Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans popped up on the injury report with a knee issue over the last few days, and he was limited in practice all week. Will Evans be able to play in Sunday’s playoff rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles or will the Bucs be shorthanded?
What’s the Latest on Mike Evans’ Injury?
Evans was limited in practice on Wednesday and Thursday due to his knee injury, and he didn’t practice on Friday (although the team said it was a rest day).
It’s unclear when Evans suffered this injury, as he played 47 of 57 snaps during Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos and didn’t go down at any point.
Fortunately, Evans is expected to play against the Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
This isn’t a huge surprise, as Evans is one of the most durable players in the NFL, with more 1,000-yard seasons (10) than missed games (nine) throughout his career. Also, of those nine missed games, several were due to suspensions.
Unreal by Mr. Evans 🔥 pic.twitter.com/vs91dsfLC3
— NFL (@NFL) September 8, 2024
After a terrific six-catch, 61-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Washington Commanders in Week 1, Evans has been relatively quiet over the last two weeks, with just five catches for 59 yards and no scores. Should fantasy managers be worried?
Fantasy Outlook for Evans
Much like Baker Mayfield, Evans suffered from a bad matchup last week against the Broncos (Patrick Surtain II is a terrific cornerback). He’s also fallen a bit behind Chris Godwin over the past two weeks.
Evans still looks like a top receiver, but the targets just haven’t been there. He only had three against Denver in a game in which the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offense never really got going.
These next two games against the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons are ripe for Evans to return to posting WR1 numbers like he did in Week 1. If an Evans manager thinks it’ll be the Godwin Show the rest of the year in Tampa, see if you can pry the perennial top receiver away for 75 cents on the dollar.
Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and offensive coordinator Liam Coen have said that they need to get Evans more targets, and Mayfield acknowledged that he needs to get him more involved early in games, so don’t expect this trend to continue.
Even if Godwin is now the WR1 in Tampa Bay, Evans should still put up numbers. He’s one of the best red zone weapons in the NFL, and he’s a great deep threat. What’s strange is that Evans doesn’t have a 25-yard catch this season, which is something that needs to change.
Like Evans, we can expect a strong bounce-back game from Mayfield this week. After averaging north of 9.5 yards per pass attempt in consecutive games to open the season, it took Mayfield 33 attempts (25 completions) to give us 163 yards against the Broncos in a disappointing 26-7 loss. Did he fall victim to the vaunted Cover 2 pandemic?
Technically, not really, as he only threw six passes against that coverage, but the idea of taking away the game-breaking play did factor into his underwhelming day at the office. For just the sixth time across his 93 career starts (playoffs included), Mayfield didn’t complete a pass that traveled at least 15 yards in the air.
Heck, he only threw two such passes. Any time that is the case, Mayfield will struggle, though I don’t think that will be the case this week against an Eagles defense with the sixth-highest opponent aDOT since the beginning of last season.
This projects as a passing script in a spot where I think Mayfield and his weapons can have success on a per-pass basis. I’m not confident that the Eagles can repeat their gem of a defensive effort from last week. Mayfield is flirting with my top 12 and is a viable play in both redraft and DFS in my eyes.