Mike Evans’ Quest For Another 1,000-Yards Receiving Season
June 27th, 2023
Mike Evans
No, Joe doesn’t expect the Bucs to make a Super Bowl run. It would be loads of fun, but nah, can’t go there in June.
Joe has other worries about the 2023 Bucs than the Super Bowl. One is Mike Evans may see the end of his 1,000-yards receiving streak — nine straight years since he was drafted in 2014. If he has two more seasons of 1,000-yards receiving, Evans will tie the great Jerry Rice for most consecutive years of 1,000-yards receiving.
Hell, Evans even got 1,000-yards receiving with Stewart McClown and Mike Glennon throwing him the ball as a rookie.
Things are different, of course. When Evans was a rookie, on the other side of the field was Vincent Jackson. If you are a defensive coordinator, who would you double more or try to take out more, a proven stud like Jackson or a rookie? Of course teams focused heavily on Jackson.
Now, Evans is a marked man in the NFL. Great, proven offensive players get targeted by defenses. Evans is what Jackson was when Evans was a rookie.
And you can’t really expect Kyler Traskfield to put the ball up 35-45 times a game. That seems like the makings of a disaster.
Additionally, Joe doesn’t believe new offensive coordinator Dave Canales is going to dial up many long passes. So whatever targets Evans is going to get, he likely will have to make the most of them to keep his streak alive.
Will @MikeEvans13_ extend his NFL record to 10 straight seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards in 2023? pic.twitter.com/5Em3QqtPRf
— NFL (@NFL) June 23, 2023
June 27th, 2023 at 8:04 am
It amazes me that Evans also managed to catch 1,000 yards in spite of Jay-Miss throwing the team out of games.
June 27th, 2023 at 8:21 am
If Marcus arroyo could call plays to get m1k3 the ball surely canales can get creative
June 27th, 2023 at 8:24 am
I am sure the new OC knows all about Evans. And out of 17 games surely they will play teams with secondary that is as bad as ours usually is that can be burnt all game long. So if the Bucs have a QB up to the challenge and an offensive line to give him time then he will get his 1000 yards.
June 27th, 2023 at 8:39 am
59 yards a game shouldn’t be that difficult.
Frankly, 1,000 yards for RB’s and WR’s these days only gets attention because it’s a nice round number.
June 27th, 2023 at 8:39 am
As long as Trask is not named starter I think Mike’s got this!
June 27th, 2023 at 8:49 am
Well, 60 ypg from ME is not something that Canals should be ignoring.
The question is, can you really expect a QB who has a career INT and Sack rate HIGHER, a YPG MUCH Lower, a much more talented and coached team, than our former Turnover Machine QB himself. To really do anything other than what has already been done but to a much lesser extent.
Baker is here in case Kyle sucks. If he does not start day one its a shame. We should have never let JW go in that case because BM has all the hallmarks of a lesser talented JW. Minus the 4500 plus yards a year potential.
Check the Sheet. BAKER averages MORE INTERCEPTION per year the JW. I wanted JW gone just as much as I DONT WANT BAKER to start over Kyle.
Mike wont be on the field for very long with Baker after Baker gets him hurt with some of his STUPID pass attempts.
Im willing to give the coaches a pass on last year BUT if the start Baker over Kyle. I wont watch us loose games. I will turn it off before I watch the entire game.
June 27th, 2023 at 8:51 am
“Additionally, Joe doesn’t believe new offensive coordinator Dave Canales is going to dial up many long passes.”
Based off what? Honestly I’ve heard and read nothing that says Canales is against passing the ball downfield, and if a given concept calls for a deep route it’s not totally up to him to get the ball out of his hands or are we forgetting part of the QBs job is to make real-time decisions facilitating the offense? Mayfield talked about the freedom of being able to audible/adjust at the line, so if a matchup is favorable, do you think Canales will be in the headset saying “don’t pass it deep”?
June 27th, 2023 at 9:02 am
I’m sorry, I will leave Baker alone. I am more picking on all you people who just ignore the fact that STATISTICLY, Baker is worse than JW.
Granted, Baker to a very well coached and talented team to the playoffs got bounced after beating an old and tired Steelers team with a HOF QB on his last leg for real.
But its just stupid to me that ANYONE would get excited about Baker after having experienced JW. At least JW was just a goof ball (being nice) team/family guy. Baker is in a class of his own as far as EGO freaks go.
If he starts, he has ZERO room for error. Which means its a bad situation for him and the coaches should know better.
End of Baker Truth story. Yall feel free to be excited about JW 2.0 all you want.
June 27th, 2023 at 9:20 am
Dooley
Based off what? Honestly I’ve heard and read nothing that says Canales is against passing the ball downfield,
*********************************************************
This is a point I’ve been trying to make lately.
