Mike Evans has been giving fantasy football managers a roller coaster ride heading into Week 2. Evans was seen at practice with his calf taped Wednesday before being absent Thursday. After he returned to practice in a limited capacity Friday, Evans was listed as questionable on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Week 2 injury report.
What are the latest injury updates, is Evans set to be playing in Week 2 against the Saints, and what should fantasy managers do if he is or is not active?
Update: Evans is active for the Buccaneers’ Week 2 game.
Is Mike Evans playing in Week 2?
The signs on Sunday morning appear to be promising regarding Evans being active for Week 2, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Evans is expected to be playing against the Saints this week.
What was also intriguing is that when NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport provided his morning updates a few hours later, Evans was not listed among the Buccaneers’ injury updates. Whether that means Rapoport is not certain about his status or has nothing new to add to the injury report is yet to be seen.
While it appears positive news regarding Evans’ status, his being active will leave fantasy managers scratching their heads about what to do. Let’s look at the situation for Evans in Week 2.
Should fantasy managers start Evans in Week 2?
Normally Evans would be a slam-dunk starting option for fantasy managers. When you also throw in the complete mess that the Buccaneers’ WR group is right now in terms of injuries, that should be even more of a certainty.
Julio Jones is a game-time decision, Chris Godwin is absent, and Russell Gage appears set to play but has been dealing with an injury the past few weeks. The Buccaneers even activated Kaylon Geiger from their practice squad in order to provide depth.
However, there are two factors at play that make Evans a tough call for fantasy managers this week. First, anytime a player is limited, it is always tough to know whether to start them. We have no idea what Evans’ usage will look like this week, and there is always the chance he aggravates the injury and ends up being ruled out at some point in the game.
On top of that is Evans’ recent history when facing the Saints. Since Tom Brady arrived, Evans’ numbers against the Saints are in stark contrast to the games against other teams. Evans has played 33 games with Brady in the past three seasons. In the four games against the Saints, Evans averages roughly half the fantasy output he does in the other 29 games.
Evans’ targets drop from just over 7.6 per game to just under four per game. Meanwhile, his yardage total drops from over 65 yards per game to marginally above 30 yards, and he averages just two receptions per game against the Saints compared to almost five in the other 29 games.
All of that appears pretty compelling, The only reason Evans even has a mediocre fantasy return against the Saints is that he found the end zone twice across the four games. He is an extremely risky player to start this week if you can avoid it.
What are Evans’ projections on Underdog’s Pick’em game?
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If you do sign up, Evans’s projected stats for this week are fascinating. They have Evans projected for 4.5 receptions, 58.5 receiving yards, and 14.75 fantasy points in half-PPR scoring.
Based on the numbers we just looked at above, those projections seem too high. In the four games against the Saints’ since Brady arrived, Evans has not gone had more than 4.5 receptions once.
Meanwhile, he has had more than 58.5 receiving yards just once. His highest fantasy point return during that time was 11.8 when he found the end zone in Week 8 last year.
Add in the injury concerns, and going lower on all of those projections is extremely enticing this week.
What should fantasy managers do if Evans is inactive?
If Evans is inactive, fantasy managers have a weird situation with the Buccaneers’ receiving group. With Godwin also out, it would usually make Jones and Gage must-start type options.
However, both of those could be limited with injuries. Breshad Perriman would also be a boom-bust type option as a big-play option, but he is also dealing with an injury.
In Week 1, Jaelon Darden played on 10 offensive snaps but did not see a single target. Meanwhile, Scotty Miller was a healthy scratch. Miller should be active, especially with the Buccaneers activating Kaylon Geiger from the practice squad on Saturday.
One of those three could see considerable opportunities this week. Darden is the deep-league intriguing option, but there is no certainty about how this offense will look with all of their top five receivers dealing with injuries entering the game.