Ohio State and, in particular, newly promoted offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, have a reputation for coaching wide receivers to an NFL standard. Emeka Egbuka is yet another example of that. He’s not asked to do too many different things in their passing game, but he executes his role at a high level and plays the position like a professional.
Measurements
Height: 6'1’’, Weight: 202, Arm Length: 31.5’’, Hands: 9.6’’
Testing - (Pro Day)
40-Yard Dash: 4.49, Vertical: 38’’, Shuttle: 4.15
Scouting Overview
In a wide receiver class that’s full of difficult evaluations and polarizing prospects, Emeka Egbuka is a breath of fresh air. He’s one of the most straightforward prospects you’ll find, and there’s no reason to think Egbuka’s role will change at all from his final year of college, where he ran 81.1% of his routes from the slot.
The main reason Egbuka is so effective from the slot, is his work against zone coverage. He has such a natural feel for where and when to be. He almost never unnecessarily runs towards coverage and has enough quickness to beat defenders to his spot. When facing zone coverage, many young receivers will turn around too early and drift to their landmark, but not Egbuka. His timing and precision makes him the type of receiver that the best quarterbacks in the NFL love.
Egbuka also excels on a variety of out-breaking routes. He’s great on speed outs, where he snaps his head around and breaks parallel to the sideline. He doesn’t have the long speed to be a true vertical threat, but one of his most productive routes in 2024 was the corner route, because he always breaks at the right depth.
When Egbuka does get targeted on downfield routes, he tracks the ball over his shoulder as well as anyone, and does an incredible job of using late hands. He also has some of the best boundary awareness and toe-tap skills in the class. However, he defaults to catching passes at the latest possible moment, and he fails to bring in some tight coverage targets as a result.
Where Egbuka’s game falls a little short, is against man coverage. He ran a ton of crossing routes at Ohio State, and he often struggles to run away from defenders. He can win with option routes where he can rely on his timing and quick feet, but his lack of natural separation ability makes it hard to envision much inside-outside flexibility. That being said, he did show some nice skills against press coverage in a very small sample size, so maybe there’s more to that part of his game.
It’s also worth mentioning that Ohio State gets Egbuka quite a few designed touches, both in the screen game, and on jet sweeps. He has a really nice feel for how perimeter blocking will develop, but he rarely forces missed tackles, which likely means he won’t be used in this way at the next level.
Player Comparison
Egbuka’s game has a lot of similarities to early career Amon-Ra St. Brown as well as Josh Downs. St. Brown has obviously improved tremendously throughout his career, and blossomed into a superstar, but a big part of that was landing in an offense that caters perfectly to his skillset. It’s unlikely Egbuka ever reaches those heights, but he could have a very long and productive career in the slot.
Final Grade: Early 2nd Round
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire:
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