Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans has returned to practice and will make his official return against the New York Giants, according to league sources. Evans has missed the team’s last three games with a hamstring injury.
Evans was forced to exit Tampa Bay’s Week 7 game against the Baltimore Ravens, just after becoming the 11th player in NFL history to record 100 receiving touchdowns and the fifth to catch them all with the same team. He was able to walk off the field and into the locker room under his own power and was diagnosed with what Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles referred to as a “moderate” hamstring injury.
The Buccaneers have certainly felt the absence of Evans, as well as fellow veteran receiver Chris Godwin, who was carted off the field in the same game Evans exited. After a 4-3 start with Evans and Godwin, the Buccaneers lost their next three games without the veteran duo — all in a one-score loss. Tampa Bay went from averaging 248.3 passing yards per game and a seventh-best 0.153 EPA per dropback through their first seven weeks to 208 yards per game and a 16th-ranked 103.2 EPA per dropback over the last four, according to RBSDM.
Evans, who had not missed a game since the 2022 season, served as one of Baker Mayfield’s favorite targets since the quarterback arrived in Tampa Bay. Evans accounts for 181 of Mayfield’s 889 targeted passes, a 20.4 percent target share second only to Godwin. In Evans’ absence, Mayfield and the Buccaneers have been forced to rely on increased [assing work to their tight ends and running backs while introducing new faces off the street like Sterling Shepard.
Now, Evans is set to help get the Buccaneers back on track against a New York Giants team that is 31st in the league in defensive passing DVOA against WR1s and just benched quarterback Daniel Jones for former third-stringer Tommy DeVito. At 4-6, Tampa Bay currently sits in second place behind a 6-5 Atlanta Falcons team that has already beaten them twice. The Buccaneers currently have a 23 percent chance to make the playoffs and a 14 percent chance to win their division, according to The Athletic’s playoff projection model.
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
