Significant injuries to the Bucs top wide receivers have thrust a duo of rookies into bigger roles than anyone could have imagined. First round pick Emeka Egbuka immediately burst onto the scene and is well within consideration of Offensive Rookie of the Year. Seventh round pick Tez Johnson began the season slowly but has really put it together the past couple of weeks.

With Mike Evans out for essentially the remainder of the regular season and Chris Godwin Jr.’s fibula injury seeming like it will also keep him out for a while, a lot is going to fall on the shoulders of the rookies. Let’s not forget that second year player Jalen McMillan has yet to return to practice after a neck injury in the preseason and isn’t expected to return until December.

Bucs WRs Emeka Egbuka and Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Egbuka can certainly shoulder the load and already has, but Johnson’s role is set to increase much more. He’s technically the third receiver currently on the team, but as the season goes along, he should likely surpass Sterling Shepard as the second option. Johnson has scored a touchdown in two straight games, both in very different ways.

His first career NFL touchdown was on a 45-yard throw from Baker Mayfield that Johnson adjusted his route on and dove into the end zone for to make the catch. The 22-yarder that Johnson scored on Monday night football was a screen where he used his speed and ability to make defenders miss to get into the end zone.

Bucs WR Tez Johnson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Veteran Help Has Gotten Bucs’ Tez Johnson On Track

It’s plays such as those that the Bucs will need more of if they want to stay in the race for the best record in the NFC. Tez Johnson knows he needs to step up and credits all of the veteran players, whether injured or not, to helping his game come along.

“The younger guys are just always keying on the little things, and we still [have] veterans in that room,” Johnson said. “We still have [Sterling] Shepard and [have] ‘J-Mac’ (Jalen McMillan) in there helping too even though he is not out there with us. You still have those voices in the room that you listen to and try and get those little details from them and try to tie it to your game.

“With a man being down, yes it hurts, but just knowing when Mike [Evans] was hurt, he would still communicate with us the best he could. It just shows you the leader and the Hall of Fame guy he is.”

Bucs WR Tez Johnson, Photo by: USA Today

Losing Evans was a devastating blow for several reasons. He’s the Bucs best receiver who the offense goes through. And of course, he had the chance to break Jerry Rice’s consecutive 1,000-yard season streak, but that’ll remain a tie with Evans not having enough games remaining to get to it.

Evans especially has been a mentor to Johnson; the future Hall of Famer spoke about how they bonded over enjoying the same music together. And along the way Evans gave Johnson lessons on how to make it in this league. Really, it’s all about just staying ready.

“You [have] to always be prepared,” Johnson said. “You never know when your number is called, you never know what is going to happen during this game. Anything can happen in this league; as you have seen around the league, a lot of teams are not so good at being really good teams. It is the first for me seeing stuff like that because usually the better teams do not let teams like… beat them, so you just always have to be prepared.”