Mike Evans’ pursuit of an NFL-record-tying 11th straight 1,000-yard receiving will come down to the wire, though he did help himself in the Bucs’ 48-14 win over the Panthers on Sunday afternoon at Raymond James Stadium.

With 97 yards against Carolina in an impressive two-touchdown performance, Evans now has 915 yards on the season. That leaves him 85 shy of the 1,000-yard mark with next weekend’s regular season finale against the Saints left to play.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

With 10 straight 1,000-yard seasons in the first 10 years of his career, Evans already owns the longest streak of 1,000-yard receiving seasons to begin a career. But he needs those 85 yards next week against New Orleans to make more history. With an 11th consecutive 1,000-yard receiving season, he would tie Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for the longest streak in NFL history.

“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 said in July in reference to Rice’s record. “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.”

The Bucs have already tied their win total from last year, and a win next weekend would not only surpass their total from a year ago but also potentially put them in position to make the playoffs for a fifth straight season. And given how central Evans is to the Tampa Bay offense, it wouldn’t be off the mark to say that getting him those 85 yards and the record could very well go hand in hand with a winning game plan. When Evans is involved, good things tend to happen, after all.

While the 1,000-yard streak is at the forefront of a lot of minds (though it’s in the back of Evans’), the 31-year-old receiver did extend one streak in Sunday’s win over the Panthers. Evans surpassed the 60-reception mark for the 11th straight year, which is the longest streak of 60-catch seasons to begin a player’s career. In the process, he tied Rice, Derrick Mason and Travis Kelce for the fourth-most consecutive 60+ catch seasons in league history.

As impressive as that consistency is, all eyes will be on Evans as he pursues those 85 yards he needs next week against the Saints.

Mike Evans Has Left It Late Before, But This Is His Biggest Deficit Yet

Bucs WR Mike Evans Photo by: USA Today

Over the course of Mike Evans’ 10-year streak of 1,000-yard receiving seasons, he has crossed the mark in different ways depending on the year. Some years, he has blown by 1,000 yards early in December with plenty of games left to play. Other years, he has entered the final weeks of the season with some work to do. And in his 10-year career, he has left it pretty late before.

In his rookie year, Evans needed three yards heading into the season finale in order to cross 1,000 yards. He finished that game with 54, bringing his total for his rookie campaign to 1,051. In 2015, he crossed the 1,000-yard mark in Week 15, going on to finish with 1,206. The 2016 season saw him extend his streak to three straight years in Week 12 before he finished the campaign with 1,321 yards.

Then came the 2017 season, when he once again went into the final game of the Bucs’ season needing to do some work to keep the streak alive. He needed 54 yards heading into that game, and he got 55 to finish with 1,001.

After that close call, Evans breezed by the 1,000-yard threshold in both 2018 and 2019. He did so in Week 12 both years, finishing with a career-high 1,524 yards in 2018 before putting up 1,157 in 2019 despite missing the last three games of the season.

Evans had another close call in 2020, entering the season finale needing 40 yards to keep the streak alive. He managed to put up 46 yards in the Bucs’ season-closing win over the Falcons with 46 yards before exiting early with an injury. The 1,006 yards he finished with that season made for the second-closest he had ever been to missing out on 1,000 yards.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

In 2021, the NFL went to an 18-week, 17-game schedule, giving Evans another game to work with in his pursuit of history. He needed it that year, as he came into the season finale 54 yards shy of the mark. With an 89-yard day against the Panthers, he kept the streak going by finishing with 1,035 yards.

It hasn’t been as close in recent years, as Evans got to 1,000 yards in Week 17 of the 2022 season with a 207-yard game (also against the Panthers) and didn’t need to play in the season finale. He finished with 1,124 yards that year. And then came last year, when he broke the 1,000-yard barrier in Week 13 on his way to a 1,255-yard season.

So over the 10 years his streak has stretched, it has come down to the final week of the regular season four times. But back to the 2024 season. Evans will enter next weekend’s season finale against the Saints with his biggest deficit yet, needing 85 yards to make history.

New Orleans came into Week 17 with the 28th-ranked pass defense in the NFL. In its loss to the Raiders, it allowed 242 yards to Aidan O’Connell, which was right around the defense’s average. With the way Baker Mayfield is slinging it right now, the odds have to be high for him to hit that mark and likely surpass it. And if that happens, it’d be a shock if Mike Evans wasn’t heavily involved, especially considering the stakes.

Nonetheless, it all comes down to next week.