Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Mike Evans caught the 100th touchdown pass of his career vs. the Baltimore Ravens, but his night was cut short after aggravating a hamstring injury that had his status up in the air prior to Week 7.
With some news surrounding his most recent tests, we have an updated picture on the health of the star receiver and what fantasy football managers can expect from this game-breaker moving forward.
All stats are from TruMedia unless otherwise stated.
What Is Mike Evans’ Injury?
Evans suffered a hamstring injury during the Week 6 blowout of the Saints, but he was able to progress enough during the work week to convince the team that he was good-to-go for the big Monday night showdown with the Ravens to wrap up Week 7.
Baker Mayfield spotted him uncovered down field early for a 25-yard touchdown and all seemed to be OK. But when Evans extended for his third target of the evening, a potential 24-yard touchdown, the hamstring flared up and resulted in him dropping the pass to tend to the injury.
#MikeEvans @Buccaneers
Aggravates hamstring and drops 2nd TD pass
Too locker room and likely done
Both WR1 #BALvsTB injured pic.twitter.com/8b3rkbD5eh— David J. Chao – ProFootballDoc (@ProFootballDoc) October 22, 2024
We’ve seen hamstring injuries cost numerous players extended time this year. While availability has been a strength of Evans throughout his career (he enters Week 8 having missed just three games since the start of 2020), he’s going to be on the shelf for the foreseeable future, forcing Tampa Bay to alter the way their offense functions after losing Chris Godwin for the season later in the same game.
How Long Will Evans Be Sidelined?
News broke a few days after the injury that Evans would be sidelined for at least four weeks, a report that first came from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. It was clearly stated that the timetable was labeled in “weeks” and not “games,” an important note for both the team (this timetable keeps him out of the IR conversation) and fantasy managers alike.
The Bucs play the Falcons this week followed by games against the Chiefs and 49ers before their Week 11 bye, making Week 12 a natural target date for optimistic fantasy managers. Of course, that is not written in stone at this moment. But with a tough schedule between now and then, it stands to reason that the team could take an aggressive approach with their star receiver if they feel that their playoff hopes are disappearing.
Fantasy Outlook for Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, and Cade Otton
Baker Mayfield is likely the reason your team is in a competitive spot right now as he wasn’t universally drafted and, through seven weeks, has posted five top-five finishes at the quarterback position.
Up to this point, he has completed 70.5% of his passes and has fired a league-high 18 touchdowns passes (three-plus in each of his past three games, a streak that started against this week’s opponent in the Falcons).
Fantasy football, of course, is a game played with a forward-thinking mindset. Mayfield has been great, but his past production doesn’t earn you wins moving forward, and his status as even a rosterable option is in question right now.
With no teams on a bye this week, it’s likely that you either have a better option on your roster already or can stream a better option. For this week, Tua Tagovailoa and Russell Wilson are the QBs I have my eye on when it comes to waiver wire options who could out-produce Mayfield.
The Chiefs are up next, and with a bye in the mix before Evans comes back, I find it unlikely that Mayfield produces top-15 numbers over the next month — and that might be too much for you to hold onto.
That said, don’t completely forget about him. Cutting him today is logical, but if we get positive news surrounding Evans and that timeline holds, Mayfield could well be a QB1 coming out of the bye until the end of the season:
- Week 12 at New York Giants
- Week 13 at Carolina Panthers
- Week 14 vs. Las Vegas Raiders
- Week 15 at Los Angeles Chargers
- Week 16 at Dallas Cowboys
- Week 17 vs. Carolina Panthers
- Week 18 vs. New Orleans Saints
Evans himself is an obvious stash. His role and scoring equity is that of a top-15 receiver, and I’d expect to rank him that way the second he returns, assuming we are clear of snap restrictions. The other receivers on this offense are dart throws (Jalen McMillan my favorite of the bunch if he’s still available), but Cade Otton could establish himself as a viable TE1 the rest of the way.
Nothing Otton does from a skill standpoint jumps off the screen at you, but this team has always trusted him to be on the field and with just over 49% of their receiving yards for the season now lost for the next four weeks at least, the comfort he provides Mayfield could turn into consistent targets and thus 9-12 PPR point potential. Flashy? Rarely. Productive? Maybe.