4 players who must step up for Buccaneers in Week 4

Cade Otton, TE

There's no question that how well Mike Evans plays dictates how the offense flows, but he's not the only key part of the plan.

Cade Otton has quietly put together a very decent start to the season, posting the highest catch percentage of his career while having his number dialed up in big moments. He hasn't always come through, and Monday was a particularly bad night for him, but Week 4 is the perfect opportunity for Otton to bounce back.

Baker Mayfield loves to throw to his tight ends, which is something we've seen him do when he's been most successful. In his final season in Cleveland, Mayfield targeted his tight ends on almost 30 percent of his passes. Once he moved away from that in Carolina there was a pretty clear dropoff in production, as trying to run his style of offense through Christian McCaffrey was a horrible fit. As soon as he landed in Los Angeles, Sean McVay got him back to targeting his tight ends and we saw Baker start to bounce back.

So far this season Mayfield has targeted Otton on roughly 27 percent of the time per game, which is in line with what Baker does best. It's clear that he's trying to establish a connection with Otton and that's something that could help the offense diversify the weapons it uses to find a rhythm early in games.

As we saw on Monday night, Evans won't always be able to provide a spark and there will be times when opposing defenses neutralize him. Otton has a chance to step up and prove himself as a reliable target against the Saints and help Baker's offense evolve.

More Tampa Bay Buccaneers news and analysis