Mike Evans’ Fight With Father Time
July 13th, 2024
Can he continue to ball out?
Yeah, Joe admits maybe former Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales wasn’t Joe’s cup of tea when it came to gameplans.
Canales ran — and ran between the tackles — way too much for Joe’s liking. Joe understands why he did it, but it was foolish to think he could turn Rachaad White into Marshawn Lynch.
But Joe has must admit to being uncomfortable with all the online shatting on Canales. While he may not have been Bucco Bruce Arians or Todd Monken, he certainly wasn’t Bryon Leftwich.
Besides, too many guys on offense had career years last year. Baker Mayfield had a career year. White exploded as a lethal weapon in the passing game. Cade Otton turned the corner and had a solid last month of the season.
Then there was Mike Evans. The future Hall of Fame receiver had one of his best seasons. And this gives Joe hope for this fall.
If Evans just comes close to having the year he had last season, and with Chris Godwin moving back to slot, there is no reason to believe the Bucs cannot be explosive once again.
Mike Evans just had one of the best seasons of his career last year.
Some #ReceptionPerception notes:
– 73.1% success rate vs. man coverage (career-best)
– 77% success rate vs. zone coverage (second-best of his career)
– 75.4% success rate vs. press (second-best of his… pic.twitter.com/IJmEk8EueX— Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) March 4, 2024
July 13th, 2024 at 11:13 am
He will make his plays.
July 13th, 2024 at 11:30 am
Fighting with Father Time is a losing battle for all of us…..just sit back, enjoy the ride and don’t fight it.
July 13th, 2024 at 11:49 am
Training camp can’t get here soon enough!
July 13th, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Yeah OK LOL……..30 years old and fighting father time well cry me a freaking river…
July 13th, 2024 at 12:37 pm
I think Jalen McMillan is going to have a great year and this will open Evan’s up evan more.
On a side not. Anyone have an alternative to profootballtalk.com.
I am so over Florio.
July 13th, 2024 at 12:47 pm
He continues to battle Father Concentration as well.
July 13th, 2024 at 1:15 pm
The answer is yes he can still ball out.
It should be fun to watch again.
July 13th, 2024 at 1:15 pm
Mike Evans has taken good care of his body. His ability to beat defenders downfield is actually better than it was 2 or 3 years ago. Expect another strong season from him. This conversation about “Father Time” is a few years premature.
Mike has never been one to expose himself in the middle of the field and take the kind of hits that Chris Godwin has. Mike gets down on the ground pretty quickly on short routes and avoids those big hits to his legs. He’s a smart receiver and very sneaky fast on the sidelines. His size gives him a big advantage downfield.
Some of his drops are hard to understand as he can make highlight film catches and drop easy ones. Thats about the only negative part of his game. Over the years he has had defenders beat and has dropped some wide open shots for easy touchdowns. It happens with Mike, but the rest of his game overshadows those moments of lack of focus.
July 13th, 2024 at 1:17 pm
Dang, we have a great team!
July 13th, 2024 at 1:21 pm
I believe our run game was last in the nfl
July 13th, 2024 at 1:54 pm
Mike Evans would be great in any offense, but I do agree, Canalas turned a mediocre QB into a probowl QB. I give him Kudos for that.
@Guinness, I think Jalen McMillan is going to kill it as a slot reciever, just not this year. He has no chance unless Godwin gets injured. As for playing on the outside, Jalen just does’t have the speed or height to do any damage as an outside receiver. The guy who I am excited to see step up in his second years is Trey Palmer. With 4.33 speed, he should really open up the rest of the guys as it’s going to take a CB and deep Safty to cover him on those deep routes.
July 13th, 2024 at 2:08 pm
Here’s a clip of Colt McCoy dissecting some of the looks Canales gave our offense and how well our guys executed it. Baker flashed some good things and I usually find it cool when former pro QBs breakdown tape because it’s the closest you come as a fan to being in a team meeting room.
July 13th, 2024 at 2:16 pm
I hope to see Palmer and Godwin in lots of crossing routes. Palmer’s last touchdown with the quick catch and run was sick.
July 13th, 2024 at 2:21 pm
Those are valid points you make about Canales, Joe. But, I respectfully disagree though, about him being the difference as opposed to the players. His insistence on running up the middle with no success, over and over, has been documented here. Along with running off right tackle more often than off left tackle when off left tackle was clearly more successful. Misuse of Godwin playing wideout more often than from the slot. Yet, Godwin hitting the 1,000 yd mark to me is more of a testament to Godwin more than Canales. You’ve made a great point here several times about Trey Palmer and his ability for quick separation being overlooked. I’ve said before that I never really bought into Canales. I’m not saying he was terrible because, he wasn’t. I just don’t think he was all that impressive either. Just meh. Something about his personality didn’t sit well with me. I believe Coen will be a much better fit but, we won’t really know until we get going. And, on Mike Evans, I’m so glad we were able to keep him here where he belongs. Yes, Father Time catches up to us all eventually but, Mike hasn’t shown that he’s been affected yet. He was as good as ever last year. Let’s hope for another 2 to 3 years of Mike being on top of his game! Thanks for what you do Joe, especially during this slow time of the off season. You guys rock!
