It’s been a very disappointing last few weeks for Emeka Egbuka, only tallying 40, 32, 42, and 15 yards in the Bucs’ last four games. Yet he’s had 8+ targets in each of those games. Between some inaccuracy from Baker and untimely drops from Egbuka, the chemistry and execution has not quite been there. And now the bust narratives have begun to circulate around twitter, so this is when you buy in. 

You’d think now with Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan back that it’d be a hit to Egbuka’s production, but it may be a bit of the opposite. The Bucs want to utilize Egbuka in a way that gets the ball in hands quick and lets him work in space for YAC. I’ve seen and heard that from the start of the season but now some others are beginning to catch wind of that impending strategy after Todd Bowles and Josh Grizzard both made similar comments about that this week. 

Egbuka can certainly be explosive as a vertical threat but in this offense that isn’t the best way to use him, especially when he can be doubled because the WR2 is 32 year-old Sterling Shepard. Evans and McMillan will assumingly be on snap counts tonight so we won’t see them all game, but when we do they’ll be able to stretch the field and create those underneath looks for Egbuka that the offense has sorely lacked for weeks now.

It's worth mentioning as well that the Falcons rush defense has turned a corner ever since they came back from a Jonathan Taylor masterclass in Berlin. I have some questions about the stability of the run game in this one. The Bucs welcome Tristan Wirfs back but lose guard Ben Bredeson to the IR. They have a lot of different packages they could use between Bucky, Rachaad, and Sean Tucker but they may have to use a little run game by extension tonight. Godwin and Egbuka are the go-to guys for those type of looks. And with Godwin still not quite 100% and Egbuka needing to get in a rhythm early, Emeka should have plenty of opportunity to get fed 4+ times.