Hot off reaching 1,000 yards for an 11th straight season, Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans is locked in exactly the way the team needs ahead of a Wild Card showdown on Sunday.
Evans is no stranger to playoff football, even if the consistency the Bucs have played it recently still feels like a dream. True Bucs fans remember how painful the 2010s were, and Evans entered that chaos midstream back in 2014. Since then, he's played in the playoffs five teams which is why this streak of consecutive trips to the postseason is so special.
It's also why Evans isn't mincing words about what he believes the team is capable of.
Mike Evans thinks the Buccaneers are a Super Bowl caliber team this year
A lot has been said about the quality of the team, specifically when it comes to Todd Bowles and the job he's done. A vocal part of the fan base is staunchly committed to a bit about how he needs to be fired no matter what happens, and it's robbing a lot of people of the joy this playoff run could provide.
Evans isn't dabbling in being miserable, and is instead sending exactly the message the team needs to hear. When asked about whether the Bucs should be taken seriously as a Super Bowl contender, Evans was crystal clear.
“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Evans said. “So we’ve got to come out here and put on a good show.”
It's not like he's going to say the Bucs aren't a Super Bowl contender, but he didn't have to gas the team up the way he did. That's why he's the sort of veteran leader the locker room rallies around for moments like when he reached 1,000 yards for an 11th season last Sunday.
We all saw how jacked up the team was to see him get there, and that speaks the the culture that has been built under Bowles and Baker Mayfield. It's one that Evans believes can help overcome the bad injury luck the team has endured this season, and it says a lot about how tight the locker room is heading into the playoffs.
There's a ton of young talent on the Bucs roster that doesn't have the experience Evans does, which is also why his words are so important. He's giving them an endorsement ahead of what is, for many, the biggest game of their careers so far. Even guys who were here for the playoff run last year are still green, but to hear Evans say he believes in them so much is a huge boost.
We'll see if it translates on the field on Sunday night, but there's no questioning what Evans expects out of a team so many have counted out at various times this seaon.
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