More than seven weeks after hobbling off the field late in the second quarter of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Monday Night Football loss to the Detroit Lions, Mike Evans is back on the football field. The 32-year-old had been sidelined with a broken collarbone and a concussion after that play, but after a seven-week stint on Injured Reserve, he’s slated to make his return tonight when the Buccaneers seek to snap a stretch of four losses in five games with a Thursday Night Football clash against the Atlanta Falcons. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Evans won’t play every snap, but for a struggling Tampa Bay offense, having him out there is better than not.
Evans’ historic streak of 11 consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons to begin his career will all-but-certainly come to an end, as he’d require 860 yards over the team’s final four games (the NFL record for receiving yards in a four-game stretch is 774, set by the Cleveland Browns’ Josh Gordon in 2013). Still, he could pay dividends in the fantasy football playoffs for anyone who has stashed him all season, given that he scored double-digit FPTS in each of the first three games of the season before suffering his hamstring and subsequent collarbone injuries. As a big-framed wide receiver with sure hands, Evans should still have Baker Mayfield’s unwavering trust.
Regardless, I expect his role tonight to be pretty small, as while the Buccaneers will need strong play from him in order to secure their fifth straight division title, their priority will be having him healthy by the first week of January, when Tampa Bay will host a Wild Card playoff game as long as it ends up winning the division. The last thing the Buccaneers want is to over-work an aging receiver who’s previously hinted at a possible retirement in the next few off-seasons and let him suffer another injury.
Tampa Bay has lots of mouths to feed, and Evans’ separation numbers and post-catch effectiveness last season both trail Emeka Egbuka’s this season. For the first time in his career, he isn’t his own team’s clear-cut WR1, and given Chris Godwin’s productivity since returning from his second fibula fracture in as many seasons, Evans might not even be the WR2.
To be fair, Atlanta has allowed the 11th-most FPTS per game to opposing wide receivers, but that’s mostly because it has allowed the fourth-most touchdowns. That might not bode so well for Evans, who’s caught only one touchdown pass in his three-plus games this season and hauled in only two of his four red-zone targets. Otherwise, the Falcons’ defense has been decent, ranking 12th by expected points added on passing plays. Until Week 14, Atlanta’s top outside corner, AJ Terrell, had not yet allowed a touchdown in coverage, and all in all, he’s allowed opponents to complete just 54.5% of their passes.
Start or Sit: Sit Mike Evans.
