The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had a remarkable start to the 2025 season, holding the inside track at the NFC’s No. 1 overall seed with a 5-1 record. Entering tonight’s 7 p.m. ET game against the Detroit Lions, they got some more good news, as wide receiver Mike Evans, who’s missed the last three weeks with a hamstring injury, is likely to play.
The future Hall of Famer was off to a solid start before his injury, recording 14 catches for 140 yards and a score, though his record-tying streak of 11 straight 1,000-plus-yard seasons looks almost certain to come to an end in 2025. He’ll look to re-integrate himself back in the Buccaneers’ offense with two games remaining before Tampa Bay’s bye.
The Buccaneers are six-point underdogs at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the point total set to 53.5. Below, I’ve detailed my favorite prop bets centered around Evans.
Best Mike Evans Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Mike Evans U61.5 Receiving Yards (-113)
Evans might need to shoulder a pretty big load in Tampa Bay’s offense tonight, especially if rookie sensation Emeka Egbuka — who left the team’s Week 6 win over the San Francisco 49ers with a hamstring injury of his own — doesn’t end up suiting up. The Buccaneers’ injury crisis is the primary reason that Evans’ over-under is set to a yardage total that he hasn’t yet hit this season. The logic makes sense: last week, Mayfield turned kick return specialist Kameron Johnson into a 64-yard receiver, and Evans is a better player than Johnson. The Lions are also undergoing a major injury crisis, as cornerback Terrion Arnold will miss his second straight game and Pro Bowl safeties Kerby Joseph (knee) and Brian Branch (suspension) will sit, too. They’ve allowed the 18th-most yards to wideouts.
Still, it’s asking a lot of a 32-year-old who’s now recovered from the second major hamstring injury he’s sustained across the last year. Lots of Evans’ numbers are down across the board — his 46.4% success rate, 50.0% catch rate, and 7.1% drop rate are all career worsts — and while that’s partially due to a small sample size, it wouldn’t be inane to suggest that they were signs of aging. Evans did have five catches for 68 yards in his return game from last season’s three-week hamstring strain that cost him three weeks late last season, but he played just 60.0% of Tampa Bay’s snaps. He did practice in full on Saturday, but he sat out Friday’s practice and was limited on Thursday, so he’s not 100% and is unlikely to play his normal snap share. Mayfield has too much faith in Egbuka (if he plays), Kameron Johnson, Tez Johnson, and Sterling Shepard to bestow too big of a load on a compromised Evans.
Mike Evans Anytime TD Scorer (+110)
Even in limited playing time, it’s still conceivable that Evans finds the end zone in what should be an offense-forward game between two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Evans is one of six players — Jahmyr Gibbs (-190), David Montgomery (-130), Amon-Ra St. Brown (-120), Rachaad White (+105), Egbuka (+105), and Evans (+110) — that are a virtual toss-up or better to score a touchdown.
Both of these teams have played in plenty of shootouts, including the Buccaneers’ epic 38-35 showdown against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 5 and Detroit’s 38-30 triumph over the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football in Week 3. The Tampa Bay game accounted for Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold’s season high in both passing yards and passing touchdowns, while the Lions game was Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s best performance. Each team’s offense is so good that throwing to catch up will be paramount.
Because Detroit has played in so many shootouts, it has conceded 10 touchdowns to wide receivers, tied for the second-most in football. Despite his down season overall, Evans remains a reliable end zone target because of his size, ball skills, and pedigree, and prior to his injury, he’d already amassed four red zone targets in the Buccaneers’ first three games, which still leads the team. The Lions only have two healthy outside cornerbacks, Rock Ya-Sin and Nick Whiteside, so they’ve had to play Amik Robertson out of position on the outside. Ya-Sin has given up one touchdown this season, while Robertson has conceded three.
