The last thing anyone wanted to see was the injury big take a bite out of Mike Evans' season. That appears to be the case in at least some capacity, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver exited Sunday's win over the Jets early.
Evans suffered a non-contact injury during the fourth quarter of Week 3, something that forced him out of the game at a critical point. Tampa Bay needed a last-minute comeback drive to win the game, one that almost certainly would have featured Evans heavily had he been on the field.
The best-case scenario is that Evans avoided significant injury, but his reaction after leaving the game isn't exactly filling anyone with a ton of confidence. An MRI on Monday will give everyone a better idea of what the situation is.
Thankfully, the Bucs have Emeka Egbuka to fill in, but that doesn't solve the number of problems created by the potential absence of Evans.
Latest Mike Evans injury update after leaving Week 3 early
Initially, he was diagnosed with a hamstring injury, and Evans was technically questionable to return. He never did, and after the game, head coach Todd Bowles gave as much of an update as he could, given what he knew.
"So far it's a hamstring tweak. I have not gone in to see the final details yet," Bowles said, via Jenna Laine at ESPN.
Evans is expected to undergo an MRI on Monday that will reveal the severity of his injury, and it will be until then that Bucs fans hold their breath and hope for the best. Losing Evans for any stretch of time is brutal for obvious reasons, but everyone has eyes on something other than team goals.
For the 11th straight year, Evans is trying to eclipse 1,000 yards, something no player in NFL history has ever done. Jerry Rice came the closest, setting the record at ten straight seasons, and Evans has a chance to break it -- and potentially hold it for a very long time -- if he's able to reach 1,000 yards again.
He's already behind pace, and missing any game action would set him back even further. Heading into Week 4 Evans needs to average around 61 yards per game in order to reach the 1,000 yard mark, so an uphill battle is looking even harder.
There's a decent chance he rests next week regardless of if the MRI results come back negative. Evans is simply too important to the Buccaneers offense to risk losing him for the long haul, which is something that almost happened last year.
Evans missed three games after suffering another hamstring injury, but he managed to still reach 1,000 yards before the season was over. He needed the very last play of the regular season to do it, which shows just how hard him getting there again will be even if he's healthy.
From a team perspective, the Bucs are already without Chris Godwin and won't have him back until October. However, if Evans misses time, there could be a scenario where Godwin, who has already returned to practice, might get reinstated earlier than expected.
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