Mike Evans leading the Bucs offense in his 10th season
Mike Evans #13 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is seen after a touchdown pass during the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on November 26, 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
TAMPA, Fla. - Every team's priority when facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is to contain Mike Evans, but few are able to do it.
Evans has already achieved what no other player has, reaching 1,000 yards in each of his first nine seasons. He's on the verge of making it 10 straight and his nine touchdowns this season are more than half of the entire teams.
"I’ve just been playing for a long time," Evans said. "My skillset and my size definitely help me in the red area a lot. I wish I would have had more touchdowns in my career, but it didn’t go that way. Hopefully, I can just keep getting opportunities in the red zone and use my size and my awareness."
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Against the Colts, Evans caught two touchdowns. His first looked like Indianapolis had forgotten about him.
"When you show the film, there is not anybody in the picture when he has the ball in his hands," Baker Mayfield said. "He understands how to beat coverages [and] how to win off coverages. He has done it consistently. It’s obviously pretty easy to throw to, and he makes my job easy."
"Me and Payne [Durham] talked about it on the sideline like both of the guys jump Payne, no exception to Payne, but Mike Evans is over there too," Cade Otton laughed. "He's going to find a way to get open, so if I was on defense I'd put more than one guy on him."
Evans has had a lot of success against the Panthers. He had more yards and touchdowns against the Panthers during his career than any other team, except Atlanta. The last time he faced Carolina, Evans had 207 yards and three touchdowns, helping the Bucs clinch their second straight NFC South Division title.
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"I think this guy is a first-ballot Hall of Famer," Dave Canales said. "His career speaks for itself. The way that he’s able to find access and get open in any scenario, this is a guy who kind of puts it all together, and he’s 6’5" with that length, and we’ve seen in games, too, where he can flat out run by guys still at this point. He really does have it all."
What makes Evans so good is his size, work ethic and burning desire to win.
"He loves to play whatever it is – he’s a competitor," Canales said. "Whether it’s cards, whether it’s darts, pool, shooting around basketballs – he’s good. He just kind of finds a way, and he’s good at everything. That carries over to the way he plays. He sees leverage, he sees coverage, he’s seen it all, and he has an adjustment for whatever they do. It’s great to just have a guy like that, that makes pretty normal play calls look fantastic."
The last thing Evans would like to get his hands on is a new contract with the Bucs, but that's one thing that just might be out of his reach.