We’ve all been hearing his press conferences and he has been feeding us a lot of what I call ‘word salad’ which gives us all the ability to ‘interpret’ what he says as what you want to believe.
It could be said that he is giving us clues as to what he plans to do with the talent on hand.
It could also be said that he is BS’ing in an attempt to keep us all interested.
Keep in mind that there hasn’t been any ‘real’ practicing yet (underwear football) and it’s kinda hard to develop plans till you know what you’re working with. Yes you know who your talent is, and their general tendencies, but how they will work within a new system is somewhat unknown.
In other words, I’m not sure that Canales knows how it will all pan out.
Actually, I hope he isn’t locked in yet. Even better, I hope he has the mindset that it will be fluid throughout the season.
June 27th, 2023 at 9:59 am
I think he still makes it, but I think he will actually need the 17 games to get there. So hopefully no injuries or suspensions for clubbing Lattimore, though if I knew he would miss a game for clubbing Lattimore and still get the 1000 yards, I would be okay with that.
June 27th, 2023 at 10:02 am
@gp
I think the messaging in regards to what the offense will be has been vague on purpose. Which I cannot be mad at, but it’s also been explained as being a lot of different things by different people. So coupled with what we know in terms of the desire to be balanced and more efficient we’re really just getting the skeleton of the offense without knowing how it’ll be fleshed out which takes time.
Way too early to say “it’ll be this” or “it wont be this” but Canales has alluded(this one’s for Crickett) his influences in Seattle and how what he knows of the talent he has in Tampa will play just as big a role in the make-up of his offense. Pretty sure we’ll be installing up until the final few weeks of training camp and fully expect our joint practices with the Jets to be the first test of Canales playbook design and how it meshes with all the talent at his disposal.
June 27th, 2023 at 10:36 am
Like it or not ….quote J Miss will forever be tied to Big Mike!….get used to it!
June 27th, 2023 at 10:48 am
“No, Joe doesn’t expect the Bucs to make a Super Bowl run. It would be loads of fun, but nah, can’t go there in June”
Nah, that would require the Joes to have that four-letter word they do not like in describing our team’s chances at a winning season. “HOPE” {clutches pearls in my sac}
Mike Evans will get his 1000 yards as long as he “hope-fully” stays healthy. We have been blessed to have had Mike Evans on our team. Gotta give it up for Mike GO #13!!!!!
June 27th, 2023 at 10:58 am
It sure does look like Mike#13 Evans has the wheels to get deep in these three plays in the video. He sure did beat his defenders.
Where are all the Mike can not go deep JBF’rs?
June 27th, 2023 at 11:08 am
Death. Taxes. Mike Evans getting 1k receiving yards.
June 27th, 2023 at 11:11 am
I fear that you are absolutely correct Joe.
We will see his targets on the longer routes diminish this season I’m afraid. If he can improve his YAC he may have a chance but he has never been all that good after the catch.
I hope they are not going to use him for the over the middle get your receiver killed kind of stuff we saw them do with Godwin last year though. Godwin is a tough dude and has my full respect but Geez.
Go Bucs!
June 27th, 2023 at 11:13 am
You HAVE to pass the ball downfield enough to keep them from bringing up the safeties
June 27th, 2023 at 11:20 am
1K this year ties Evans with Moss as the only two WR to record 10×1000 yard seasons … not consecutive, total. That’s how crazy his records are getting.
I’d love to see Mike record 3x 1K seasons to own all 1k records and an unbreakable consecutive record.
June 27th, 2023 at 11:42 am
“1K this year ties Evans with Moss as the only two WR to record 10×1000 yard seasons … not consecutive, total.”
Wrong – Jerry Rice has 14 seasons.
June 27th, 2023 at 11:50 am
Evans won’t get 1,000 this year with check down charlie as his QB.
Mayfield doesn’t throw for enough yards. After he throws 150 balls to the backs there isn’t going to be much left over. In Cleveland, he couldn’t get the ball to an often wide open OBJ – especially that week 9 loss to Denver that dropped them to 2-6 and washed their season. Everyone was PO’d.
But this is the guy Bowles wants. We’re all on this train. Mentally prepare yourself for the inevitable consequences.
June 27th, 2023 at 12:23 pm
It will be interesting to see how this new offense utilizes Mike Evans… There won’t be as many deep throws with Mayfield at QB. He will probably be working the deep inside routes more often and will see some play action passes come his way…
I expect around 6-8 targets per game and probably a similar target count for Godwin.
