Ohio State WR Emeka Egbuka needs way more hype! Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts break down the 2025 NFL Draft prospect in their Emeka Egbuka Scouting Profile
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00:00Is Emeka Ibuka the most forgotten wide receiver prospect in the 2025 NFL draft?
00:09Emeka Ibuka had an incredibly prolific college career, a very productive one for the Ohio State
00:15Buckeyes. Ryan, why does it feel like he's getting forgotten about in this class?
00:19Because he kind of plays a boring style a little bit, right? Like the cool things that Emeka
00:24Ibuka brings to the table are the nuanced things that we like to talk about, right?
00:29Like the coaches are really going to geek up about Emeka Ibuka because he runs good routes,
00:33because he is a crafty player, he understands blind spots. None of that though, Joe, is sexy
00:38to like everybody that watches, right? Like he's not going to run the fastest 40. He's not going
00:42to jump out of the gym. He's not going to do some of these athletic feats that some of these freak
00:46shows are doing, but Emeka Ibuka just does a lot of things that makes him a really good football
00:51player. I really like Emeka Ibuka in this class because he does everything at a very high floor
00:57level. He just checks all the boxes. He's got reliable hands. He's a good route runner. He's
01:01going to thrive in the slot. I'm surprised that we don't see more people talking about him as being a
01:07super worthy, super highly attractive receiver prospect in this 2025 class. We spent so much
01:14time debating, can Ted McMillan play as fast as his film indicates? Can Luther Burden improve
01:20his production? We had the debate about Matthew Golden. Is he good enough to maybe be wide
01:24receiver one? But here we are with Emeka Ibuka who might even fall out of the first round and
01:28could actually maybe go on to be the most productive receiver in this class because of how
01:33reliable he could go on to become in an offense. I mean, but you just have to think about the guys
01:38you compared him to, right? We're talking about Ted McMillan, who's six foot five and has a crazy
01:43catch radius. You're talking about Luther Burden, who's dynamite in space. You're talking about
01:46Matthew Golden, who, although he doesn't play 4-2-8s, he just ran 4-2-8 at the combine. Those
01:51are things that people like to get excited about and they'd like to talk about. They don't like
01:55talking about good route runners, Joe. They don't like talking about guys that understand spacing.
01:58They don't like talking about guys that know how to settle down into zones, depending on what is
02:03developing in front of them from a coverage shell perspective. All those things are boring from a
02:08technical perspective, but all the things are also why Emeka Ibuka is probably going to end up being
02:13a perennial 900, a thousand yard receiver on the next level. And he might never end up being a
02:19number one overall receiver for a team, but you know what I know is that he's going to be a good
02:25player without question. There's no boom or bust to Emeka Ibuka, which I think is why people don't
02:29think of him as like this exciting prospect. He is one of the highest floor overall players in
02:35this class. I know that he's going to be a good receiver on the next level without question.
02:40If we had to identify just some weaknesses for him, because we're hyping him up for saying like
02:44how great he could be, how consistent he can be. What are some of the weaknesses that stand out?
02:49I think the first easy one that we've already brought up is that he's not a crazy great
02:55athlete. He's not like a guy that's going to be as twitched up and as explosive as some of these
02:59other names. He's going to be on the lower end of athleticism that we look for in a slot receiver.
03:04Yeah. I mean, he's a good athlete, right? Like he's not a great athlete. He's not
03:07exceptional by any standards. He's going to be probably a high four, four to four,
03:12five flat type of guy, which is totally fine. He's going to have good solid change of direction,
03:17but again, he's not going to be elite. He's not going to be elite anywhere in terms of
03:20athleticism. And that's why some people are going to undervalue him a little bit.
03:24I would, I would freeze him as I think he's more smooth and explosive, which is fine for the slot.
