Sustainable Pace For Mike Evans?
October 26th, 2018
Mike Evans is on pace for 106 receptions and 1,576 yards. Both would be career highs, but there’s another Evans number this season that’s much more impressive.
Consider that the Buccaneers No. 1 receiver is catching 72.7 percent of the balls thrown in his direction.
His previous career high? That would be 55.7 percent back in 2014, with a pair of shoddy quarterbacks throwing him the ball. Evans nearly matched that (55.5 percent) in 2016, but dropped back to 52.2 percent last year.
It’s been an amazing leap this season for Evans, who hasn’t let off the gas after the Bucs rewarded him with a gargantuan contract in March.
Joe pulled data from the great Pro Football Reference site and below are the top 10 pass catchers this season in yards per game. Evans is ranked fourth with 98.5 yards per game. Alongside that total is the percentage of balls caught from passes targeted to those players.
Adam Thielen – 117.4 yards per game, 75.3% of targets caught
Julio Jones – 116, 65.4
DeAndre Hopkins – 101, 66.2 (before last night)
Mike Evans – 98.5, 72.7
Michael Thomas – 98, 91.4
JuJu Smith-Schuster – 93.5, 66.7
Davante Adams – 92.8, 66.2
Odell Beckham – 92.7, 66.3
Tyreek Hill – 90.7, 67.2
Zack Ertz – 88.3, 73.1
Wondering about other big yardage producers this year? Robert Woods’ (Rams) percentage is below Evans’, while Emmanuel Sanders’ (Broncos) is better.
Regardless, Evans is in elite company and has taken his game up a full notch with that 72.7 percent catch rate. After the 2016 season, Bucs icon Derrick Brooks talked about how a 50 percent catch rate was “not good at all.”
Can Evans sustain this pace? If so, he’s in for an absolute monster year.
October 26th, 2018 at 12:06 am
Skewed numbers from fitz
October 26th, 2018 at 12:24 am
DJax has a career 56% catch rate. That’s pretty close to 50% Mr Brooks.
October 26th, 2018 at 12:30 am
No way he keeps it up but it is impressive. He should still finish with career highs this year in yards and reception% if he stays healthy.
I love me some Jameis Winston but I fear for our WR sometimes with his high throws. It’s almost as if he has “if you’re going to miss, miss long” in his head, like he is afraid of making more turnovers.
Getaclue, follow your own name’s advice or elaborate. Are you talking out your turd Koetter or is that based on numbers?
October 26th, 2018 at 1:14 am
Mike Evans is the best offensive player this team has ever had. He is personally my favourite Buccaneer right now and is on pace to my favourite player we have ever had. Amazing possesion reciever. Personally watched him haul in that wicked TD grab at RJS vs Sherman a few years back – what a great experience that was flying from British Columbia to watch that game. He’s faster this year too. Certain guys bring him up as one of the top 5 in the leauge. I think Julio and Brown have the edge on him – because they are faster, but look out – Mike picked up some speed recently. When he’s not “KY Hands” which he hasn’t been lately, he’s right at the top for one of the ‘most reliable’ recievers in this league.
October 26th, 2018 at 1:20 am
So I just checked out of curiosity and Evans has a chance to break an NFL record this year. Evans currently has 5,170 career receiving yards, if he can get 830 in the next 10 games he’ll break the record for the youngest player in NFL history to reach 6,000 career receiving yards currently held by one Mr. Randy Moss. Now if he were to hit that exact number he’d be 1 yard short of setting the Buccaneers single season receiving yards record currently held by Mark Carrier. 83 yards per game is a tall task, can he do it? We’ll have to wait and see.
October 26th, 2018 at 1:24 am
You said that to say like the quarterback he has now isn’t “SHODDY”???
October 26th, 2018 at 3:32 am
Great article Joe. That ‘leap’ by ME13 is incredible (and may very well be sustainable given the rules changes). GetaClue’s comment about the numbers being ‘skewed by Fitz’ got me curious though … not really the case (with a caveat).
Fitz targeted Evans 34 times in the 3.5 games he was QB, and Mike caught 24 of those (70% completion rate) for 372 yds & 3 TDs. Jameis targeted Mike 21 times in the 2.5 games he’s been QB, and Mike caught 16 of those (76% completion rate) for 219 yds but 0 TDs. So ME13 averaged 15.5 YPC with Fitz and 13.7 YPC with Jameis. Not a huge difference in YPC, BUT … Fitz tended to throw deep to Mike much more than Jameis has (thus the somewhat lower completion rate).
Bottom line IMO is that Mike Evans is on-track to have a monster year regardless of who’s throwing him the rock.
October 26th, 2018 at 4:48 am
Thanks for doing the work DR
October 26th, 2018 at 5:54 am
Evans is an absolutely beast and his talents are being wasted here by your America joe.., imagine the numbers he’s would put up with Brady or Rodgers or brees
October 26th, 2018 at 6:00 am
Onebucperson
Cool post
And have to agree that Favorite player on offense hands down.
OJ probably a nice second . Love Djax too but he has become a ghost /wasted talent
October 26th, 2018 at 8:21 am
The only thing lacking is his YAC
October 26th, 2018 at 9:21 am
Matt from BC Says: “Mike Evans is the my favourite Buccaneer right now”
With ya all the way, brother!
October 26th, 2018 at 9:43 am
It will be a matter of time that the greatest wide receiver in Bucs history will demand a trade because we have a qb who can not get This team to the playoffs … I’m pretty ME13 wants a ring … wants to be in the playoffs every year playing for a ring … and there are several players on this team that the careers are being wasted ever year because we have players who are being paid serious cash that does not equal the talents they put on the field if it’s be always injured or just simply do not care … all it takes isn’t one player to cause a team to lose a game … this has been happening for several years now … bucs want playoffs? Trade away the bad apples and get some real players with heart on this team before it’s too late … send McCoy out with his 16 mill per season … if he’s so great I’m sure we could get good returns for him … time and time again these guys leave games like Atlanta when we are down 7 in the 4th quarter (McCoy) because they think if we lose then it will be because he wasn’t in the game …. sorry guys but not falling for that crap
October 26th, 2018 at 1:42 pm
I certainly concede that ME is a great WR and our best offensive player at the moment. I’m a big Mike fan…I like his personality as well.
But for some reason…who knows what makes fans root for which players…Godwin is my “favorite” right now. That’s not saying he’s as good as ME…simply that I really really like his attitude and game.
When they change the unis to something that doesn’t blow big chunks my next Buc’s jersey will be #12.