Mike Evans In Elite Company
December 22nd, 2015
Bucs WR Mike Evans hanging with NFL stars.
Bucs fans have grumbled about Mike Evans so much this year that their dogs won’t watch a game with them any longer.
While Evans draws ire with his drops and a diva attitude with referees, it was easy to miss this season Evans having a helluva statistical year.
In fact, Evans pulled off something, by virtue of 9-catch, 157-yard performance in the knee-to-the-groin loss to the rotten Rams, that has rarely happened in NFL circles.
Joe will let multimedia maven Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com take it from here.
That impressive performance pushed Evans’ 2015 receiving yardage total to 1,046, making him the first Buccaneer ever to start his career with two 1,000-yard seasons. As it turns out, however, that feat is more impressive when compared to the league at large. See, Evans is just the eighth player in NFL history to start his career with consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons.
Evans and contemporary Odell Beckham of the New York Giants – the seventh and 12th players picked in the 2014 draft, respectively – both joined that list this year. It is an impressive group of names.
Five of the remaining six on that list are absolute stud wide receivers. The lone person non-stud Joe never heard: the famed Bill Groman of the Houston Oilers in 1960 and 1961.
Yes, Joe too is guilty of focusing so much on Evans’ failures and emotional ways. It was easy to overlook he is having a good year racking up yardage.
December 22nd, 2015 at 8:03 am
Once he grows up Mike Evans = Vince Jackson
December 22nd, 2015 at 8:52 am
Mike Evans > Vincent Jackson. I love VJ but Evans has SO much potential once he improves his concentration and controls his emotions. The X factor is he has a younger QB to throw to him for the next 10yrs if contracts etc. work out!!! The numbers will eclipse the best at WR, its all up to #13.
December 22nd, 2015 at 8:52 am
Once he grows up we might win more.
December 22nd, 2015 at 9:46 am
yeah…we need to show ME more love. It must stink to have such numbers and at times amazing catches and only receive hate. Going to end up running him off, and see him become a superstar somewhere else. What is JWs dream…Montana/Rice? duo. Give it time and a little patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day. They are so young….
December 22nd, 2015 at 10:20 am
folks forget how little football this kid has played. not only is he very young for an NFL second year guy, he did not even play football until his senior year. then he went to A & M where his job was to play sandlot football with Johnny Manziel. Really, the guy has barely learned the game and i’m confident that part of his problem right now is that he is still thinking about alot of things that will become automatic and time – footwork, hand-fighting, route, where the defenders are – and it’s taking away from his concentration on the catch and sure isn’t helping him look like an aggressive route runner yet
December 22nd, 2015 at 10:20 am
*until his senior year of high school
December 22nd, 2015 at 10:24 am
Evans did receive a lot of criticism from Bucs fans for his antics and drops. Now we can let out a collective well never mind.
December 22nd, 2015 at 10:45 am
Evans is where GMC is in my mind. Both are terrific players but they have a way to go to be HOFers. GMC is right in the prime so he needs to turn it on the next three years and hope the team is good as well. Hard for any player…DL or not to get their props if they play on a rotten team. Conversely play on winner and get noticed.
Both GMC and ME are in great spots right now thanks to #3. #3 is going to bring the wins and the attention to this team and not just himself. If ME is smart he’ll be buying Fameis a lot of meals and taking care of his boy…#3 can make ME famous and wealthy!!!!
December 22nd, 2015 at 12:54 pm
Pick 6, ya but do we have the tools in place to teach and develop that talent?
December 22nd, 2015 at 1:54 pm
@Mike10, to make him better than he is today? i think so. reps are the best coach there is – on video, in practice, and on game day – and he has some catching up to do in only his 5th year of playing the sport of football. for reference, Jameis Winston was probably tearing up some local high school (possibly middle school) in his 5th year of football. Looking only at his time at the NFL level, the conventional wisdom has held that the 3rd year is the breakout year for WRs – the reason early-career dominance like Randy Moss and Odell is raved about is because they are historically exceptional. there’s no shame in having some holes in your game less than 2 years into your pro career, and we are still at the point where Evans can be looked at as a player with serious upside.
that business with the refs has got to stop though
December 22nd, 2015 at 3:38 pm
There is no question that this kid is talented. Even being the “only” WR on the field he manages to stack up impressive #s despite his drops. Think of it this way, if he catches the balls he dropped, he’s arguably the best WR in the league!
December 22nd, 2015 at 5:55 pm
He a second year KID!!! Damn man…I can’t believe some people bash this guy. He is young and will improve. I have no doubt that as Evans and Winston grow together he will be a dominant receiver in the league. The bucs just need to figure out how to spread the field more with a large selection of targets. I don’t give a crap who disagrees with me…Adam Humphries needs to be kept around. No he is not going to be a hall of fame…but the guy has shown the ABSOLUTE most reliable hands on the team. He plays with grit and Heart. Zero reason for Donte Dye to have been splitting reps with him the last couple f games. I would like to see Humphries, Evans, Bell, and Brate all stretching the field at once next season. If Jackson is here next year great….as for A.S.J, I like what I have seen from Brate over any of our T.E’s.