Fine Tuning Mike Evans
May 28th, 2016
Can Mike Evans turn things around?
Big things happened for Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans last year. Not all were good.
Oh, Evans made fantastic catches while tip-toeing in-bounds. Beautiful footwork. And Evans had big time plays and finished with 1,206 yards. In fact, his key stats were up, except for touchdowns, which plummeted from 12 in his rookie season to but three.
And oh, those drops. What might have been had Evans not developed K-Y fingers and seemed more concerned, at times, with barking at officials and trying to draw flags than finishing routes and fighting for balls.
Conor Orr of NFL.com believes if Evans can sort of sandpaper the rough edges, he could break out big time and help lead the Bucs to meaningful games in January.
Will Mike Evans turn the corner? Evans is boiling over with potential, and Winston is smart enough to know he needs the ball. Evans saw 148 targets last season, which is in the realm of Odell Beckham and quickly approaching DeAndre Hopkins territory. The Bucs are hoping for a Hopkins-like ascension as well, especially in terms of dependability.
Look, you know Evans needs to tighten things up. Orr knows Evans needs to tighten things up. And Dirk Koetter and Todd Monken know they need to get the Jameis-Evans connection smoothed out.
There is little to pull from underwear football that translates to real football. Joe does notice Jameis and Evans hooking up on passes a bit more. Perhaps the following will become more commonplace this fall?
WATCH some of the top highlights from the first week of #Bucs #OTAs!
🎥: https://t.co/qsAWCrFl3u pic.twitter.com/zaied1361h
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@TBBuccaneers) May 27, 2016
May 28th, 2016 at 7:58 am
Evans needs to concentrate more and worry about himself and not the officials, and I think that’s where good coaching comes in. Monken is a great teacher and will hopefully get thru to Evans wich is oozing with potential. He could easily be a top 3 or 4 receiver in the game if he puts his head into it. I’m not worried about the drops, I think he gets that fixed this season. He didn’t show any cases of the drops in his rookie season wich proves it’s more of a concentration issue rather than a trait. I think his head got a little big after such a succeful rookie campaign and thought he could do it with ease every year and as the season went on and he wasn’t having the succeful year he wanted, he got frustrated and lost focus, evident of the barking at officials. So if he can keep his focus and work hard this off season, especially with Jameis he will return to that dominating rookie form, or even better. (wich is scary).
May 28th, 2016 at 8:04 am
@Joe
Seems like they are really working on the “chemistry” this year! Maybe you should ask ME13 why it was so easy for MG8 to come off the bench and they connected so quickly in 2014!!!!
May 28th, 2016 at 8:13 am
I have posted this before. Lets see how well conditioned he is this year coming into camp. He has looked soft each year and is hampered even further by injuries as a result of it. Seems like he gets in to shape as the season progresses. Even Winston has mentioned that they needed to work together ( more often ) in the offseason to get better almost like a soft call out on Evans. Has anyone noticed this pattern also?
May 28th, 2016 at 8:17 am
If he can make it through training camp and preseason without his BS hamstring injury, which I believe to be code for laziness, then hopefully he will have turned the corner.
May 28th, 2016 at 8:47 am
Evans is more reliable on quicker shorter passes, longer throws and tighter coverage he has trouble with the defenders getting in his head. He is not going to win a footrace so the window of Evans being open is brief and timing connection must improve. The opponents have his routine pretty much figured out. New coaching may elevate his effectiveness. He will have a good year.
May 28th, 2016 at 9:00 am
The way Evans was begging the refs for calls, you would have thought he was in the NBA.
May 28th, 2016 at 9:10 am
He’ll be fine.
May 28th, 2016 at 10:09 am
ZZZZZZzzzzzzz, anyone worried about Evans is woryring for nothing. The guy will be a complete MONSTER this year. This time of year sucks talking about the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and…..
May 28th, 2016 at 11:11 am
I wonder if Evans will ever develop YAC to his game?
May 28th, 2016 at 12:28 pm
Everybody will be better this year, It’s a new everything and the bucs will surprise alot of people, Playoffs Oh Ya..
May 28th, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Just as long as Winston doesn’t get into lock onto one target syndrome as Gruden pointed out at his QB camp, Joe! I’d expect higher volume, period, from all of the Buccs receivers with this offense throwing more to expose weaknesses on opposing defenses….not just run (or pass) as in lovie’s offense for the sake of doing so….but for the sake of attacking a defense’s weakness ala a belichick….IMAGINE THAT!
May 28th, 2016 at 4:54 pm
Evans should be in camp without the tweaked groin & oblique muscles he suffered from last year and all the excuses like it was raining, he took his eyes off the ball, that he had a historically bad day, when he should have had a historically great day and that he all his drops were from domed stadiums? Evans’ dropped passes also appear to happen more often than not on third down plays or on plays with the potential for big gains, in a momentum seizing opportunity plays. A side effect, possibly, of a young receiver trying too hard to help his young offense get the ball moving. I remember the play where there are four Giants trailing Evans, three of them defensive backs, who could not catch him. Evans outweighs them by 30 pounds. The TD pass which was the the game-winner against the Falcons in week 13 when he somehow grabs it and slides a knee into the end zone before his elbow smacks white paint.. then runs to the sideline celebrating the score. SpoertsCharts has Evans with 11 drops last year. Well, I can remember 4 in the Houston game, in the Colts game, Evans dropped a sure touchdown that would have been a game-changer and he had one ugly drop in the Atlanta game when he drops a pass as he was wrapped up by Falcons cornerback Robert Alford during the first quarter. In the Giants game alone he dropped a record 6 passes and another in both the Cowboys and Rams games. That equals 14 total drops last year. Evans average yards per reception was 16.3 x 14 drops = 228 + 1,206 = 1,434 total yards. Just gives an example of how great he can be. One has to simply be blown away by how dominant Evans is. His speed (4.53), incredibly long arms (35 1/8″), and a 37-inch vertical gives him the potential to be one of the best this year.
May 28th, 2016 at 11:25 pm
Year two was a sophmore slump with 1200 YARDS receiving! Now going into his 3rd year he will make leaps and bounds. I see 1400 yards and 10-14 tds for him. Trust
Realist your love affair with Glennon is ridiculous. Fameis is clearly the better qb and if I’m correct Evans caught most of his tds from McKlown.
May 28th, 2016 at 11:33 pm
Architek how can he do that with so many of his catches on the sideline? Did you miss that crossing route that went fir like 70 yards? Jameis hit him with a bootiful pass on stride and he ran 50 yards. The statements people make about players they complain about are so funny at times you just have to shake your head.
May 29th, 2016 at 7:41 am
@realist
of mike evans touchdowns in 2014- 4 came from Glennon 2 in the Pittsburg game..
And surprisingly,8 came from Josh McCown.
May 29th, 2016 at 8:07 am
Think Evans has a lot of potential,but worrying about defenders pass interference will break his concentration.Evans has also gone back to the huddle and gave hand signals about a route he broke off. Jameis threw the ball where he thought he was going to be and it would have been a TD..Not sure if signal meant he
was breaking off route or not,but do know jameis doesn’t need him harping on it. also have seen him tell Jameis where to place ball with his hands.Forget it and move on to the next play.
May 29th, 2016 at 8:19 am
@David
agreed all Evans has to do is focus on the little things and he will have a stellar year. Also don’t consider 16.3 yards short passes.He can be very good on fade
passes with his size and strength.I also look for he and Jameis to finally connect on more of passes down the left sideline.
May 29th, 2016 at 8:21 am
@Godzilla
well said and on point.