Teammates React To Mike Evans Extending Streak
January 5th, 2025
Reaction
For a moment Joe thought he was watching a baseball game.
Mike Evans had just reached 1,000 yards for the regular season on the very last play from scrimmage today, catching a nine-yard pass from Baker Mayfield.
Evans spiked the ball, came to the sidelines and was mobbed by teammates.
They surrounded him, suffocated him, jumped on top of him and tried to tackle him. It reminded Joe of a key home run to win a baseball playoff game when the hero crosses the plate.
Bucs linebacker K.J. Britt was in that mosh pit. Britt told Joe after the game that was a demonstration of how much Evans’ teammates respect him, like him and were focused on trying to help push him past the finish line.
The streak is now 11 seasons, tying the great Jerry Rice with the most consecutive years of 1,000 receiving yards.
“That’s historic, you know?” Britt told Joe. “To see Mike tie up Jerry Rice’s record, how many times will you see that in your lifetime? To witness that and be a part of that, it showed how much it meant to the team and how much it meant to Mike.
“This team is unbelievable. A bunch of selfless guys that just want to play football and win. At the end of the day, that’s how this team is going to make it far: Guys that want to play football and see [teammates] win.”
There were other signs that today just wasn’t about the Bucs, but also the team’s greatest offensive player.
Maybe 15 feet away from Britt was Vita Vea’s locker. Sunday was a hat-and-T-shirt game. Win the game, win the division, make the playoffs and get a cap and T-shirt! But Vea’s NFC South Champions cap was in his locker.
Was it too ugly for him? No.
Instead of wearing a brand new 2024 NFC South Champions cap, Vea was wearing a pewter and red Mike Evans cap. Saluting a fellow warrior.
Every Bucs player Joe spoke with in the locker room admitted Evans’ streak was very much on their minds all game long. Zyon McCollum said on the final slimy Saints’ drive, he was telling other Bucs defensive backs that they had to get the ball back so Evans would have a chance.
When the defense was on the sidelines, Joe was told there was constant chatter, “How many yards does Mike need?” Cody Mauch also told Joe the offensive players, even when in the huddle, were thinking of getting the ball to Evans.
“Everybody wanted that for him,” defensive lineman Logan Hall said. “There wasn’t a single person on the sidelines that wasn’t thinking about it. Really happy for him, really excited for him. He’s probably the most deserving person out there.”
Mauch noted Evans’ streak was a constant stream of thought throughout the game.
“We were all aware of it. First things first. We had to go down and get the lead and if Mike can get it along the way, that’s great.”
Mauch said on the ensuing slimy Saints possession after Bucky Irving gave the Bucs a 27-16 lead just before the two-minute warning, he knew the defense would get the ball back. Why? They knew Evans and the Bucs offense depended on them.
“Oh, 100 percent,” Mauch said. “It was in the back of our minds for sure.”
Mauch suggested to Joe that the fact Evans, through all his injuries and missed time and the team’s adversity they fought through today, was still able to keep his streak alive showed how much of a stud he is.
Mauch said that for years, when someone asks how good Evans is, he will point to the final play of the game in which Evans pushed past 1,000 yards receiving.
“I think every person in the building knew where that ball was going to go,” Mauch said. “And he made the play anyway. He’s one of the best to ever do it — the best to ever do it.”
January 5th, 2025 at 6:40 pm
I was so happy to see Baker throw to Mike on that last play. As Mauch said, everyone knew where the ball was going. Catch!!!! 1,000 yds! Record tied!
Playoffs, here we come!!
January 5th, 2025 at 6:44 pm
That god that penalty they accepted last game didn’t come back to bite them. It almost did. They could have just taken the knee instead.
January 5th, 2025 at 6:51 pm
Guinness right bro. Geez. 🤦♂️
January 5th, 2025 at 6:54 pm
That last throw also got Baker exactly 4500 yards. 4500 yards/41 TDs. Record day for both Bake and Mike. Amazing day
January 5th, 2025 at 7:01 pm
I mean this has to put him in the first ballot discussion. I just don’t see how he’s not a first ballot HOFer
January 5th, 2025 at 7:16 pm
I think the Saints allowed it, but it doesn’t diminish the accomplishment.
January 5th, 2025 at 7:25 pm
I’m just unbelievably happy for Mike. 🙂
He’s a humble guy and a genuine team player.
Congrats Mike!!!
January 5th, 2025 at 7:36 pm
@Alvin, I was thinking the same thing, but I’ve rewatched the play and think the call was just schemed up well enough to run interference to prevent double coverage and get him a dink and dunk type of pass that has proven effective so much of the season. End of the day, he got the yards, however it happened.
January 5th, 2025 at 7:38 pm
Don’t know how many of you saw Mike’s press conference afterwards, but the fact that he said he had thought about wearing a different shirt to be able to represent New Orleans after this week’s tragedy… that was the first thing he talked about. Class act.
January 5th, 2025 at 7:38 pm
I am just glad the 6 yards taken back from Evans in the Carolina game is now mute. Joe would have reminded us of that for years:)
January 5th, 2025 at 7:41 pm
Kudos HOFamer and classy person ME13!
