The stats are well-known. Eight years in the league and Mike Evans has posted eight straight 1000-yard seasons. He averages just under 10 touchdowns per year, so he is just about as certain to get to 1000/10 as anyone in the league, if not based on track record alone.
Plus, he has done this with a whole array of quarterbacks. First, that feared Josh McCown/Mike Glennon duo his rookie year, James Winston during his entire ups-and-downs with the organization, and two with His Holiness — Tom Brady.
It can be argued that his best season was his third year. He finished No. 1 at the position, and the second closest pass catcher on the team — a tight end — didn’t even eclipse half of his yardage total, showing how much he was leaned upon with few other receiving weapons at the quarterback’s disposal.
It can also be argued his greatest stretch of games was just last year, from Week 17 to the divisional game, where he posted an absurd 372 yards and 5 touchdowns over that span. He posted this while dealing with a strained hamstring, and with some of the best cornerbacks in the game covering him.
The reason he had such an amazing stretch was that he was necessary. Tampa Bay had no one else to carry the receiving corps. Chris Godwin was out with a torn ACL, Antonio Brown lost his mind after halftime in East Rutherford, NJ, and their once deep wide receiver core was now down to the likes of Cyril Grayson and Tyler Johnson. They had to pass to him as, outside of Gronk, there was little talent left.
Cut now to the 2022 season. Godwin is currently rehabbing his ACL tear, Brown is busy not paying his chefs, and Gronk, for a variety of theories, has not yet committed to the upcoming season.
This is a team that is looking to win the Super Bowl. They’re not trotting out an unproven rookie. Saint Tom will be his 45th year, and albeit the rumors this offseason, his immediate goal is to play for the Bucs and collect his eighth ring. Things are shaping up for Mike Evans to be absolutely necessary for the Buccaneers in 2022, which means this might be the most he’s been leaned up since, well, his third year in the league.
