4 advantages that Mike Evans has over Michael Thomas

Mike Evans runs a far more diverse route tree.

Bucs fans like to have some fun at Thomas’ expense by joking that he only ever runs slant routes. While this is not totally the case, there could be some truth to that statement.

Here is a look at the route tree run by Mike Evans and Michael Thomas in week 11 of the 2019 NFL season on nextgenstats.nfl.com. While the results vary week to week, both of these images are reliable indicators of an average week. Scrolling through each week will mostly reveal more of the same.

The two big things that should stick out are 1) almost all of Mike Evans’ routes are vertical, and 2) the majority of Thomas’ routes are close to the line of scrimmage and don’t move downfield much before the catch.

This does shed some light on why Thomas is able to post so many catches in a season and why Evans struggles with his catch rate. In man or zone coverage, throwing to slants is far easier than trying to throw the ball deeper and on routes like the ones that Evan’s is known for.

Thomas does have a slight advantage with his skills after the catch, but if you give Evans the same routes, the catch rate would look far more similar.