June 27th, 2023 at 12:39 pm
Canales won’t be calling deep plays much, at least not in the first 6 games, so Evans will have to rack up yards after that point…with Trask at QB after Mayfield is yanked.
• OC will be conservative to start the season because the OL will need to gel with the run before the pass.
• This may change when we’re behind…unfortunately. Being conservative for the OL at first is the smart move.
• Baker Mayfield will have to play being a rough OL…and he is known to turn the ball over. I give him until game 6, and then Bowles will be under pressure to put in Trask.
• Trask will probably start off rough as well, but maybe not. Smart move is to keep him in. Get him experience. He’ll either get better or become a valuable backup next year.
June 27th, 2023 at 12:39 pm
Like I’ve stated before about Mayfield, I’ll take the bad with the good, but the latter you have to go digging for and I’m not in this line of thinking that he cannot pass deep as my concern is how his crappy footwork effects his ability to do it consistently.
Example: Mayfield lead the league in 2020 completing 51.9%(23 of 47 for 714 yards = 31 yards per completion) of his downfield passes that traveled > 20 yards through the air and I wouldn’t put it past Canales being aware of that. Can’t just assume we won’t pass the ball downfield because we’ve heard it expressed the new offense will be different than BAs system.
June 27th, 2023 at 1:29 pm
Thinking Mike has a monster year cement his name as a HOF. I would love to see it.
June 27th, 2023 at 2:06 pm
If the morons running the team have an IQ over 4, they’ll realize that if you run a lot, that opens up the downfield pass, unless you’re super predictable.
Also it’s 2023, and the reason why you need a good QB, is because you win by throwing the football, not running up the middle like it’s 1971.
Man, everything I hear about this new OC makes it sound like a disaster. There’s a reason he got demoted prior to last season, and why he was just sitting on the Seattle coaching depth chart for over a decade, and why he was Bowles 11th pick at OC.
I hope he proves me wrong, but everything I’ve seen and heard from him, he sounds clueless, like someone who just repeats nonsense he heard another coach say without understanding it.
However, with all of that said, he’s still better than Leftwich.
June 27th, 2023 at 2:27 pm
I do not remember Mike the TD machine producing all those scores with his “blazing speed”. Mike is a power forward who got most of his scores by simply outcompeting the defender(s).
That won’t change. In fact Canalas may utilize it even better. Perhaps he’ll use a “possession” receiver the way it should be done. Yeah in the red zone Mike is a TD threat and weapon that can’t be ignored. From their own 20 however Mike could become a first down unstoppable possession machine!
Do we care how he gets his 1000? In a 17 game season he only needs to average 60 yards per game. If he has just 3 hundred yard games he only needs 50 yards per game for the other 14. That’s just one 20 yard catch combined with 6 5 yard catches. Evans might actually benefit from not having a bombs away offense since a run based move the ball offense HAS to have some possession receivers!!! The Bucs have Evans and Godwin…potential in Otton and White out of the backfield.
IF Jensen is health the Bucs OL should actually be good and even have a little depth. Even the Joe who is paranoid about the switch can’t imagine that Wirfs won’t be a top left tackle…at least top 5 which does the trick. Feiler next to him and Jensen…and if Cody Mauch is the real deal on the other side…whewee.
As Jensen said he and Mauch are going to eff some people up!!!
June 27th, 2023 at 2:50 pm
Honestly, we can’t know what to think about this offence till we see it. It is fun to spectate, tho . To be honest once more…we can’t know what to expect from this new, smaller, quicker defense either.
We must go down to the lab
To see what’s on the slab
I shiver with anticipation
June 27th, 2023 at 6:35 pm
Mike Evans is going to thrive in this scheme because he is going to be open by sheer mismatches and play design.
June 27th, 2023 at 10:18 pm
Dooley in 2022 Baker threw for a grand total of 29 passes greater than 20 yards averaging less than 2.5 per game. In 2020 Baker threw 43 passes > 20 yards. For contrast Brady threw 50 last year and everyone complained about check downs. In 2021, Brady threw 75 times 20+ yards.
Consider this… Baker has a high comp % on downfield throws for his career so the numbers say he’s cautious about pushing the ball downfield – he does it less often and completes at decent rate. But also he leads all QBs in INTs since 2018 and his sack rate is near worst in the league. Make sense of that.
PFF called him “Captain Checkdown” because he led the league with a 11.9% rate. On 3rd down his checkdopwn rate increased to 12.6%
Tom Brady had a 7.7% checkdown rate and people were upset at that. Well lol wait until Captain Checkdown gets the ball. These fans haven’t seen anything yet.
June 28th, 2023 at 7:31 am
It may be in jeopardy and it won’t be his fault this Todd Bowles lead ship wreck and the c+ quarterback he may not make it