Tampa Bay Buccaneers: A truly scary Mike Evans coming?

Most of the offseason chatter focuses on potentially explosive offenses for the upcoming season, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers core of talent on that side of the ball under the tutelage of Dirk Koetter has fans optimistic.

Doug Martin ran for over 1,400 yards last season, and No. 1 overall pick Jameis Winston tossed over 4,000 yards in his inaugural NFL season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive line finally looked like a cohesive unit after they failed to provide Josh McCown with adequate blocking in 2014, and all of these strong seasons figure to carry over into 2016.

Winston’s 4,000-yard campaign looks even better when you consider how many of his top pass-catchers went down with injuries. Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Vincent Jackson never seemed fully healthy, so No. 1 wideout Mike Evans was the man tasked with carrying the passing attack.

Currently, most beat writers and, by extension, fans are fixated on “drops” as the be-all, end-all of negative wide receiver stats. It’s why some called his season a disappointment.

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Included in that “some” is Evans himself.

The funny thing is that the only numbers that changed for the worse were his drops and touchdowns. Evans’s TD catches plummeted from 12 to 3, but that might have more to do with QB-WR chemistry than anything else.

Nov 16, 2014; Landover, MD, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans (13) runs with the ball to score a touchdown as Washington Redskins inside linebacker Perry Riley (56) chases during the second half at FedEx Field. The Buccaneers won 27 – 7. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports /

Beyond that, Evans caught more passes (74) for more yards (1,206) with more yards per reception (16.3). The 6’5″, 231-pound Texas A&M product is difficult to cover, and he can certainly take the lid off of defenses; something that may be even more critical to the offense with Koetter moving up to head coaching duties.

Evans’s drops seemed uncharacteristic for a player deemed to have a safe pair of hands.

As you would expect, Evans’s lone issue as a sophomore came down to a lack of concentration, and this is something he admitted himself.

According to Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds, the wide receiver said, “You know, I wasn’t focused in some games and I have to do that better. I have to practice more. I have to get better in practice with it. It just comes with repetition. Last season is behind me.”

Reynolds noted Evans’s frequent complaints to officials over offensive pass interference calls, and while it did appear that he was incorrectly flagged several time, his noteworthy displays of passion did nothing to help him in the “focus” department.

We’ve heard about how Evans and Winston are working hard together this offseason in preparation for career years, so Evans’s self-awareness will only help him in his goal to stamp his mark as one of the NFL’s elite receivers. He hails from the same draft class as Odell Beckham Jr., Allen Robinson, Sammy Watkins, Jarvis Landry, and Brandin Cooks, and he must know that fans around the league will go out of their way to compare him to other NFL stars.

Evans, who heroically carried the team with nine receptions for 157 yards in a Week 15 comeback effort against the Rams, has been the recipient of some unfair criticism over the past few months. This hasn’t been helped by his self-critical remarks, but all he carries about is improving, not tooting his own horn. Even if you think Evans’s drops and penalties outweighed the way he moved the chains and generated big plays for the offense, you have to respect how grounded he is.

Remember, the Buccaneers second-leading WR or TE in receiving last season was V-Jax, who caught just 33 passes due to an injury that restricted him to just ten appearances. With Adam Humphries directly behind Jackson on the depth chart, Evans’s only real cover was provided by the backfield duo of Martin and Charles Sims.

A supporting cast mostly improved by health, a full offseason of work, and renewed focus should help Evans improve on his 2015 numbers even further. Since the NFL community at large is so hell-bent on wide receivers minimizing drops (then again, it is getting awfully hard to separate the cream from the crop at the position), Evans will likely shoot up personal rankings if those drops are cut down.

Jan 3, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans (13) with tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins (87) and quarterback Jameis Winston (3) after getting ejected in the fourth quarter. The Panthers defeated the Buccaneers 38-10 at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /

At the very least, we shouldn’t expect a six-drop performance similar to his display against the New York Giants in Week 9, even if he also had eight catches for 150 yards on a team that had Humphries as the second-best WR. Evans accounted for 60.7% of the Buccaneers passing offense that day, but if he didn’t drop so many passes on a whopping 19 targets, he could have easily cleared 200 when accounting for his 18.75 yards per reception.

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Oh, and that word “elite”? Judging by the fact that he and Randy Moss are the only players with two 1,000-yard receiving seasons before the age of 23, that’s a precipice he will be expected to reach.

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