The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reeling.
The Bucs Sunday loss to the San Francisco 49ers was their fourth in a row and dropped Tampa Bay to 4-6 on the season. A large part of the Bucs’ struggles has been due to the absence of star wide receiver Mike Evans as he dealt with a hamstring injury.
Evans is working his way back to help the team get back in the winning column. Evans’ return also puts him in position to record another 1,000-yard season receiving, which would be his 11th consecutive such season.
However, quarterback Baker Mayfield made sure to let the media know that Evans has more important things on his mind than personal accolades.
“You guys have been around Mike for long enough now,” Mayfield said, via the Bucs’ official website.
“The streak, yeah, it’s important to us, but he cares about winning. He’s a huge part of this offense when he’s in there, so I think that will come naturally. But I’ve been in a situation where you kind of force-feed the ball to a guy, and that’s not how this offense works, especially.
“Staying true to reads. The defense dictates where the ball needs to go; when we have our one-on-one matchups with him we need to take advantage of it.”
Tampa Bay looked like one of the league’s top teams when Evans was healthy. It’ll be interesting to see if his return is enough to catapult the Buccaneers back into the thick of the NFC playoff race.
