Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season kicks off on Wednesday night with a full slate to follow on Sunday. As you’re getting your fantasy football lineups ready, keeping up with the latest news and info on player injuries may be the difference between starting your own season with a win or a loss.
The hype is real for Emeka Egbuka heading into his second professional season, but an injury held him out for parts of training camp and the preseason schedule. Should fantasy managers be nervous starting him in Week 1 due to that injury, or does Egbuka belong in lineups from the jump?
Emeka Egbuka Week 1 fantasy outlook
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took Emeka Egbuka in the first round out of Ohio State back in the 2025 NFL Draft. It didn’t take long for him to break out as both a standout real-world receiver and fantasy football darling. Through the first five weeks of his rookie year, he posted 25 catches for 445 yards and five touchdowns – including a pair of 100-yard games and five outings of double-digit fantasy points, three of which saw him hit 20+ points.
Granted, Egbuka faded after that and finished with just 938 yards and six touchdowns on 63 grabs over the full season. He averaged 11.5 FPPG in the end and was hardly a player who fantasy managers felt great about starting down the stretch. However, that wasn’t entirely his fault since both he and quarterback Baker Mayfield dealt with some injuries in the second half of the campaign. Of course, the ceiling had been flashed already.
The hype surrounding the receiver did hit a speed bump in training camp, though. Egbuka suffered a toe injury in mid-August that left him sidelined for several weeks, causing some hesitance surrounding his stock in fantasy moving forward. He was seen working with trainers some over the last few weeks but had not participated in practice fully, though head coach Todd Bowles said the young standout was headed in the right direction last week.
Entering Week 1, though, it seems the former Buckeye is on the mend and gearing up to play. Egbuka was a participant in Monday’s practice with the rest of the team and seems to be ramping up with the season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals just a few days out.
That positive development likely has fantasy managers breathing a sigh of relief since Egbuka was going in the first few rounds of drafts with a consensus ADP of No. 42 overall in PPR formats. With him back on the field, it seems he’s trending towards playing in the opener – there is still the question of whether he belongs in starting lineups this week given the uncertainty surrounding any lingering injury impacts, though.
It’s understandable that a toe issue might have people worried about the receiver. After all, his ability to cut on his routes and accelerate off the line of scrimmage would be affected by any kind of lingering issue. Assuming he continues to practice throughout the week, there’s probably no reason to keep him out of lineups in Week 1.
There’s a reason Egbuka began to shoot up draft boards in fantasy football this offseason. We saw the ceiling the 23-year-old brings in the early weeks of his rookie year, averaging 20.48 FPPG in PPR formats in Weeks 1-5. That production would’ve qualified him as a true WR1 and elite difference-making asset had it continued over the full season, and while it was inflated somewhat by a touchdown per game, there are avenues for Egbuka to make up for a bit of normalization in that department.
Franchise legend Mike Evans departed via free agency over the offseason, leaving a noticeable void in terms of target share. The longtime veteran had a 22.8% target share with the Buccaneers last year, though it bears consideration that he missed much of the season due to injury. In his absence, Egbuka now profiles as the top wideout remaining on Tampa Bay’s roster given a 23.6% target share as a rookie, so he should operate as the primary option in the passing game having now proven his ability to command volume. Chris Godwin Jr. should get plenty of looks in the slot, but we’ve seen Mayfield support multiple receivers in fantasy before – plus, the quarterback is now healthy and playing for a contract extension.
With those factors in mind, it makes sense to project a much better full-season sample from Egbuka in 2026. Even with the toe injury not fully in the rearview mirror, he can step in and produce from the jump in Week 1. If you roster him, you drafted him in the early rounds and expect him to be a key piece of the lineup moving forward. In a game against the Bengals that carries the highest game total of the Week 1 slate at 50.5 combined points on DraftKings Sportsbook, this is a spot to start your stud without a second thought.
