WR Mike Evans – 6-5, 231 – 26 years old – 7th season

Like Lavonte David, Mike Evans is an established star toiling in obscurity in Tampa Bay, reaching 1,000 yards for the sixth consecutive season of his career in Week 11 of last season. Randy Moss is the only other wide receiver to begin a career with six straight 1,000-yard campaigns. Insanity.

Evans isn’t the efficient receiver that Godwin is, mainly because a lot of his targets come further down the field, an area for lower percentage throws. According to Next Gen Stats, Evans has finished each of the last two seasons in sixth place in average Targeted Air Yards for wide receivers with at least 60 targets. That basically means Evans is targeted further down the field than all but five receivers in the entire league over each of the past two seasons.

“I love Mike Evans,” Cosell said. “First, it’s hard to overlook the fact that he’s 6-4, 232 pounds. And by the way, he runs really well. He runs by people. It’s really strange that he’s not talked about a whole lot when people talk about the top two, three, four wide receivers in the league. Probably because he plays in Tampa and they haven’t been great and all anyone has ever wanted to talk about is Jameis. But Mike Evans is really good. There are very few guys that size that can run like he can.”

“One of the games I watched was that Week 3 game against the Giants,” Cosell said. “Say what you want about Janoris Jenkins, whether he’s fallen off or not, but Evans ran by Jenkins a number of times. Just ran right by him. So you’re dealing with a guy who is big, who is athletic, who is physical, who is vertical. Usually guys that big are not vertical receivers. He’s a tough vertical dimension to defend. I just think he’s a really, really good player.”

Evans is a masterful vertical receiver in all elements of important downfield play – speed, ball tracking, ball skills in the air, playing through contact and working to create separation at the top of his routes on posts, digs and out-cuts. He’s not a sudden change-of-direction receiver, but Evans uses subtle footwork to get defensive backs leaning at the top of his route, then breaks the other way to create a throwing window.

“Maybe this would be a controversial or bold take, and I don’t do those just to do those, but I think you could make the argument that he’s a better receiver than DeAndre Hopkins,” Cosell said. “I think Evans is a more explosive guy. There is more of a vertical element to him. On the flip side, you could argue Hopkins is maybe better on those inside routes, tougher routes, those kinds of throws. But I think Evans is a more explosive player than DeAndre Hopkins. He’s a bigger athlete and he’s more explosive. I guess it’s pick your poison, who do you like better and who fits your offense, but Evans is a really, really good receiver with ridiculous size, and he’s a vertical dimension in a league where guys that big are not normally vertical dimensions.”

Evans does almost all of his work beyond ten yards from the line of scrimmage, which is clearly where he is at his best. He’s not a big YAC receiver or a guy you’d look to manufacture touches for, nor is he the quick stop-start type of short-area separator against man coverage. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be versatile in his alignment, as he’s played a handful of snaps every year of his career from the slot. It’s just that Godwin’s presence allows him to do his best work in the vertical portions of the field more often.

“Evans is predominantly the Bucs’ ‘X’,” Cosell said. “He predominantly aligns on the ball. He ran a lot of out-cuts, fades, nine routes, and then he ran inside the numbers – digs, Bang 8s, slants. They did that cool thing where he and Godwin are stacked at times, normally Evans would be the one on the ball and Godwin would be off the ball. He’d be in the slot at times depending on how they wanted to line up. I think he’s pretty complete.”

Still, there is no question that Evans is a different type of receiver than Brady has typically played with over the years. He’s had vertical threats to be sure, but not many with the size or dominance of Evans, and certainly no one in recent years that could compare to the big Bucs receiver.

“The only guy you would theoretically compare Evans to (that Brady has played with), and this guy may have been the best ever at vertical route-running, is Randy Moss,” Cosell said. “Now I’m not saying Evans is Randy Moss, because Moss might be the best ever at that. Now is Brady gonna drop back seven steps and chuck it 65 yards in the air? No, he’s not gonna do that. But you and I both know that a lot of vertical routes are not necessarily pure arm strength throws. So those routes will be in their offense, and Brady can make those throws.”

For those who believe Brady won’t bring the same propensity for downfield passing to the team that Winston did, that could be accurate while also being unimportant in whether the Bucs find success as an offense in 2020. Brady is absolutely a willing vertical passer who plays with a well-harnessed aggression, which could be a far cry from Winston’s style of play in Tampa. What kind of impact that stylistic shift has on Mike Evans’ numbers remains to be seen.

“Could Evans be the guy whose numbers drop off? Could he maybe catch 55 balls instead of 75 balls? That could be possible,” Cosell said. “Obviously Jameis had a bigger arm than Brady and Jameis would drive it down the field. Brady is more of a selective push-it-down-the-field thrower depending on game situation. Obviously there is a reckless, undisciplined quality to Jameis at times, where Brady doesn’t have that concern. There’s certainly a place for Evans in the offense, but whether he catches 75 balls for 1,400 yards, that’s impossible to answer.”