The Buccaneers are making a couple of promotions in their front office.
According to Albert Breer of SI.com, Tampa Bay is promoting Rob McCartney to assistant General Manager and Mike Biehl to vice president of player personnel.
McCartney is entering his 15th season with the Bucs. He previously spent three seasons as the director of player personnel. Before that, McCartney was the club’s director of pro scouting.
He will fill the position vacated by John Spytek, who departed the organization to become the Raiders’ G.M.
Biehl is entering his 12th season with Tampa Bay. He spent the last three years as director of player personnel after also serving as director of college scouting.
Buccaneers G.M. Jason Licht has been making the media rounds in the aftermath of the draft. Appearing with Rich Eisen, Licht made a fairly significant disclosure about Tampa Bay’s first-round pick, Ohio State receiver Emeka Egbuka.
“He was super-high on our board,” Licht said of Egbuka, via JoeBucsFan.com. “You know, top-10 on our board, kind of stood out like a sore thumb.”
The Buccaneers got Egbuka with the 19th overall pick. He gives them short-term insurance as receiver Chris Godwin continues to recover from a serious leg injury, and a long-term replacement for Godwin or veteran receiver Mike Evans.
Evans was the seventh overall pick in the 2014 draft. Godwin arrived in Tampa with a third-round in 2017.
After the Buccaneers took wide receiver Emeka Egbuka in the first round last week, General Manager Jason Licht said that the selection had nothing to do with how Chris Godwin’s rehab from a dislocated ankle is going.
The selection of Egbuka isn’t completely unrelated to Godwin, however. Licht explained on WDAE on Tuesday that the rookie’s presence means that there’s no need for Godwin to fee like he’s under any time crunch to get back to full speed.
"[Egbuka] does allow us to make sure that Chris does do his rehab correctly and we don’t rush him, and all those things,” Licht said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “So that does give us a little comfort with the pick — that we can do that, to make sure that’s he’s not rushed back. But [Egbuka] had nothing to do with where Chris is currently in the rehab.”
The Bucs were looking to the future with the Egbuka pick, but Licht noted that’s also the case for Godwin. He said “three years in the NFL is long-term” in reference to Godwin’s new contract and that timeline is all the more reason not to overemphasize how quickly he is back in action.
The Buccaneers released wide receiver Marquez Callaway and waived cornerback Dallis Flowers, outside linebacker Daniel Grzesiak and wide receiver Tanner Knue, the team announced Tuesday.
Those moves leave the Buccaneers with 15 openings on their 90-player offseason roster limit before signing any undrafted free agents. Tackle Lorenz Metz does not count against that limit as he is in the second year of his international player exemption.
Callaway initially joined the Buccaneers’ practice squad last Oct. 15. The team elevated him from the practice squad for two games, and he logged five snaps on offense in games against Kansas City and San Francisco.
Callaway previously appeared in 45 games with 17 starts for the Saints from 2020-23, catching 83 passes.
Flowers also was an in-season addition to the Bucs’ practice squad last fall, signing on the same day as Callaway. He, took saw action in two games after game-day elevations.
Flowers played against Las Vegas and New Orleans and drew 10 snaps on special teams. Flowers also appeaerd in 21 games with five stars for Indianapolis from 2022-24.
Grzesiak and Knue both were undrafted free agents in 2024 who spent most of their rookie seasons on Tampa Bay’s practice squad.
Grzesiak was on the practice squad for 17 weeks before finishing the season on injured reserve. Knue signed to the practice squad six games into the season and remained there until its conclusion. He was elevated from the practice squad for the postseason game against Washington but was named a game-day inactive.
Former Colorado safety Shilo Sanders took a back seat to his brother, former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, during the pre-draft process. After the draft, Shilo went in a different direction.
He hired agents Drew Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey to help him find a team as an undrafted free agent. They placed him with the Buccaneers. G.M. Jason Licht discussed the development on Monday night during an appearance on WDAE radio.
“We’ve talked about [Shilo Sanders] quite a bit in the process,” Licht said, via JoeBucsFan.com.
Licht explained that Rosenhaus called the team on Saturday, asking if they would sign Shilo as an undrafted free agent. Licht said he and coach Todd Bowles instantly decided to do it.
After they did it, a call came from Shilo’s dad, Deion Sanders.
“Coach Prime called him Saturday night and thanked him for giving [Shilo] a fair shot,” Licht said. And Licht added that Shilo will get a fair shot.
Any team that gives Shilo a shot needs to be ready for it to be a fair shot, because Deion has the public profile to call out anyone who doesn’t, in Deion’s view, give either Shilo or Shedeur a fair shot.
Colorado safety Shilo Sanders went undrafted. He quickly landed with the Buccaneers. And Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles sounds happy about that.
“I think he’s a good football player,” Bowles said on SiriusXM NFL Radio, via JoeBucsFan.com. “He’s a heck of a tackler and he knows the game very well; he can see the game very well. So giving him a chance to play, we think he has a shot to help us from a safety standpoint and from a special teams standpoint. So I’m excited to get him in here and see how he moves. I saw him tackle all year. I saw him make plays. He’s a very smart player and he understands the game very well. So we thought it was worth a shot to see what he can do. And I think he’ll show himself well.”
Plenty of undrafted players make opening-day NFL rosters. Some become starters. A few, like former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, former Texans running back Arian Foster, and former Broncos receiver Rod Smith, become stars. Some, like former Rams, Giants, and Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner and former Vikings and Seahawks defensive tackle John Randle, become Hall of Famers.
