Evans Most Important?
July 6th, 2017
Key.
So who is the most important player on the Bucs roster?
Well, due to a combination of his cult of personality and his talent, America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, is a no-brainer of a selection. If he goes down, the Bucs are toast, that’s all there is to it.
But we’re not talking Jameis right now. Instead, a panel of NFL writers at SI.com decided to post a top-10 list of the most important non-quarterback players for every team.
SI.com believes Mike Evans is the most important Bucs player not named “Jameis.”
Joe can’t argue. With apologies to stud defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, Evans has put up numbers better than Calvin Johnson did his first three years in the league.
And that was without any help during his third season, and with schlock like Wrongo Starr throwing him the ball when Evans was a rookie.
July 6th, 2017 at 10:15 am
When I first read the title…I was think no way but when you said non-QB. I think he is probably number 1. I think DJax is probably 1b at this point. Together they will make a huge difference where having only one of them puts us back to last year until we can convincingly depend on the rookies from the draft.
July 6th, 2017 at 10:29 am
Has more receiving yards than Jerry Rice in his first three years.
July 6th, 2017 at 10:31 am
WHat he said ^^^^
July 6th, 2017 at 10:41 am
Interesting when you think about it. He and Manziel had a college connection that made them both look great. I remember there was a question from some personality asking if one of the two made the other guy look even better than they actually were. Appears that Licht and company had it right when they determined that Evans was the first guy.
July 6th, 2017 at 10:47 am
no doubt about this.. Best intermediate route runner in the league. Maybe the best one in a few generations.
July 6th, 2017 at 11:05 am
Remember after his first season when we were worried about Evans’ hamstring issue and if he would be plagued? – I’m curious what they did to improve that.
July 6th, 2017 at 11:07 am
Mike Evans is the answer but if Brent Grimes or Donavan Smith are out for an extended period of time the Bucs are in trouble
July 6th, 2017 at 11:30 am
In the non-QB category, I share Wausa’s concern. Re-phrase the question: Losing which player would have the most devastating effect on our season record? No question that losing Mike Evans would hurt, and hurt badly, but I tend to think that we now have enough other playmakers on offense to compensate (wasn’t the case last year obviously).
Despite all the bashing that he takes in the media, losing Donovan Smith could very well hurt our season record more than losing anyone else besides Jameis. Bucs right now don’t have an experienced LT backup, and that would hurt if Donovan went down. On defense, I’d say the same about GMC (settle down for a moment tmaxcon). Not that GMC ‘takes over games’ but rather that he’s a highly-experienced force in the middle that our opponents have to respect on over 80% of the defensive plays. I feel the same way about Brent Grimes though … losing him changes our defensive capabilities considerably.
July 6th, 2017 at 12:06 pm
You’re missing Known Alexander. He´s probably our best MLB since Hardy Nickerson and it would be a very big blow to the playoff hopes if he would be sidelined for any reason
July 6th, 2017 at 12:18 pm
Ya no McCoy is pretty good but he ain’t even close to as important as big bad Evans.
July 6th, 2017 at 12:49 pm
I Loved F troop! good times …. Evens will be the player the Patriots try to stop… sounds pretty important to me..
July 6th, 2017 at 12:53 pm
Well, we saw what happened when Kwon got suspended.
July 6th, 2017 at 1:01 pm
Jameis most important. No question. Most Qbs are. Mike Evans is best player
July 6th, 2017 at 1:08 pm
I will agree with that. Evans is a special dude
July 6th, 2017 at 1:48 pm
Godzilla.
July 6th, 2017 at 3:21 pm
No Mike Evans is not most important. The most important things in football are blocking and tackling. . If you don’t have those two thing you will be a losing team. I don’t care how many skill players you got.
July 6th, 2017 at 3:26 pm
Seems like Jimmy doesn’t know Jack. Blocking and tackling is very important but we’ve had some great O-linemen and D-linemen. We didn’t win a Superbowl until we got a competent headcoach and QB to run his offense.
July 6th, 2017 at 3:40 pm
Nope Playmakers win games. Remberber when Ruud made all those tackles on the way to the playoffs? Exactly
July 6th, 2017 at 3:50 pm
Mike Evans is the best player on our team right now (until Jameis surpasses him), however when it comes to most important player, I’m gonna have to roll with Kwon. We all saw how that defense lost its fire when he was suspended.
July 6th, 2017 at 4:16 pm
Buc50 You can say whatever you want but the main difference in our SuperBowl run from the prior season was the blocking up front on the Oline. And that’s a fact, Jack.
July 6th, 2017 at 5:49 pm
JimmyJack…thanks for your vast football knowledge.
Btw…it was only ONE player not just a unit of the team…
July 6th, 2017 at 7:32 pm
I watched that team and there were many big plays that powered us to that Superbowl. No doubt that blocking and tackling played a big part but if you don’t have playmakers, you don’t have squat. Like Maze said, Ruud made a ton of tackles but the guy never made a big play that mattered.
July 6th, 2017 at 9:38 pm
If anyone here thinks ME is better CJ because of stats they smoking dope. No way. ME is a freak of his own but not genetically better. Imo having the genes is better than hard work in a athletic standpoint. Right now the most important player on any given team outside QB is the center, then Mlb, corners, saftey, then comes wrs.
Outside this rant or disagreement we could be 8 and 8 without ME. This is no knock on ME tho. This just comes to mind as Winston is soooooo important to the Bucs that if we lose him for any reason. We are in trouble all together and ME wouldn’t save us. This my logic
July 6th, 2017 at 9:41 pm
And that’s y these rankings and top whatever lists just for entertainment and popularity context to pump readers only. Not reality. Proves when Kwon got suspended we went winless. He is most important to me.