Emeka Egbuka Limps Off Jets Joint Practice With Minor Toe Injury
The Bucs' second-year WR tweaked a toe in New Jersey, but early word is it's minor — and the calendar works in his favor.
Minor toe issue with weeks to heal before games count.
- Egbuka limped off Jets joint practice, didn't return
- Toe injury reported as minor
- 2025 rookie line: 63 rec, 938 yds, 6 TD
- 194 PPR pts in 2025, our WR23
- Evans now in SF, target share opening up
Emeka Egbuka gave Tampa Bay a scare on Wednesday, limping off the field during a joint practice at the Jets' facility in New Jersey and not returning before the session wrapped. The initial read is encouraging: Mike Garafolo reported the second-year receiver suffered a toe injury that's considered minor. For a player coming off a 63-catch, 938-yard, six-touchdown rookie season, "minor" is exactly the word fantasy managers wanted to hear.
The timing softens the blow even more. The Bucs get a stretch of downtime before they're back on the practice field, and their preseason opener happens to be against these same Jets — a game most of Tampa's starters were already penciled in to skip. So a toe tweak that costs him practice reps costs him almost nothing that matters.
Why This Matters More Than a Typical Toe
Egbuka isn't just a solid rookie holdover anymore. With Mike Evans off to San Francisco, the vacated target volume in this Tampa offense has to go somewhere, and Egbuka is the obvious candidate to inherit a chunk of it. Evans managed 30 catches for 368 yards and three scores across eight games in 2025 before the move; that's real air yardage now up for grabs.
That's the whole bull case for bumping Egbuka up your board this summer. He's our WR23 (No. 68 overall), and that ranking is built on the assumption of an expanded role, not the one he played as a rookie behind Evans. A healthy toe keeps that projection intact.
The Fantasy Fallout
One caveat worth logging: Egbuka's actual 2025 form cooled late, running 6.3 fantasy points per game below his season average over his final five outings. That's more a reminder to temper the ceiling than a red flag, and it has nothing to do with the toe.
Bottom line — hold, and don't overthink this. A minor toe injury in mid-August, in a game his starters were sitting anyway, isn't a reason to slide him in drafts. If anything, a nervous manager in your league discounting him over this is your cue to pounce. Monitor the practice reports, but treat Egbuka as a locked-in WR2 with WR1 upside if that Evans-sized hole falls his way.
