Mike Evans Wants It “Early”
June 17th, 2025
NFL teams focus on clock management and game management. In Tampa, there’s also a need for Mike Evans management.
The abomination of the Bucs trailing the tanking Saints in the fourth quarter of last season’s must-win Week 18 game in Tampa still haunts Joe at least twice a week. How does a good, focused roster allow that to happen?
Those hapless Saints had scored a total of 10 points — total — in their prior two games with rookie Spencer Rattler at quarterback. Not only were the Bucs allegedly hungry for a “W,” they were a team that should have been fighting for a big early lead in case it was required to force a steady diet of balls to Mike Evans so he could hit 1,000 yards for the 11th consecutive season.
But Evans management was failing on that day. And while the Bucs came back to score the winnning touchdown, the defense needed to clamp down on Rattler so the Bucs could get the ball back and deliver one more pass to Evans.
Often lost in the history of that game’s happy ending is the following: Rattler threw three consecutive first-down passes before the Bucs defense stopped New Orleans on 4th-and-5 with 40 seconds left to play.
Classy Evans isn’t one to complain about his very close call, but he wants no repeat of what happened in January.
Evans said last week that he wants to hit 1,000 yards “early” this season. If so, he’ll own the all-time record of consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons.
Man, rookie playcaller Josh Grizzard certainly has a lot on his plate.
Grizzard’s got to make sure Evans gets to 1,000 yards. He must get touches to Chris Godwin and figure out how to ease him into the offense when Godwin is cleared to play after surgery, but that might not be until Week 1, Week 4 or Week 8. Then there’s rookie first-round pick Emeka Egbuka, who may turn out to be the best Bucs receiver this season. Gotta feed the beast if he’s that good.
Oh, and Grizzard has a beastly running game to work with a head coach who loves to pound the rock and wants three running backs involved. Grizzard also has Cade Otton and Rachaad White in contract years, dudes he’ll want to keep happy.
No easy weeks ahead for Grizzard, especially in his first few months on the job.
June 17th, 2025 at 12:21 pm
Fair bet that Godwin won’t get many touches in the first two or three games, there is an opportunity right there to send more passes to Mike
June 17th, 2025 at 12:35 pm
Feeling that Grizz and the players will make it happen and Mike will have his yards. Yes, definitely earlier too.
June 17th, 2025 at 12:36 pm
In the clip, when Mike and Chris received their Father’s Day gift (sneakers), Chris wasted no time or effort in immediately putting them on and walking around in them. He looked healthy. It was truly great to see.
June 17th, 2025 at 12:55 pm
Yeah I believe Mike gets more passes thrown his way because Godwin will be out. I also sense Mike really wanting this record so it is a motivating factor for him to ball out all season. I feel like means to get the record early, just keep grinding to a SB and may retire after that or at lest go the LD route as 1 year contracts.
June 17th, 2025 at 12:57 pm
Joe, I love and agree with your comment.
“ The abomination of the Bucs trailing the tanking Saints in the fourth quarter of last season’s must-win Week 18 game in Tampa still haunts Joe at least twice a week. How does a good, focused roster allow that to happen? “
It wasn’t injuries, was it?
How about the very common Bowles “flat as a pancake for an important game” syndrome? And then of course follow it up with the home stinker against the foreskins in the playoffs.
Coaching matters. Half timers in a full timers’ league doesn’t cut it.
June 17th, 2025 at 1:14 pm
Lots of mouths to feed. Mike can do himself a big favor by taking care of his hammy. Keep those hammies warm and stretched Mike!
June 17th, 2025 at 1:54 pm
“Then there’s rookie first-round pick Emeka Egbuka, who may turn out to be the best Bucs receiver this season.”
Wow, I had to do a double take on this! If Joe really feels like E2 will be this good, then this offense has a chance to be the greatest show on grass this year. Not a single liability on paper right now for the offense other than Grizz, but I think he’s got this!
June 17th, 2025 at 2:00 pm
It’s no secret, but Coen figured out real fast that when you get the ball to Mike early in the game, he’s gonna make things happen all day. When he has “bad” games, it’s almost always when you wait too long to get him a reception.
June 17th, 2025 at 2:35 pm
Opponents aren’t going to be doing a lot of double teaming this year. Too much firepower they’ll have to respect. One-on-one, our receivers, TEs, and RBs out of the backfield should excel. Can’t wait to get this thing rolling!
June 17th, 2025 at 3:20 pm
It baffles me still that anyone who has watched this team since the inception of the NFC South is surprised anytime they struggle against the Aint’s (or Pittsburgh or SF for that matter). The 51 to whatever game last year was an extreme outlier…you can throw all record and roster comparisons out the window when they play each other.
For all the whining about Bowles, at least he’s got us some W’s against those punks.
June 17th, 2025 at 7:16 pm
Get it early Mike!!! Snatch that record prior to the bye week and let some of the younger guys get a little work and have yourself nice and fresh for the playoffs… Good luck @13…..