The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are hoping that Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans will be able to return to game action in Week 12 after missing three games due to a hamstring injury. Nobody would benefit from Evans' return more than Baker Mayfield and the quarterback knows if there's any chance of Evans playing against the New York Giants on Sunday, he'll make it happen.
"From what I can see, [he's] good, and just talking to him, he seems really positive about it," said Mayfield on Wednesday, after the first practice in which Evans had taken part since suffering his injury in Week Seven.. "You guys know – Mike's a pro. He's going to do everything he can to get back out there with us and fight for this team as we take it one game at a time."
The Buccaneers lost all three games that Evans missed, plus the one in which he was injured against Baltimore not long after catching the 100th touchdown pass of his career. That four-game losing streak took the Bucs from first place in the NFC South to 4-6 as it leaked into their bye last week. Tampa Bay is hoping to go on a post-bye run like they did in 2020, and only one of their remaining seven opponents currently has a winning record. The Buccaneers, for instance, are favored on the road this weekend against the 2-8 Giants.
That said, Mayfield knows his team has a much better chance of stacking some wins if Evans is in the mix.
"It's huge," said Mayfield of Evans' impact on the offense. "We talk about trying to get explosive plays and somehow creating that, trying to dial some things up within the scheme. So yeah, it's huge to have that threat, and [against] one-on-one coverage, being able to take advantage of it. Then, when they do want to double-cover him, it opens things up for other guys. It's always a big factor when he's playing."
Evans had 26 catches for 335 yards and a team-leading six touchdowns prior to his injury, and the Buccaneers averaged 29.9 points a game through their first seven outings. That average hasn't dropped precipitously in the last three games, as the team has averaged 23.3 points in those contests, but that difference is important for a team that has been involved in so many close games. Most notably, while Mayfield and Offensive Coordinator have adjusted impressively to the absences of Evans and Chris Godwin (dislocated ankle), big plays have been hard to find. The Bucs averaged just over four plays of 20-plus yards per game in Weeks One through Eight, but did not generate a single one in the last two games combined.
"We're driving the ball well but it's hard to sustain drives when you're not getting those chunks, and when you're not cutting the field in half sometimes," said Mayfield. "We've got to try find ways to get explosives, but if those explosive plays aren't there, check it down and live to play the next down. You've just got to be careful with it and always keep the ball in your possession."
Evans famously is the first player in NFL history to start a career with 10 consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons. He could extend that streak to 11 in 2024, but with seven games remaining would need to average 95 yards a game to get there. That's certainly possible, especially if there are a couple really big performances mixed in, but there's no guarantee. And neither Mayfield nor Evans will try to force it, because the priority is to get back to the postseason.
"You guys have been around Mike for long enough now," said Mayfield. "The streak, yeah, it's important to us, but he cares about winning. He's a huge part of this offense when he's in there, so I think that will come naturally. But I've been in a situation where you kind of force-feed the ball to a guy, and that's not how this offense works, especially. Staying true to reads. The defense dictates where the ball needs to go; when we have our one-on-one matchups with him we need to take advantage of it."
