How many highly productive seasons will it take to put Mike Evans in the NFL Hall of Fame?
His current resume puts him well on the path....
1) Playoffs. He has his Superbowl ring. One and counting. Will his lack of playoff stats hurt him? I think it could have, but the ring definitely was huge. Hopefully there is a couple more deep playoff runs in his future.
2) 1000 yard seasons. He has seven so far. If he gets to nine, he will join these WRs who had nine or more: Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, Terrell Owens, Steve Smith, Tim Brown.
3) Receiving yards. Right now he's only 94th on the all-time list with over 8000, but with about three more productive seasons he would be up in the 11000s range with the likes of Calvin Johnson, Rod Smith, Michael Irvin, and Antonio Brown.
4) Comparison to his draft class in yards. Evans 8,266. Landry 7028, Cooks 6880, Beckham 6830, Adams 6568, Robinson 5999.
5) Receiving Yards per Game. Evans is 7th all-time. Ahead of him are mostly active players, which is a reflection of how the rules changes have impacted receiving stats. Those are Julio Jones, Calvin Johnson, Michael Thomas, Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham, Deandre Hopkins. Not bad company to be in.
6) Receiving TDs. At 61, Evans has one fewer than Davante Adams. He has one more than Julio Jones, Deandre Hopkins and Greg Olsen. If he gets 9 or 10 TDs per year. That would put him at about 90, well into the top 20 ahead of Paul Warfield at 85 and Andre Reed at 87. Look, some WRs specialize in yards, others in TDs. Evans does both. He's a deep threat AND a Red Zone target.
7) Consecutive 1000 yard seasons to begin career. Of course Evans already has that record and still going.
8) Character. It matters. At least it can put a damper on the HOF voters enthusiasm if it's a problem. Evans passes that test with flying colors.
9) Career length. How many seasons does a typical HOFer have? Most HOF WRs have about 14 seasons or so, but they aren't always highly productive seasons.
You do have to account for the fact that the game has changed to favor the passing game. And we will be moving to a 17 game season. Those will be factors that a HOF voter would take into account. The requirements statistics-wise are getting tougher and tougher for WRs, and that's only fair.
IMO Evans needs perhaps 4 more highly productive seasons of over 1100 or 1200 yards to adjust for the 17 game schedule, and they don't have to be consecutive. More playoff appearances would help. If he does that it will be very tough to keep this guy out of the HOF. That's my opinion. What do you think?
