The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made NFL history when wide receiver Tez Johnson took the field for the 2025 regular-season opener — the rookie was the lightest player in NFL history at just 165 pounds.
No one is really talking about Johnson’s weight anymore. Through the offseason, with just 1 notable exception, no one has really been talking about him at all.
That all changed with the start of training camp this week, where Johnson put on a show for fans and showed his team that he’s out to prove his rookie season — 28 receptions for 322 yards and 5 touchdowns in a highly-limited role — was no fluke.
“Tez Johnson had a great practice and rewarded fans with his patented backflip in the end zone,” Tampa Bay Times NFL reporter Rick Stroud wrote on his official X account on Friday. “The forgotten man in the WR room had 5 TDs as a rookie.”
Tez Johnson Predicted as ‘Biggest Surprise’ in 2026
ESPN put Johnson on its list of the NFL’s “Biggest Surprises” for 2026 ahead of training camp.
“Maybe this won’t shock a lot of people, considering Johnson was pressed into action extensively last year in his rookie season and had five touchdowns, but in arguably the most competitive room on the team, Johnson stood out,” ESPN’s Jenna Laine wrote on June 22. “He had two touchdown catches from Jake Browning in their final practice and caught several others.”
The battle for the wide receiver spots — and for targets — will be fierce for the Buccaneers in 2026 after the exit of record-setting wide receiver Mike Evans in free agency has left a power vacuum at the position.
Tez Johnson’s Personal Life Makes Headlines
Johnson found himself in the news for his personal life in February, when his ex-fiancée, Laila Thompson-Wainer, went public with the reasons behind their broken engagement.
Thompson-Wainer posted a 5-minute TikTok video where she explained how she allegedly found out Johnson cheated on her twice on the day of their engagement in February 2025, sharing a series of explicit, sexual messages she said Johnson sent to his ex-girlfriend the morning before they got engaged and then again that evening.
“Tez Johnson has shown us the difference between a recreational cheater and a REAL cheater,” Barstool Sports’ Jack Mac said on Threads.
Johnson shared all the details of his engagement on his Instagram account at the time — a trip to a reptile zoo, a romantic proposal, along with a beach photoshoot and sushi dinner.
“For some reason,” Thompson-Wainer said on her TikTok. “You cheat before and after you propose, the morning of and the night — that’s just something that I will never understand. I’ve given up on trying to understand how someone can be that evil. I think you just have to be a sociopath. And that’s just it at the end of the day.”
From TMZ: “NFL player Tez Johnson’s ex-fiancée just put him on blast times a billion — claiming the Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver cheated on her with sexual texts to a former partner before AND after he proposed last year.”
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