Randle went unselected in one of the final years of 12 rounds in the draft. With 28 teams and no compensatory picks, Randle wasn’t one of 336 players picked.
So every undrafted free agent has a chance to become NFL players even if they bypass the draft. Or, more accurately, if the draft bypasses them.
Georgia State offensive lineman Ben Chukwuma, a native of Nigeria who moved to the U.S. at 17, did not begin playing football until 2020 when he showed up for an open tryout. Chukwuma knew nothing about American football.
Five years later, Chukwuma has the most guaranteed money of any undrafted free agent as the Bucs offered him $300,000 after the draft.
“My potentiality is what makes the NFL teams excited,” Chukwuma told Greg Auman of Fox Sports on Sunday. “They see with my little experience what am I able to do.”
He did not see any game action until 2023 before starting 11 games in 2024. He has played only 23 games in his career.
The 6-foot-6, 310-pounder is a project with potentially a big upside.
“He’s just a big piece of clay that you can make however you want,” former NFL coach Hue Jackson, now Georgia State’s offensive coordinator, told Auman. “Somebody can really pour the right things into him. His growth over the next several months [should be a lot]. He’ll be around NFL guys, and they’ll take him under their wings and let him be what he can be. He’s athletic. He’s long. He’s tough, and he loves football, and he’s going to work hard at it.”
At six-foot-six and 464 pounds, defensive tackle Desmond Watson would have been the largest draft pick in NFL history. He was not drafted.
Via the Associated Press, Watson has instead signed with the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent.
It’ll be a homecoming for Watson, who grew up 20 minutes from Tampa, in Plant City, Florida.
He played college football for four seasons at the University of Florida, without missing a single game.
Watson knows he needs to lose weight. Since arriving at Gainesville, he has been consistently growing. He started out at 385. He was 415 in his second year. As a junior, he weighed 435. Last year, he was listed at 449. At his Pro Day, he was 15 pounds heavier.
He also bench-pressed 225 pounds 36 times that day, more than anyone who was invited to the Scouting Combine.
The Bucs already have a 347-pound defensive tackle in Vita Vea.
Watson has played a little fullback, too. He had one rushing attempt, for a one-yard gain.
Forty years after 350-pound William “The Refrigerator” Perry took the league by storm as a periodic offensive option for the 1985 Bears, Watson could perhaps get a chance to do the same thing. (Desmond “The Walk-In Cooler” Watson has a nice ring to it.)
First, Watson will have to make the team. He’ll get a chance to do that in Tampa.
Like his brother Shedeur, former Colorado safety Shilo Sanders maneuvered the pre-draft process without an agent. When Shiloh wasn’t drafted, he went with a new approach.
Shilo hired Rosenhaus Sports, and Drew Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey got him a contract as an undrafted free agent with the Buccaneers.
In hindsight, both could have benefited from hiring an agent. For Shedeur, it would have meant having someone to push back against the drip, drip, drip of negativity that started at the Scouting Combine and continued through the draft.
It could be wise for Shedeur to do the same, whether it’s Rosenhaus or someone else. While Shedeur’s slotted fifth-round deal will essentially negotiate itself, he needs someone whose job is to advocate for his interests. In the NFL, it’s helpful to have someone who can quickly initiate certain conversations and handle them effectively.
During Shedeur’s slide, an agent could have been burning up the phone lines to say whatever needed to be said to get him drafted earlier, with a contract that would have paid much more. Along with a draft-pick investment that would have secured his spot on the 53-man roster.
Not that Shedeur would be cut. He’ll likely make the final roster, along with third-rounder Dillon Gabriel. Still, Gabriel has a built-in advantage, because he went off the board two rounds earlier. Shedeur will have to overcome that when it’s time to get to work.
For now, both Shedeur and Shiloh have their chances to do just that. Where it goes from here is up to them. There nevertheless will be occasions where it’s useful to have a third-party involved. Shiloh has that. Shedeur doesn’t, at least not yet.
The Buccaneers won a fourth straight NFC South division title last season before losing against the Commanders on a field goal as time expired in the Wild Card. QB Baker Mayfield has found a home in Tampa and is coming off the best season of his career, throwing for 4,500 yards (3rd in NFL) with 41 TD passes (T-2nd in NFL).
While Tampa Bay had one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL last season, they ranked 18th in total defense and 16th in scoring defense. With six picks in this year’s draft, the Bucs will likely look to add to the defense, with help on both the edge and at inside linebacker needed.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2025 NFL Draft Picks
Round 1: No. 19 - Emeka Egbuka, WR, Ohio State
Round 2: No. 53 - Benjamin Morrison, CB, Notre Dame
Round 3: No. 84 - Jacob Parrish, CB, Kansas State
Round 4: No. 121 - David Walker, EDGE, Central Arkansas
Round 5: No. 157 - Elijah Roberts, EDGE, SMU
Round 7: No. 235 - Tez Johnson, WR, Oregon
Check out 2025 NFL Draft picks for other teams in the NFC South:
Atlanta Falcons 2025 NFL Draft picks
Carolina Panthers 2025 NFL Draft picks
New Orleans Saints 2025 NFL Draft picks
Click here to see the entire 2025 NFL Draft order. Coverage of the latest news from around the NFL is available all year round from Pro Football Talk on Peacock and the NFL on NBC YouTube Channel.
For the full slate of NFL Draft content from across NBC Sports, click here.