03:31But I just think that's what he is. And I also think that we keep talking about the slot because
03:35he is a little bit role dependent on the next level. He can play outside some, but the majority
03:41of what he did at Ohio state and the margin majority of what he's going to do in the NFL level
03:45is separating from the inside. I don't think he's a guy that's going to run,
03:49you know, an incredibly advanced route tree outside. I don't, these guys is going to make
03:53a ton of plays down the field. He is a slot specific player who can play a little bit of Z,
03:58but I do think that role specificness is what is going to potentially limit him on the NFL level
04:04in terms of being a versatile playmaker. But again, that is part of what is also the
04:08attractive part of his game is that he is very good at that one role.
04:12Now, anyone who remembers a Mecca book as a recruit jumping into his background,
04:17he was actually a highly, a higher rated recruit than Marvin Harrison Jr.
04:21Was in the 2021 class. And before he got banged up in 2023, there was a chance that he would
04:27have been a first rounder in that draft class as well. He was the number one wide receiver
04:32coming out of the state of Washington in 2021. And he was the second highest rated
04:37recruit in the state of Washington. Also the ninth overall rated recruit in that class.
04:42He was very highly decorated. He was very highly recognized. He goes on to be becoming the most
04:48productive Ohio state receiver ever. So he lived up to the hype to that degree.
04:53His career maybe wasn't as sexy as Marvin Harrison Jr., but he absolutely had lived
04:58up to every expectation that we were hoping for. I mean, at the end of the day, he was the leading
05:03receiver in Ohio state history, right? And there's a little bit of an asterisk because like
05:08a lot of those guys end up leaving after three years, at least a decent amount of them do.
05:13But overall, Joe, I mean, we're talking about a incredibly productive player who,
05:17like you said, if not for that injury a couple of years ago, we're probably not even talking
05:21about him in this class that actually helped him to be back for one more year for Ohio state in 2024
05:26and eventually winning a national championship. But that, that class was pretty wild, man.
05:31He was a five star, like you said, but there were a ton of five stars according to the 247
05:36sports composite ranking. Quinn Ewers was the number one recruit in that Ohio state class.
05:41You remember he reclassified and then went to Ohio state because he wanted to make some NIL
05:44money, but that's a conversation for another day. JT Tomolau, Jack Sawyer, Donovan Jackson,
05:50and then Emeka Igbuka also Travion Henderson was, was a five-star recruit in that class.
05:55So pretty cool to look back on because that class was a huge reason why they just were able to get
06:01over that hump finally and win a national championship. A lot of those guys stayed to
06:06be seniors and be big parts of this team and be instrumental members of bringing Ohio state back
06:12to a national championship, which is pretty cool to see. Yeah, his, his background and how he was
06:18able to help Ohio state win a national championship was certainly amazing. Juju Smith Schuster is the
06:23pro comp that we're going with here. Two big body guys that run great routes that have great
06:29concentration in a contested situations. Both are going to be most successful in the slot.
06:36I know that Juju has played a little bit of a different role since he's bounced around other
06:39teams, but where I thought he was amazing was early on in his career at the Steelers,
06:43where they were playing him a ton in the slot and he was getting a lot of those over the middle
06:47opportunities to make plays. Yep. And I think that both players are more smooth than they are
06:52explosive. They're just both not dynamic players, but I do think they're strong. They're densely
06:58built and they're really consistent slot receivers. That was the cool thing about Juju early on in his
07:02career was he would also make a ton of plays after the catch because he was a really strongly built
07:06slot receiver. And I think that's one underrated aspect of Emeka Ibuka's game is that I think
07:11Emeka is actually pretty good after the catch as well. So he's going to be able to make some plays
07:15after the catch, some hidden yardage stuff. And I do think that that career arc could be
07:19hopefully a little bit more consistent than what we've seen from Juju, but I do think that Emeka
07:24has that power slot build and that frame and that physicality to be a consistent weapon to an offense.
07:31Folks, let us know in the comments below, what team do you want to see Emeka Ibuka play for?
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