By Daniel Allweiss
Last season, Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans burst onto the scene. Before Odell Beckham Jr. made the catch of the decade and had the second half of the season he had, many believed that Evans was a strong candidate for Offensive Rookie of the Year. The rookie wideout from Texas A&M racked up almost 1,100 yards and brought in 12 scores. It was a spectacular debut on paper for the Bucs' shiny new toy.
However, this is a movie that Tampa Bay fans have seen before. In 2004, the Buccaneers drafted a big, physical receiver out of LSU named Michael Clayton. Clayton took the NFL by storm as a rookie reeling in 80 balls for 1,193 yards and 7 scores. After passing on Oregon State running back Steven Jackson, Clayton's rookie year dazzled - easing some of the pain of missing out on the bruiser out of Corvallis.
Clayton's season was incredible, with the highlight probably coming against Denver where Clayton caught a pass, went down, but was able to get back up and run to the end zone before Buccaneers legend, John Lynch - then playing for the Broncos - could touch him down. What no one could have predicted was that Clayton would never even put up half of those numbers in any one season during the rest of his career. His next best season? 2008 where he had 38 receptions for 464 yards and a lone touchdown.
In 2010, Tampa Bay landed another physical receiver named "Michael" in Mike Williams out of Syracuse. A first round talent with a 7th round off-field grade, Williams came into Bucs camp and immediately jumped to the top of the depth chart. As a rookie, Williams caught 65 passes, totaling 964 yards and 11 touchdowns. 2nd year quarterback Josh Freeman and Williams clearly had a chemistry together and, when thrown in with the 1,000 yard season of undrafted rookie Legarrette Blount, things were once again looking up in Tampa. Williams' finished his rookie year with a positive rating from Pro Football Focus. Many were even wondering if Williams was better than Dez Bryant, another rookie from the same class.
Unlike Clayton, Williams was able to have some success in Tampa. After a sophomore slump in 2011, Williams rebounded with a spectacular 2012 where he nearly matched all of his rookie numbers and actually recorded a higher PFF score than he had two years prior, 8.1 compared to 2.6. However, this success was not long lived. A contract issue, another disappointing year in 2013 where he caught only 22 balls due to injuries and poor play, and a series of off-field incidents led Williams to be traded away to the Buffalo Bills prior to the 2014 season. Williams flamed out with the Bills and is currently sitting at home as a free agent.
This brings us to Mike Evans, with whom fans are hoping the old saying "third time's the charm" comes to fruition. Unfortunately, Evans has managed to create some early season doubt. Starting with last year, it's important to note that nearly half of Evans' yardage and scores came in a three-game stint against the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons, and Washington Redskins. Look at this year's draft and you'll see that these were three very bad football teams and the Redskins and Falcons both appeared at times to be allergic to defense.
Mike was not consistent during the year, but managed to come away with a solid looking overall picture because of a handful of games where he was okay but not spectacular and the three outbursts where he put up a cumulative stat line 21 catches, 458 yards, and five scores. As a rookie, though, you're looking for flashes of potential and those were clearly there.
At the end of the year, Evans finished 12th according to PFF amongst qualified receivers with a rating of 10.2. As alluded to, much of that success was due to the three talked about games where Evans worked up a score of 8.8. 2015 has shown more of Evans' weaknesses rather than strengths. The second year receiver tweaked his hamstring causing him to miss the majority of the pre-season and the opening week of the regular season. Evans returned against New Orleans last week but failed to bring in any of the three balls thrown his way. He scored a -2.2 according to PFF. This week was a statistical bounce back week as Mike went over 100 yards on 7 catches.
Evans was targeted 17 times against the Houston Texans meaning that 10 of Jameis Winston's incompletions were thrown in his direction. That's roughly half oh his total, including the lone interception. Of the 10, three were clear drops and the rest were a mixed bag of bad throws, questionable decisions, balls Evans probably should've gotten, and straight up miscommunications. The last part is key. Evans and Winston need to get on the same page. The team cannot afford 10 wasted plays when these two are trying to connect. The misses were so bad, that despite tallying seven more catches and 100+ yards more than the previous week, Evans only bumped his PFF score up to -1.7. This is indicative of the various issues with his game. Despite showing up on the stat sheet, he didn't look right.
And the fact that he didn't look right is what's concerning. Is his leg still hurt, are Jameis and he not on the same page, does he need to improve his hand strength? These are all questions that Tampa fans ask themselves today as they hope and pray that this time, their shiny new toy won't just turn out "Like Mike".
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