John Romano: Forgive us, Mike Evans, we didn't realize just how important you were

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Nov 11, 2025

Published in Football

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

TAMPA, Fla. — You think you know a guy. You know his past performance. You know his level of skill. You’ve watched him for a dozen years, and you know his value and worth to a football team.

And then Mike Evans gets hurt and you realize you didn’t know him at all.

Oh sure, you’ve recognized the past few years that you were watching a future Hall of Fame receiver at the peak of his craft. Since he came into the league in 2014, there’s not another player who has gained more receiving yards than Evans. And only Davante Adams has caught more touchdown passes.

But, it turns out, the numbers and records are only part of the story.

Now that he’s missed almost all of the past six games with a hamstring injury and a broken clavicle, we’re starting to understand the importance of what a 6-foot-5 guy with speed, discipline, focus and soft hands does to opposing defenses.

He scares the bejeebers out of them.

Almost 13,000 receiving yards later, Evans had to disappear from the field to remind us how important he is to Tampa Bay.

“I think you saw that the next week that we lost him,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “When (defenses) have a guy like that that you’ve got to prepare for, it’s always going to be different when you lose that kind of production.”

Without Evans on the field, defenses aren’t as worried about the deep ball. They’re able to use their best cornerbacks on rookie Emeka Egbuka. They’re not as afraid to send extra rushers after Baker Mayfield.

The Bucs have the same number of players on the field, but they do not have the same explosiveness. And that changes how defenses play, which means it forces Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard to change how he constructs game plans.

“When you lose somebody like that,” Bowles said, “it’s always going to affect your offense and you’re going to have to change and do different things.”

You can see it in Mayfield’s numbers. You can see it in the play calls. You can see it in the boldness of opposing defensive coordinators. Or, you can just look at Tampa Bay’s record. In the last five seasons, the Bucs are 42-21 when Evans gets more than 25 snaps. They’re 4-10 when he doesn’t.

The Bucs weathered the storm earlier in the season when Evans missed time with a hamstring, but they also had Bucky Irving at running back and Chris Godwin at receiver for some of those games. Without those additional threats, the offense has steered into the ditch since Evans broke his clavicle early against the Lions.

Tampa Bay is actually throwing the ball more in recent weeks but accomplishing far less.

In the first six weeks of the season, the Bucs were averaging 32.5 passes per game for 244.1 yards. That works out to 7.51 yards per pass attempt. Since the Detroit game, they’ve averaged 39 passes per game for 197.3 yards. That’s 5.05 yards per attempt.

Try scaring defenses when your yards per attempt drop by about 33%.

“You know, (with 11) straight 1,000-yard seasons, teams are going to take notice,” Egbuka said. “Maybe travel their best corner or play cloud coverage or double cover, whatever the case may be.”

Obviously, this is not simply because Evans is hurt. The offensive line has been banged up most of the year, and guard Ben Bredeson left Sunday’s game against the Patriots with a hamstring injury.

The result is the Bucs are relying more on a short passing game with Cade Otton and Sterling Shepard getting more targets. The Bucs are also using three-receiver sets less often, and they’re keeping extra tight ends in for pass blocking.

The average depth of target has been 6.8 yards in each of the last two games. You have to go back to the middle of 2024 to find another game when Mayfield was throwing that many short passes.

Maybe it would be different if the Bucs came into the season knowing that Evans was not going to be available. If Grizzard had time during training camp to come up with a plan that featured other receivers in different pass routes.

But the reality is the Bucs are relying on a rookie (Egbuka) and two receivers listed at 5-10 (Tez Johnson and Shepard), and they’re having to come up with alternate game plans on the fly.

Tampa Bay was averaging 27.5 points per game going into Detroit. Since Evans broke his clavicle, they’ve averaged 18.3 points per game. The last time the Bucs offense had such a weak three-game stretch was the end of 2023.

The hope is that this is temporary. Evans should return by the end of December and all will be back normal.

Except, by then, we’ll appreciate Mike Evans more than ever.