Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Arians ‘completely mesmerized’ with Mike Evans

Wide receiver Mike Evans has been a significant contributor for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the last five years, and has his new head coach drooling over him.

With less than a week until the start of training camp and one day until the rookies report, J.C. Cornell of The Draft Network tweeted out a scoop that new head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Bruce Arians is “completely mesmerized” with wide receiver Mike Evans. Arians is not the only one as fans of the Buccaneers continue to argue that Evans is a top five receiver in the NFL today.

Evans is coming off the best year of his career yardage wise when he posted over 1,500 yards receiving while hauling in eight touchdowns on 86 catches in 2018. He has now hit 1,000 yards receiving in all of his first five seasons in the NFL, second to do so only to Hall of Famer Randy Moss; Evans looks to make it six straight years in 2019.

With Jameis Winston out of controversy and competition for the starting quarterback job for the first time in a few years, Evans looks to thrive as the two have developed quite the chemistry together over the last four seasons together. He is still looking to secure his first ever All-Pro nomination, and the stars have aligned for Evans to achieve that status this year.

Throughout his coaching career, Arians has molded the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, but as Cornell points out, Evans “is his obsession on the Bucs offense” (via Twitter). In his vertical style of offense that should provide some fireworks, Arians will let Winston let it rip to not only Evans, but Chris Godwin, O.J. Howard, and others as well.

As the Buccaneers look to climb out of the basement of the NFC South, look for Arians and his offense to rely heavily on the star power and consistency of Evans in 2019. After a career year, the Pro Bowl receiver looks to top his performance again this year as he continues to climb the ranks around the league.