Ohio State star Emeka Egbuka has joined Texas speedster Matthew Golden in being first-round receiver prospects having predraft visits with the Green Bay Packers.
Maybe this really will be the year when the Green Bay Packers use their first-round draft pick on a receiver.
According to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter, Ohio State receiver Emeka Egbuka has arrived in Titletown for a predraft visit with the Green Bay Packers.
The Packers haven’t used their first-round pick on a receiver since Javon Walker in 2002. However, with Matthew Golden visiting on Friday and Egbuka on Monday and Tuesday, that’s two first-round options who spent time at Lambeau Field to get to know the Packers’ coaches at a much deeper level.
Unlike Golden, who spent one season at Texas and wasn’t a full-time dominator, Egbuka was a premier player at premier program for three seasons. He caught 74 passes for 1,151 yards and 10 touchdowns as a sophomore in 2022, 41 passes for 515 yards and four touchdowns in 2023 and 81 passes for 1,011 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2024.
Even while sharing time on the field with Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave to start this career to Marvin Harrison and Jaxon Smith-Njigba later in his career and freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith in 2024, Egbuka left Ohio State ranked No. 1 all-time with 205 receptions and 2,868 yards and seven with 24 touchdowns.
That star-studded group of pass catchers made Egbuka work for everything that came his way.
“That’s probably one of the craziest rosters I’ve ever heard in my life,” Egbuka said at the Scouting Combine. “That was one of the reasons I decided to go to Ohio State. I didn’t want to go to a place where I wasn’t going to be challenged by my peers. I wanted to go somewhere I could grow at an exponential rate because they were growing, as well.”
The key word from scouts regarding Egbuka is “polished.” With all those star receivers on the roster and led by esteemed position coach Brian Hartline, Egbuka should be an instant-impact player.
“It’s hard not to learn from those guys just being in the room all the time with them,” Egbuka said. “I was roommates with Marvin for more than a year. We did absolutely everything together and he’s one of my closest friends. I can’t remember a single day that we weren’t at the facility getting in extra work, whether it was film study or catching on the JUGS machine or running extra routes.
“So, we spent a lot of time together, and we always challenged each other. We have a very competitive dynamic. So, we’re always pushing each other and competing in everything we do, whether it’s football, video games, bowling, whatever the case may be. The whole room was kind of like that, with just that competitive nature, so we were always pushing each other.”
Egbuka won’t overwhelm defenses with size, like Arizona’s Tet McMillan. He won’t blow away defenses with speed, like Golden. He measured 6-foot 7/8 and 202 pounds at the Scouting Combine. At pro day, he ran his 40 in 4.49 seconds. However, thanks to strong numbers in the vertical jump and 20-yard shuttle, his Relative Athletic Score was 9.27.
In Daniel Jeremiah’s latest draft rankings at NFL.com, Golden is the No. 1 receiver and No. 16 prospect, Egbuka is the No. 2 receiver and No. 17 prospect and McMillan is the No. 3 receiver and No. 18 prospect.
“He’d be a great fit for somebody that wants plug and play, for a team that’s ready to win right now,” Jeremiah said during a pre-Scouting Combine conference call.
Rather than elite physical skill-set, Egbuka is the total package of athleticism, skill and savvy.
“Whenever I do watch myself, I’m my own hardest critic,” he said. “A reason I excelled at Ohio State was because Coach Hartline and I shared a similar mindset. We’re perfectionists to the nth degree. Every time I watch film, I never tell myself ‘good job’ in my head. I’m always critiquing myself whether it’s run blocking, route running, my splits before the play, it’s all game for me. It’s all an art, and I love the art of being a receiver.”
For his career, Egbuka had 12 drops (5.5 percent), caught 54.3 percent of contested-catch opportunities and averaged 6.6 yards after the catch per catch. In 2024, he caught 6-of-11 passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield.
With the Packers, the expectation for Egbuka would be that he develop into the No. 1 receiver that failed to emerge last season. He’s used to the pressure, even if he was part of collegiate depth charts that would make NFL teams envious.
Hartline raved about what Egbuka meant to his room.
“When we had our trials and tribulations, and we were down in the dumps a little bit,” Hartline told reporters after the season, “his firmness in believing the kind of guys we were, the coaching staff we were, the team we had, the brotherhood we had, the culture we had – he was convinced that we were good, we’ll be fine, we’ll keep pushing forward, we have a special group and there’s better ahead.
“He really kept us going. He kept me going. As coaches, you can’t show that, but to hear that coming from Emeka, to see how he brought guys together, his conviction and the things he said really went a long way. After the outcome, the ability for us to win that big one, to see him crying, I just kept thinking of the things he said to our unit with the belief of the guys around him. That was pretty special, man. That was pretty special.”