Evans With Heady Company
June 19th, 2017
Tie to Randy Moss.
We all knew Mike Evans had the talent.
Now that he’s been molded into an elite receiver by Bucs offensive coordinator/receivers coach Todd Monken, the sky is the limit.
Already, Evans is in a class of receivers that’s a virtual Who’s Who among NFL pass-catchers.
NFL Network threw up a statistic that took Joe aback last night.
Evans has had three straight seasons of 1,000+ receiving yards to start his NFL career. Only a handful of receivers have done that. Who might those receivers be? Odell Beckham, A.J. Green, Randy Moss and John Jefferson. That’s insane.
Joe has to go all geeky here after seeing Jefferson’s name. Jefferson played for San Diego during the Air Coryell days with Dan Fouts throwing him the ball. Dude was, for the short time he was with the Chargers, the sickest receiver Joe ever saw. It was like a grown man playing with boys.
Dude just blew by defenders, made insane catches, had zero issue going over the middle and tangling with linebackers, and he would totally and completely sell out for the ball making memorable diving catches.
Jefferson, who got into a contract hassle with the Chargers and was traded to the Packers as a result, never quite matched the magic he had with Fouts and Coyrell. But for that three-year period, Joe thought Jefferson was the best receiver he ever saw and, yes, that included the great Jerry Rice.
If Evans is in the same category as Moss and Jefferson, that is very, very impressive.
June 19th, 2017 at 11:08 am
Moss was the same way but over a much more sustained period. Calvin Johnson as well – but he didn’t get off to as fast a start as the above mentioned.
Evans sure was a better selection than Manziel in retrospect – Eh Joe?
June 19th, 2017 at 11:25 am
certainly impressive but as talented as he is, the circumstances have alot to do with it. During Jameis’ career, the WR position has been a wasteland outside of Mike. His rookie year, the bucs had no offensive coordinator and no running game, so schoolyard ball with Mike Evans was as good of a strategy as we can hope for.
not trying to marginalize mike. he is a great talent already and still has room to grow given that his football education was limited to 1 year of high school ball and 2 seasons of sandlot football finishing off Johnny Manziel’s dramatic and usually improvised plays.
already my favorite WR to ever catch passes for the bucs, and so much more good stuff to come. 6 year extension just a matter of time IMO
June 19th, 2017 at 11:28 am
Think about it though, Moss has Chris Carter. Jake Reed(no slouch) and RB Robert Smith. Jefferson had Charlie Joiner(one of the best), Kellen Winslow and the incomparable Chuck Muncie. AJ Green had Sanu, has Eifert and decent running game in his time there so far.
Mike had VJax his first year but an unproductive backfield, His second year he had a productive backfield but no receiving mate, His third year, no backfield and no receiving mate.
This just speaks to his talent and also what is possible with more weapons
June 19th, 2017 at 11:35 am
Geeked about Desean for next few years but ME and Godwin should make for a really formidable duo in the future. Both physical at and before the point of attack. I luuhh that ish.
June 19th, 2017 at 11:58 am
Agree John Jefferson, the goggles and leaping catches in the end zone. If not for the Steel Curtain they could have had multiple Super Bowls. Air Coryell not in the HOF is a huge miss.
June 19th, 2017 at 12:12 pm
would Evans be the first to have 4 straight?
June 19th, 2017 at 12:14 pm
Evans has emerged as a top 5 WR in this league. The scary part is that he can still improve. Watch out league!
June 19th, 2017 at 1:00 pm
Moss started with 6 consecutive 1000 yard seasons
June 19th, 2017 at 1:08 pm
I’ve been taking flak for my screen name for months. And I have brought up multiple times the numbers between him, TO, Calvin Johnson, Rice, and Moss and he is a top 5 wr thus far in his career compared to the greats
June 19th, 2017 at 1:09 pm
Evans and Jameis will go down as the two greatest players in franchise history with multiple superbowls. unfortunately the one dimensional fool cost brooks, lynch and sapp etc. etc. a chance at multiple rings with his lack of understanding of the complete game of football. there is far more to life than defense and bragging about church.
June 19th, 2017 at 2:02 pm
@tmax- I think Jameis has a little more work to do but i have to agree. Evans is easily the best WR we’ve maybe ever had.
You’re a bit rough on Dungy but I can’t say that I disagree. It’s not like we were void of offensive weapons. That said, that was then and this is now. We have what I think is a good offensive-minded coach with good football people in place, like Mike Smith.
If we can alleviate the pressure of Evans being THE only target, I think his potential will be fully realized.