July 13th, 2024 at 4:20 pm
I don’t see how Mike Evans will have another career year if Godwin moves back into the slot. Evans clearly doesn’t have elite speed or sure hands at this stage. However he is the master of getting himself in position to make a play, or draw a penalty when he is constantly mugged by smaller defenders. It was no coincidence that Godwin moving last year opened up the opportunity for Evans to shine. It seems like it is one or the other for those two. Next years WR production will most likely be more balanced like every single other year and Evans 2023 “inflated” production was just a product of Canales and how the games played out. Evans should get 1050-1150 yards and 6-7 TDs and Godwin will get 1100 yards and 5-6 Tuddies.
July 13th, 2024 at 4:22 pm
“Canales helped players.”
Its just as likely in many cases of successful plays that ‘Players helped Canales’.
Smilin’ Dave was for sure better than Leftwich – but as a 1st time play caller he struggled for awhile after the 1st few games – once opposing coaches got some tape on what his looks were and how to defend them.
The Bucs offense did generally improve towards the end of the season which is positive obviously.
Canales didn’t suck – but its a pretty big stretch to say that he was a “good” NFL OC last year.
Points is the ultimate indicator and the Bucs 20.5 ppg average was not nearly good enough.
July 13th, 2024 at 4:28 pm
The offense will be more productive than last season if Mike gets his 1100 yards and all the other weapons increase their production(Godwin, Palmer, Otton, McMillian, the RBs,and another TE) cause if we’re being totally honest Baker locked in on Evans way too much last season,while missing hookups with a open Trey Palmer pretty much the whole season 🚩☠️💯
July 13th, 2024 at 5:23 pm
Yeah Canales really helped Godwin, after Godwin’s wife torched him on social media. Overall Canales was horrible as an OC. I have no respect for the guy as he is more of a cheerleader type. Let’s see how he does as a HC.
July 13th, 2024 at 7:09 pm
Evans has done a great job on taking care of his body outside the game and during the game. You rarely see him try to push after a catch and try to run through or take on multiple players. Used to be frustrating watching him do it, but I really think it’s kept him healthy. Just the hammy problems in the heat are his really only consistent issue, but he’s always available. I wonder if he’s still doing TB12 and that’s helped him the last few years.
July 13th, 2024 at 7:47 pm
LFG
July 13th, 2024 at 9:58 pm
Bashing Canales is wild. No respect for the guy!? If that is because of his away from the team, addiction, wife, book stuff, well so be it and I won’t argue with your opinion. As part of the team, he helped the team. He was a major upgrade over Byron. Guys prop up Bowles around here cause he is a player guy… so was Dave. Yes we all hated his conservative run up the gut calls and that won’t be missed, but his positive and honest personality had to be motivating/uplifting for players. The career years weren’t happening with a mopey Byron or some old hard ass.
He was a good culture fit from a personality standpoint. I, like all of you, hope Coen upgrades the X’s and O’s.
July 13th, 2024 at 10:09 pm
I’m excited about this Bucs team. I’m looking forward to all the roster improvements and the results. Go bucs
July 14th, 2024 at 11:02 am
IMHO Mike Evans is going to top last year’s production 1,300 yrds 15 touchdowns Just wait the greatest receiver in Bucs history is going to shine and Baker will be better as well he’s going to be the catalyst and orchestrate greatness 13-4 season
July 14th, 2024 at 2:15 pm
So many factors to consider from 2023 that it is hard to say who helped who, players vs Canales. It is the proverbial chicken or the egg. A 10 yr old pop warner kid could have replaced Lefty and it would have been an improvement. Also, I’m sure all could finally exhale after climbing out from under Brady’s shadow and cyclone of drama
July 15th, 2024 at 2:46 am
It has not been the passing game per se that folks were not impressed with Joe.
It was play calling, no consistent run blocking where he ran the ball, not getting the ball to White effectively till late in the year and banishing CG from the offense for a good portion of the season. Just my opinion.
You are dead on with the Leftnut comp but that ain’t saying much really. My little sister could call a better game.
Canales should not get a lot of blame at all. NFC South champs. But he is getting too much of the credit. Baker did a tremendous job under some crazy circumstances. Piss poor blocking from 3 out of 5 of his O line and nada from the TE “Otton”. New offense (yet again). A running back who all but refused to just hit the LOS with some authority (until late in the year). Can you say play calling? Now we find out that Baker could not check out of bad plays?
Go Bucs!