January 5th, 2025 at 7:47 pm
I agree Alvin. I think they did which showed some classiness. I think Evans would have gotten it on the final plays anyway. They would throw to him all 3 downs if they had to.
January 5th, 2025 at 7:51 pm
I was bored, did some digging and discovered the oldest Joe article I can access on the websphere is titled, ‘No Hands on Deck’. It’s very old in NFL years and it laments the lack of receiving talent on the team.
It’s very trivial, but I enjoy the massive difference between then and now. Chris Godwin is out, and while not a wide receiver, Otton’s absence is a big set of shoes to fill. The plethora vs the anathema of the team, from Joe Buc’s future to Joe Buc’s past.
That article is August 11, 2008. No idea if the pages will keep rolling and adding up or if that article is mere hours from being slipped into internet oblivion, but it was enjoyable to just match where we are with where we were.
Same time next year, will we be adding #12 to #13’s accomplishments? Would be nice if it’s wrapped up before Christmas.
January 5th, 2025 at 7:59 pm
Westcoast, Evans also said in that press conference that the Bucs ran the same play that Bucky had just scored on the end of the drive before. They didn’t have the endline of endzone as protection behind them and perhaps they weren’t thinking about the record….but they could’ve made that final play to Evans very difficult. Much more than they did. The Saints backed off, but maybe not because of the record…they may have really hated he got to that point.
But once there, a bit of an unwritten rule of the players. Let players chase the bag. If that record didn’t have $3 million directly attached, they press on the corners, I’m almost certain.
January 5th, 2025 at 8:11 pm
I was so pumped for Evans that it felt almost like a Super Bowl.
January 5th, 2025 at 8:51 pm
It’s huge that Evans has never needed the 17th game cheat to get the 1000 yards either.
January 5th, 2025 at 9:07 pm
Right? Mike missed 3 3/4 games… still got his 1K.
January 5th, 2025 at 9:59 pm
@Rod – 💯
January 6th, 2025 at 2:42 am
@Muncher – it helps a lot when you have a record setting QB throwing to you as well. Give it up for Baker
January 6th, 2025 at 3:05 am
No one will ever mistake me for a Niners fan, but luckily the record that Mike Evans tied is just 11 straight 1000 receiving yard seasons. It could have been easily 13 seasons if it weren’t for Warren Sapp blowing up a reverse or was it a jet sweep in the week 1 tilt in 1997 against the Niners. Rice was the ballcarrier and from my recollection it Sapp may have gotten Rice down with a facemask and that takedown did blow out Rice’s ACL (it was -10 yard carry and somehow Rice came back in Week 16, just to break his kneecap in that return game).
Sapp also rung Steve Young’s bell in the first quarter and that concussion may have helped him see retirement sooner than later and help usher the Niners into a decline that was probably more due to that organizations lack of adjusting to true free agency era. That 13-6 win over the heavily favorite Niners started 5-0 run and had the league buzzing that the Bucs were finally back from the abyss (14 straight losing seasons 1983-1996) which pre-dates the lost decade that the Joes speak of ad nauseum during their active journalism careers. The fearsome Tampa Two was perfected and had the horses to make it go (somehow I still favor a true 4-3 two deep zone with the right personnel, but don’t know how well it would work these days) and where it was truly the defense that won many of those games despite how pedestrian the offense was.
Rice’s 11 year run was remarkable and he never struggled to get up to 1000 in any of those seasons and posted ungodly TD totals that though Evans is prolific at, is vastly overshadowed by how easily Rice got into the endzone (but that is a different conversation entirely). It took Evans to break 1000 yards on the last games of the 2014, 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2024 seasons. The coaches (Lovie Smith, Dirk Koetter, Bruce Arians and Todd Bowles) all saw some benefit to the organization either to start or continue this streak of 1000 yard seasons. I think we should be grateful in those games Tampa won 4 of those 5.
January 6th, 2025 at 4:18 am
It was a happy ending movie. So happy for Mike.
Rod – Mike was not in a few games. It is something else that he was able to get the yardage. And the coaches could have taken a knee at the end. However, instead they decided to give it to Mike so he could get those last 5 yards. I would bet a lot of players today would love coaches like that. We won and Mike got his record. The best ever.
January 6th, 2025 at 8:42 pm
SoCalBucsFan79 Says:
January 6th, 2025 at 3:05 am
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I was at that game in the north endzone. Hot as hell during that game. And while you are correct about the 1000 yards being made in last games of some seasons, also keep in mind the QB’s Mike had throwing to him for some of those years. Rice had HOF QB’s throwing it to him during the first half of his career. That’s not to take anything away from him, has he’s still the WR GOAT, but Mike is definitely up there. He played less than 14 games (got injured early against the Ravens) and was hobbled for 2 or 3 games before the Ravens game. Had he been healthy all year, he would have easily gone past 1200 yards, probably closer to 1400.
January 7th, 2025 at 2:52 am
Even more telling to me is the fact that teams have known Mike was getting the ball for 10 years and yet still he wins….And goes for 1,000.
Congrats Mike! Keep showing them all the way to ring number two!
Go Bucs!