June 19th, 2017 at 2:08 pm
All the more impressive, since @Joe’s recent piece showing that Mike Evan’s YAK totals are some of the lowest for a number one receiver – suggest that despite his incredible power, vision, and balance that have lead to some crowd pleasing acrobatics – he’s been brought down almost immediately after catching the ball.
That could be due to being blanketed by the secondary – because he’s basically had very little help out there – or it could be due to the fact that Mike Evans has been a safety valve for Jameis as Evans was for Manziel in college (@Pick6 mentioned earlier). The one area that is not a strength for Evans is his lack of speed.
To me, a receiver who plies the intermediate routes can still be a number one if he can do some damage with YAK (I’m thinking of how Arizona’s used Fitzgerald). Hopefully we’ll see that improve with the addition of DeSean Jackson, OJ Howard and Chris Godwin – but I almost wonder if all this new talent will take away the biggest dimension of Mike Evans – the broken play?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Evans takes a slight step backwards this year as he adapts to the new talent around him and learns to play within the system more?
I’m a huge Mike Evans fan – I hope the adjustment has already happened – but it won’t take anything away from what Mike Evans can do/means to this team if he is a bit slower to adapt to the extra discipline the new talent will require.
Mike has not been the most understanding of receivers when the ball has been shared. I know he says otherwise – but I’m not going by what he says in interviews and pressers – I’m going by the lobbying I see him do on the sidelines!
No matter HOW you slice the ball this season – the Bucs are VASTLY improved on offense and already have a LOT of the NFC South VERY concerned.
Enviable position to be in.
June 19th, 2017 at 3:09 pm
Supersam Says:
June 19th, 2017 at 12:12 pm
would Evans be the first to have 4 straight?
————-
That’s a good question..hope someone can answer it..
June 19th, 2017 at 3:10 pm
I keep saying it, Evan’s is better than Odell. Without weapons Evan’s has made just about the same numbers OBJ has put up. Hate that prima Donna up in NY.
June 19th, 2017 at 3:19 pm
It may be more difficult for Evans to reach 1000 with the alternative weapons for Jameis this year or he may be more open and have more YAC opportunities…what will be important is the total yardage for the top two Buc receivers in comparison…..there was a year when both Evans & Vjax reached 1000, however.
June 19th, 2017 at 4:28 pm
Yards after the catch have a lot to do with clearing out a zone. Evans not only had single and double coverage, but entire defenses would game plan for him because of we lacked other weapons.
June 19th, 2017 at 6:27 pm
The additional weapons that the Chargers, Vikings and Bengals had did not curb the production of AJ, Moss and Jefferson. They had really good weapons out there with them
June 19th, 2017 at 9:36 pm
Evans is our Pro Bowler but he ain’t no Randy Moss hell he ain’t even the best receiver on this team this year! Speed is the only thing that kills! I’m overjoyed that we have Evans but let me be clear ….he ain’t no Randy Moss!
June 19th, 2017 at 10:06 pm
^^^^^NUMBERS NEVER LIE^^^^^^^
Men lie, women lie, Numbers don’t
June 19th, 2017 at 10:16 pm
^^^ lets see where the numbers are in 5 or 6 years^^^^^
June 19th, 2017 at 10:40 pm
Now your changing the parameters. We are talking about RIGHT NOW, not 5 or 6 years down the road. His Numbers thus far in his career are too great to ignore. Every1 is so quick to dub OBJ this great wr, but really he has a few good catches and too many antics. And now that Mike has a catch to rival the OBJ catch he is far and away the better receiver of the two.
June 19th, 2017 at 10:44 pm
Let’s not forget that Mike had Josh McClown and the Giraffe throwing him the ball AND no offensive coordinator his rookie year while OBJ had a 2 time SB QB
June 20th, 2017 at 2:49 am
Yes indeed Mike, which brings me to “the great Monken” they’re a few Recievers that come into the NFL that don’t need to be developed, all they need is to learn the offense, study Defences, break down film, you know just the regular stuff that your really motivated players do. Evans will make Moken, not the other way around, I’m still waiting on that one reciever Moken has developed!
June 20th, 2017 at 10:42 am
@White Tiger, i think the YAC will come once he can catch the balls in space. The fact that they count on him for contested catches where he is by default well-covered or boundary catches where he’s guaranteed to land out of bounds, means there will be a fair number of Zero-YAC catches weighing his average down. BUT, he will get more opportunities in space next year than he’s had in perhaps his first 3 years combined, and i think it will make for highlight catches
June 20th, 2017 at 11:04 am
@bighog……why do u change the narrative from post to post? Just does make much sense to me man…..
June 20th, 2017 at 11:06 am
Doesn’t……Ducking spell check sucks @ss