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Jenna Laine
TAMPA, Fla. — If Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise scoring chief Mike Evans has his say, 2025 will pan out only a bit otherwise than 2024. Along with serving to his staff earn a fourth straight NFC South title, he notched 1,000 receiving yards for the eleventh consecutive yr — matching a document set by Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer Jerry Rice — but it surely got here on the final play of the season.
“Hopefully I can do it … early,” Evans mentioned, flashing a smile and letting out a chuckle. The six-time Professional Bowler missed three video games with a hamstring harm final season — tied for his longest stretch of missed video games as he heads into Yr 12. Evans instructed ESPN that it was one of the difficult hamstring accidents he has handled.
However now he will get his shot at sole possession of the document, and Rice gave him his blessing to take action. Rice has held the document since 1996, though that was in an period when the NFL performed solely 16 regular-season video games earlier than including a seventeenth in 2021.
Rice instructed Evans in a characteristic by The Players’ Tribune, “You understand that I am pulling for you proper?”
Evans responded to Rice, “Meaning extra to me than you would ever know, so I admire that, O.G. You’re the authentic. … That is so surreal proper now. That is surreal for me that you already know who I’m.”
Evans already has the document for probably the most consecutive 1,000-yard seasons to begin a profession at 11 — Randy Moss is subsequent at six — however so far as probably the most 1,000-yard seasons in a profession, Evans broke a tie with Moss for second final season and sits behind Rice’s 14.
Rice and Evans had met briefly in 2018, however this was their first time sitting down for an in depth dialog. They talked store, discussing the nuances of route operating, together with the post-corner.
“You perfected simply route operating on the whole,” Evans mentioned. “However the post-corner is to me your finest route, and I’ve discovered tips on how to run that route due to you.”
Rice instructed Evans, “You bought to have the ability to promote routes. You bought to make the opponent consider your first minimize is actually the place you are going to get the ball.”
The 2 additionally mentioned how they’d go about making an attempt to defend the opposite and what sharing the document presently means to each of them.
“With the ability to sit down and speak to the best receiver ever was fairly humbling,” Evans mirrored. “The issues he needed to say about me — it was an awesome second for me. … That is one other factor that was humbling about it — how he [received] me. He confirmed me love, in order that was actually cool.”
Evans, who turns 32 in August, is getting into the ultimate yr of his contract and has not indicated how for much longer he needs to proceed enjoying. Beforehand in 2023, he entered the season expressing dissatisfaction about not having a brand new contract, however his mindset is completely different this yr.
“I actually have not even thought of [the future],” Evans mentioned. “I simply thought of having an awesome yr this yr, and we’ll see what occurs.”