in the back half of the first round, yet they still managed to build a core worth noticing.
At the center of it all is wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, whom Schatz identified as the group’s blue-chip player. The 22-year-old rookie posted 938 receiving yards and six touchdowns last season, and his early flashes made him look like a future No. 1 target. Tampa Bay’s hope is that he keeps building on that start in his sophomore season.
The receiving room around him is young, too. Jalen McMillan is 24, Tez Johnson is 24, and third-round rookie Ted Hurst III is 22. McMillan is one of four young wideouts carrying the load after Mike Evans left for the 49ers, and Hurst and Johnson give the group different skill sets even if they are not expected to command the same volume right away.
The youth doesn’t stop there on offense. Bucky Irving is 24, and starting center Graham Barton is also 24.
Barton, McMillan and Irving all came in the 2024 NFL Draft, a class that looks especially important for Tampa Bay’s future. Each is projected to be a key starter in 2026, and the Bucs’ offensive ceiling will depend heavily on how those three continue to develop.
Defensively, the newest wave of talent comes from the latest draft classes. Edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. is the headliner at 22, with second-round cornerback Josiah Trotter right behind him at 21.
Tampa Bay also added cornerbacks Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison in 2025, and both are 22. Fourth-round rookie nickelback Keionte Scott is already 25.
Bain carries the most weight in terms of upside. If he becomes the disruptive edge presence the Bucs believe he can be, Tampa Bay could have hit on franchise cornerstones in back-to-back drafts with Egbuka and Bain.
Trotter’s path is a little different. He is trying to grow into the long-term leader at inside linebacker, but first he has to win a starting job next to Alex Anzalone and get real reps as a rookie. After that, the runway opens for him to become a fixture in the middle of the defense.
The secondary is where the biggest questions still live. Tykee Smith has already aged out of this list, and the cornerback battle is one of the most interesting camp fights on the roster.
Parrish and Morrison both have youth and upside, but someone has to emerge as the second corner. The same goes for nickel, where Scott is already close to falling off the under-25 list and needs to prove he can be more than just a body on the depth chart.
The Bucs do not have the same kind of under-25 firepower as teams in full rebuild mode, and that’s part of the point. Sustained competitiveness under Jason Licht has come with steady drafting and development, not a total teardown. ESPN’s ranking suggests the next wave is already forming, with Egbuka, Irving, Barton and McMillan leading the offense and Bain, Trotter, Morrison and Parrish shaping the defense.
If those young pieces become long-term starters, Tampa Bay will have the kind of homegrown nucleus that can keep this team in the mix for years.
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