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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished the 2021 regular season with a 13-4 record led by their elite offense. Tampa Bay finished first in passing yards with an average of 307.6 yards per game, and wide receiver Mike Evans again proved to be an elite threat on the outside. Evans lead the Buccaneers in receiving touchdowns and finished second behind only Chris Godwin in receiving yards. The Buccaneers were crowned NFC South champions and outmatched the Philadelphia Eagles in their Wild Card matchup, 31-15. Tampa Bay would go on to lose to the eventual Super Bowl Champion Los Angeles Rams 30-27 in the Divisional Round.
With new head coach Todd Bowles at the helm and Tom Brady returning under center, the Buccaneers will look to make another run at a Super Bowl title in 2022. Tampa Bay has a few new weapons at their disposal but Evans will surely remain a focal point in the passing attack. Playing for a Super Bowl contender once again elevates Evans as a top-tier option among fantasy wide receivers this coming season.
2021 season statistics & fantasy finish
Receiving: Evans caught 74 passes for 1,035 yards and a team-high 14 receiving touchdowns. He averaged 14.0 yards per reception and 64.7 receiving yards per game.
Fantasy: In points-per-reception scoring, Evans finished eighth among all receivers with 262.5 fantasy points and 16.4 per game. Among standard scoring leagues, Evans ranked sixth with 188.5 fantasy points with an average of 11.8 per game.
Buccaneers offseason moves
Tampa Bay had two monumental offseason moves by the same player under center. Brady had announced his retirement from the NFL early into the offseason, only to announce his return 40 days later. His return kept the Buccaneers' championship aspirations intact while the team added some reinforcements on offense. They re-signed Leonard Fournette to a three-year deal and extended Chris Godwin for three years as well. To offset the retirement of Rob Gronkowski, Tampa Bay added Kyle Rudolph to the roster. As added depth on the outside, the Buccaneers signed receiver Russell Gage and also welcomed veteran Julio Jones as new passing targets for Brady.
2022 best-case scenario
Evans is coming off back-to-back seasons playing 16 games which indicate durability from the veteran receiver. Another healthy season should correlate to a strong fantasy season for Evans and would represent the perfect scenario for fantasy owners. Despite the abundance of talent on the roster Evans still finished as the team leader in receiving touchdowns in 2021 and finished second in receiving yards. Finishing first or second in either of those categories in 2022 should cement Evans as top fantasy option overall.
2022 worst-case scenario
There is always the possibility of injuries derailing a season and the same goes for Evans. The most games he’s missed in a season were three games back in 2019, but anything more than that in 2022 would spell the worst-case scenario. There is also the possibility that with the addition of Jones and Rudolph comes the decrease in targets over the course of the season. Upon his return, Godwin could also eat away given his chemistry with Brady.
2022 prediction
Despite the new additions to the roster, Evans should remain Brady’s top target on the outside and in particular in the red zone. Others like Godwin have been known to command yardage but Evans always seemingly gets the looks in the endzone. The chemistry with Brady should remain intact and another top-10 fantasy season for Evans should be in order for 2022.