1K On The Bay

Having a thousand receiving yards or more in an NFL season is an impressive thing to be able to do. Being able to do it multiple times in a career is an even more impressive feet. It's only been done three times in NFL history where a receiver has hit the century mark more than ten times. Jerry Rice did it 14 times. randy Moss did it ten times. And now we can add Mike Evans name to that list as well. Evans and Jerry Rice are the only receivers in the history of the NFL to do it in ten consecutive years.

Rice has the record at 11 years, doing it from 1986 to 1996. But Evans is the only one to do it in the first ten consecutive years in the NFL. He came close a couple times to having the streak stopped. In 2017 he finished with 1,001 yards. Then in 2020 he had 1,006 yards. Last year was 1,012. But he's hit the mark every year.

Since he entered the NFL in 2014, Evans has been one of the most consistent wide outs in the game, as the numbers have shown. And he's done it with different QB's throwing to him. He's had Josh McCown, Mike Glennon, Jameis Winston, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tom Brady, and now Baker Mayfield all throw passes to him. He's been thrown to 1,288 times while hauling in 744 of those passes, and counting. In total, with those 10 straight season it has totaled 11,437 yards. And it doesn't look like he's showing any signs of slowing down now. Evans said to reporters after the game he hopes to be able to keep this streak going for however long his career lasts. Will that still be here in Tampa? Who knows. Now the goal is clear, be a playoff team.

With a record like this, it leads one to wonder. Where does this land Evans among the all time greatest Bucs players? There have been some pretty good offensive players that come to mind when you think of the Bucs. James Wilder, Mike Alstott, Warrick Dunn, Mark Carrier, Keenan McCardell all come to mind. At the end of it all, Mike Evans will go down as by far the greatest offensive player this team has ever had and place him squarely in the top five. The only guys that could ever pass Evans for the Greatest Buccaneer ever would be defensive guys like Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, Lee Roy Selmon and Ronde Barber.

What Mike Evans has done in his career here in Tampa Bay has been incredible and here's hoping it keeps going for a long, long time.