After suffering a knee injury in the Bucs’ Week 17 match-up against the Falcons, wide receiver Mike Evans’ was helped off the field and taken for an MRI that night.
Head coach Bruce Arians gave a reassuring update after the game, stating that the organization didn’t think that the injury was anything serious, and later confirmed that Evans’ MRI revealed no ligament or significant structural damage. But despite no serious damage done to the knee, Evans’ status for the Bucs’ first round match-up against Washington was put in question.
Evans returned to practice on Thursday however, and according to a report from ESPN’s Jenna Laine, the veteran wide receiver will try to suit up and play on Saturday.
Two sources close to the situation tell me Mike Evans will try to play today.
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) January 9, 2021
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About the Author: Taylor Jenkins
Of course he’s going to play. He’s Mike Evans.
he ready
Won’t matter much whether Evans plays or not IMO
Godwin, AB, Gronk and Rojo are all capable of winning this game themselves.
Mistake to me. Unless he’s 100% and not 99%. Too much at stake next week.
I wouldn’t say keep him out the whole game but maybe just limit his playing time. I do believe Godwin and Brown is enough to get the job done but I also understand Mike wanting to play his first playoff game. Either way, let’s get that win!
Definite target in the red zone.
Tomorrow is promised to no one.
Use him on short routes.
Mistake to try.
He’ll be good on short possession routes. Have him do button hooks
Not surprised at all. He’ll probably do some short stuff and play decoy. You can’t blame him for not wanting to miss his first playoff game.
Just having his presence out there will be huge. You have to account for him, and have bodies on him. So it’ll be hard for Washington to take away the underneath stuff and force us to beat them deep. Which will be harder than normal to do with their pass rush. Even if hes just a decoy, his presence is huge. Because as it is, Gronk will probably be staying in to block more than usual, which will take away a seam threat. We need big Mike out there
What bothers me is that reading about this type of injury, running on the leg causes inflammation and exacerbation of the injury and slows healing. So “trying” to play and playing just a small number of plays will still slow his recovery significantly. I realize we can’t know ahead of time whether he will be needed in this game to get us to victory, but if it were me, I’d sit him. Our defense is so mediocre that we will struggle to beat the best teams in the league down the road without Mike.
If Evans is able to line up, then he plays! Score will dictate how much he plays. Go Bucs! Let’s take care of business…u got this!