Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans is in his eleventh season and looking to keep his streak of 1,000 yards or more in a season going. But a lack luster first six weeks looks to make the streak difficult to obtain. Looking at the rest of the schedule is Evans’ really in danger for 2024?
2024 Season
So far this season, the Buccaneers offense has been potent. Most recently totaling over 50 points against the Saints in New Orleans after a long week outside their own practice facility. In that game he was targeted six times for only two receptions and 34 yards. Many of the passes were off target and high. Being we just completed week six and Evans only has 310 yards thus far this season there is starting to be some worry from fans that he may miss the 1,000 yard mark for the first time in his career. As of this week Evans is averaging only 51.6 yards a game. With only 11 games remaining Evans would need to average 62.7 yards a game in order to cover his 690 yards he still needs to eclipse the 1,000 yard mark. No small feat but an obtainable one. Outside of his game against Denver Evans has seen a fair share of targets. The hope is moving forward that the targets will equate to catches and yards.
Remaining Schedule
The Buccaneers are looking into a tuff scheduled line up prior to the bye week coming up. The Ravens, though stout in defense, is 18th in passing yards allowed. Atlanta, who gave up 62 yards to Evans, is 19th. The Chiefs are the toughest the team is likely to face as they are 4th overall in passing yards allowed. San Francisco is 15th. Then the Buccaneers enter a bye week. After getting rest and reevaluating the game plan the Buccaneers head into the weakest part of their schedule. The Giants (14th), Rams (29th) raiders (16th) pose a decent stretch where the offense should get humming. This will be right before the Chargers (3rd), and a grouping of Dallas, Carolina, and New Orleans again who all are 25th or worse in passing yards allowed. So after the bye week this team should start to build momentum in the offense that will allow for Mike Evans to be ,more involved and free. Though the yards still needed seem daunting the opponents make me less nervous about the prospect of Evans making it to 1,000 yards again.
Previous Seasons
Looking back through previous years this IS the lowest we have seen Evans after six games in a seventeen game season. In 2021, the first seventeen game season, Evans was locked in with 420 yards. In 2022 he had hauled in 358 yards while missing one game due to injury. Last season he was marked at 468 yards after six games. Though this is his lowest mark yet I still believe he can pull this off.
Final Thought
It will really take a single game for Evans to be on a better track to reach another historic milestone. If he has one game with 100 yards his average needed in the other ten would be 59 yards. A three yard decrees per game. I would expect Evans to have at least two 100 yard plus games in the next eleven especially in the back half of the season. If he can obtain them earlier and get into a better rhythm on offense he should rack up the yards quickly. So for now it’s only something to monitor and will be better analyzed come the bye week.
