There may have been some fool’s gold when it came to what fans saw from Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans in a Week 1 win over the Washington Commanders.
Evans had 5 receptions for 61 yards against the Commanders — decent numbers — but his 2 touchdowns were the headline.
Since then, it’s been a struggle for Evans to get the ball on the level he’s used to and he bottomed out with 2 receptions for 17 yards on 3 targets in a loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 3.
Pewter Report pointed out that Evans, a 2-time NFL All-Pro, is on pace for a career-worst season with 56 receptions for 680 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. Evans set the NFL record with his 10th consecutive 1,000-yard receiving season to start his career in 2023 and led the NFL with 13 receiving touchdowns.
Through 3 games, Evans has 10 receptions for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“For the ‘FEED MIKE’ folks, you’re not wrong for wanting #Bucs WR Mike Evans to see more targets,” Pewter Report wrote on its official X account.
The loss to the Broncos was the first for the Buccaneers after a 2-0 start.
Evans, a 5-time Pro Bowler, signed a 2-year, $52 million contract in March 2024. He could tie Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice’s NFL record with an 11th consecutive 1,000-yard season in 2024.
“I don’t, like, list off things, but that’s one of them that’s in the back of my mind because everybody’s talking about it,” Evans told NFL.com about Rice’s record on July 24. “That’s been a record around for how many years now? Over 20 years? So, that’s something I definitely want to accomplish, and just help the team win ball games and be better than we were last year.”
Evans Keeps Putting Up Big Stats Into 30s
Evans seems to have gotten better with age. His 1,255 receiving yards in 2023 were the second-highest total of his career, as were his 13 touchdown receptions. He’s also on a 5-year streak without a turnover — he has 385 receptions without a fumble.
From NFL.com: “Evans (and the rest of today’s wideouts) seems highly unlikely to repeat such a feat as playing to 42 years of age, but the five-time Pro Bowler does have the advantage of youth on his side relative to Rice. Despite a decade already in the league, Evans only turns 31 in August, still well within his difference-making years — especially for a big-bodied, contested-catch maven. He should also benefit from another year of chemistry with quarterback Baker Mayfield after both received extensions from Tampa Bay during the offseason.”
Rice Might Be Greatest Player of All Time
The NFL records that belong to Rice show a football player unlike any the game has ever seen.
While Evans tries to tie the record Rice set from 1986 to 1996 with the San Francisco 49ers, Rice still owns some of the most important records in NFL history, including career receiving yards (22,895), career receptions (1,549), career touchdown receptions (197), career touchdowns (208), career yards from scrimmage (23,540), career all-purpose yards (23,546), career postseason receiving yards (2,245), career postseason touchdowns receptions (22) and most career 1,000-yard receiving seasons (14).
Rice also won 3 Super Bowls, played for 20 seasons and is the oldest player to catch a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl at 40 years and 105 days old.
Ironically, that touchdown came in the Oakland Raiders‘ loss to the Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII.
January 28, 1990: Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and the 49ers rout John Elway and the Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV.
