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About the Author: Scott Reynolds
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FAB 4. Evans Is One The Bucs’ Best First-Rounders
The year 2020 marks my 25th season covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for you, the loyal PewterReport.com reader. As I begin this milestone season, I’m going to spend the next 25 weeks telling some never-before-told Bucs stories and recalling some of my most memorable moments in my professional journey.
As I enter my 25th year of covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers I have had the good fortune to cover four of the franchise’s Top 5 first-round picks since my career began in 1995. That’s the year that the Bucs drafted two Hall of Famers in the first round, defensive tackle Warren Sapp and linebacker Derrick Brooks.
Bucs DT Warren Sapp – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Sapp and Brooks rank second and third on that list behind Lee Roy Selmon, who was the team’s first-ever draft pick in 1976. Selmon has to be atop this list as he was a home run hit right out of the gate in Tampa Bay.
Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans is fourth on the list, and the fifth-best first-rounder in Bucs history is up for debate.
Is it quarterback Doug Williams, a Bucs Ring of Honor member, who led Tampa Bay to three playoff appearances and to within a game of the Super Bowl in 1979? Is it Bucs Ring of Honor left tackle Paul Gruber, who is the best offensive lineman in team history? Is it defensive tackle Gerald McCoy (2010), who was a six-time Pro Bowler, yet didn’t play on a Bucs playoff team?
I had the good fortune of covering all three men, although Williams was in the front office in the personnel department under general managers Bruce Allen and Mark Dominik in the 2000s. I covered the last five years of Gruber’s storied career in Tampa Bay, as well as McCoy’s entire nine-year run with the organization.
But the player I want to focus on is Evans. I’ve been around a lot of Bucs legends in my day covering this team. I’m talking about the likes of cornerback Ronde Barber, strong safety John Lynch, defensive end Simeon Rice and fullback Mike Alstott in addition to Sapp and Brooks.
I’m talking about guys that rewrote the record books in Tampa Bay and have either made the Pro Football Hall of Fame or are contending for it.
To me, that’s true legend status.
Neither Williams nor Gruber had the Pro Bowls to be considered a Hall of Famer. McCoy hardly dented the Bucs’ record books during his time in Tampa Bay, as he’s the team’s fourth-leading sacker with 54.5 sacks – 15 sacks behind Rice on the list. His six Pro Bowls made him a very good player, but he’s never been on a playoff team and won’t be a Hall of Famer.
Yet if Evans keeps going and playing at a high level at age 27 this year, he will set an NFL record with seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons to start his career. That’s Hall of Fame-worthy, and he’s currently tied with Hall of Famer Randy Moss with six.
Evans, a three-time Pro Bowler, has caught 462 passes for 7,260 (15.7 avg.) and 48 touchdowns in his six years in Tampa Bay – all franchise career records. And the 12 touchdown catches he had as a rookie in 2014 and again in 2016 are a single-season club record, as is Evans’ 1,524 receiving yards in 2018.
Simply put, Evans isn’t just a Pro Bowler in Tampa Bay. He’s a living legend.
Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Getty Images
When his illustrious career is finished we will be talking about Evans as a sure-fire Top 10 Buccaneer with Top 5 consideration if he can help the team into the playoffs and win a Super Bowl before it’s all said and done. That’s some rarified air, but winning a Super Bowl would put Evans in that conversation, and he would go down as the Bucs’ greatest offensive player, surpassing Alstott or running back James Wilder – whoever you think it is – for that distinction.
For me it’s Alstott because I had the honor of covering him during his entire NFL career. Alstott was a second-round pick in 1996, the year after I started writing for Buccaneer Magazine, and I watched him score his franchise-record 71 touchdowns in the regular season, in addition to becoming the team’s second-leading rusher all-time. Aside from the knack of making big plays and scoring TDs, the two other traits that Evans shares with Alstott are humility and charity.
Evans and his wife, Ashli, do great work for the Mike Evans Foundation, and despite signing a five-year, $82.5 million contract extension with Tampa Bay in 2018, the money hasn’t changed Evans’ focus or character one bit. He still comes to work with a purpose, which is to be the greatest receiver in NFL history. Evans helps his teammates, and has played a huge role in the development of fellow Pro Bowler Chris Godwin.
If anything, the money has made Evans even more charitable because he has the means to give even more to the Tampa Bay community and to his home community in Galveston, Texas.
I wonder when the Bucs will draft their next legend in the first round? Was it last year with the selection of inside linebacker Devin White, who has stardom written all over him? Could it be this year?
I don’t plan on doing anything but covering the Buccaneers for you for the next 25 years, so I’m sure I’ll be around to see the next legend or legends get drafted. But whoever comes along will have a tough time beating out the likes of Selmon, Sapp, Brooks and Evans.
With the 2020 NFL Draft approaching, I thought it would be fun to dig up some of the college highlight reels for the three top first-round picks that I got to cover in my Buccaneer Magazine/Pewter Report career – Sapp, Brooks and Evans. Enjoy!
Stay tuned for another Bucs story from yesteryear in next week’s SR’s Fab 5. And if you missed my previous Bucs memories from the past 24 years of covering the team, click on the links below.
