{"id":705889,"date":"2026-05-31T07:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705889\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T07:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:51:13","slug":"bucs-rookie-wr-ted-hurst-called-nfls-biggest-draft-steal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705889\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs Rookie WR Ted Hurst Called NFL’s ‘Biggest Draft Steal’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> may have found a player who can change their fortunes with rookie wide receiver and 3rd round pick (No. 84 overall) Ted Hurst<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hurst is a 6-foot-4, 206-pound playmaker who has the chance to help negate some of the bad vibes still hanging in the air after losing Mike Evans<\/a> in free agency, and Bleacher Report\u2019s Gary Davenport<\/a> has already labeled him the \u201cbiggest draft steals\u201d in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the dawn of a new age in Tampa Bay \u2014 after 11 seasons, wide receiver Mike Evans is gone,\u201d Davenport wrote. \u201cThe team still has veteran Chris Godwin<\/a> and second-year pro Emeka Egbuka<\/a>, but the team needs a big-bodied wideout to step into Evans\u2019 \u2018X\u2019 receiver role outside \u2026 Granted, there\u2019s a long way to go before Hurst is an NFL starter (the jump from FCS to the NFL is a big one) and there\u2019s an even bigger way to go before Hurst can be mentioned in the same breath as a player like Evans. But Hurst possesses a tantalizing blend of size, 4.42-second speed and catch radius. He could have a real role in Tampa\u2019s offense as a rookie \u2014 especially with a solid summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers will almost certainly need Hurst to make plays from the start. After losing Evans to the 49ers<\/a> in free agency, they didn\u2019t sign a wide receiver in free agency, and Hurst was the only wide receiver they drafted in 2026.<\/p>\n

Ted Hurst Dominated Mid-Major Competition<\/p>\n

The biggest question around Hurst is how he will fare facing consistent, high-level competition<\/a> after he tormented lower-level teams at Georgia State, including career highs of 71 receptions and 1,004 yards to go with 6 touchdowns in 2025<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to make Bruce Feldman\u2019s\u00a0Freaks list<\/a>; it\u2019s another to be a productive \u2018Freak,\u2019 \u201d\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s Dan Pompei wrote<\/a>. \u201cHurst was a productive Freak with 127 catches for 1,965 yards in his last two seasons, though he did not play against elite defenses at Georgia State. He probably won\u2019t have the kind of quick impact that Emeka Ebuka did last year, but that\u2019s OK because the Bucs are loaded at wide receiver. He shouldn\u2019t be looked at as a replacement for Mike Evans, but he might be looked at as a down-the-line lineup replacement for 30-year-old Chris Godwin, depending on how long Godwin plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurst Played 1st 2 Seasons at NCAA Division II School<\/p>\n

Hurst, a Savannah, Georgia, native, spent the 1st 2 seasons of his college career at NCAA Division II powerhouse Valdosta State before transferring to Georgia State.<\/p>\n

At Georgia State, Hurst stepped in and became the team\u2019s WR1 from Day 1, racking up 127 receptions for 1,965 yards and 15 touchdowns in 24 games over the last 2 seasons.<\/p>\n

The NFL scouting combine helped Hurst solidify his draft stock after he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.42 seconds to go with a 36.5-inch vertical leap. His 11-foot, 3-inch broad jump was the best of any wide receiver at the combine.<\/p>\n

\u201cNFL<\/a>\u00a0Draft analysts agree with the round three selection of Hurst based on his pre-draft evaluation,\u201d\u00a0Heavy\u2019s Chris Lewis wrote on April 24<\/a>. \u201cPFF ranked him\u00a0as the 97th best prospect in the draft.\u00a0He received an 82.1 receiving grade. While he had a poor drop rate of 9%, he did well against man coverage (71.7 grade) and had a great contested catch rate of 59.3%.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have found a player who can change their fortunes with rookie wide receiver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-705889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}