‘Slim Odds’ 1,100 Yard WR Makes 53-Man Roster for Buccaneers

The odds of any seventh round pick making an NFL team’s 53-man roster, anywhere in the league, are pretty slim. You can make an argument that in most cases, those odds are not much better than an undrafted free agent.

For Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Tez Johnson, a 2025 seventh round pick (No. 235 overall), the odds of actually making the team appear slim on paper.

“There might not be a better wide receiver room in the NFL than Tampa Bay’s,” The Pewter Plank’s Marcus Mosher wrote on July 19. “Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are one of the NFL’s top duos, and they’ve been in the conversation for several years. But the recent additions of Emeka Egbuka (2025) and Jalen McMillan (2024) have rounded out this room. They have four starting-caliber receivers and a few high-end backups, including Trey Palmer and Sterling Shepard. Depth like that is unheard of in the NFL, and it’s going to be really hard for anyone else to make the roster with those six receivers.”

What Johnson does have going for him is a bunch of wide receivers in front of him on the depth chart who have shown they’re prone to injuries.

Godwin only played 7 games in 2024 after he suffered a gruesome, dislocated ankle — his second season ending injury in 4 seasons after tearing his ACL in 2021.

Evans missed 3 games with a hamstring injury but still tied the NFL record with his 11th consecutive 1,000 yard receiving season.

McMillan has missed 4 games each of the last 2 seasons — 4 during his final season at the University of Washington in 2023 with a knee injury and 4 during his rookie year with the Buccaneers with a hamstring injury.

Johnson Could Make NFL History By Making Team

If Johnson does make the roster, he’ll make NFL history when he takes the field as the lightest player in NFL history at 5-foot-10 and just 154 pounds.

Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski gave the Buccaneers an “A” grade for picking Johnson. Tampa Bay began and ended the 2025 draft with wide receivers with Johnson as their final pick and Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka as their first round pick (No. 19 overall).

“The NFL has become far more forgiving when it comes to smaller wide receivers,” Sobleski wrote on April 26. “Coaches find ways to utilize talented targets who know how to get open and create after the catch.”

Size, Speed Concerns Hurt Johnson’s Draft Stock

Johnson was a stats machine over 5 seasons of college football at Troy and Oregon, where he teamed up with older brother and Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix in 2023. He ended his career with 31 total touchdowns — 28 receiving, 2 on returns and 1 rushing.

While Johnson’s size was already scaring some teams off, running the 40-yard dash in 4.51 seconds at the NFL scouting combine added another layer to those concerns. It’s worth pointing out that if Johnson had clocked in at just .02 seconds faster and ran the 40 in 4.49 seconds, it probably wouldn’t have even been an issue.

“Johnson is dynamic with the football in his hands; he can make defenders miss with quick, decisive movements and angle-beating burst/acceleration,” Bleacher Report’s Dame Parson wrote in his pre-draft evaluation. “Johnson’s ability to sell vertical routes with urgency, speed, and attacking leverages puts defenders in conflict.”