Star Buccaneers Wide Receiver Mike Evans Gets Brutally Disrespected

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver continues to get disrespected among his position.
Jan 7, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans (13)
Jan 7, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans (13) / Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been home to one of the best, most consistent wide receivers over the past ten years. In the span, though, Mike Evans is continually disrespected, and, at this point, it's become a regular for Buccaneers fans.

Evans is going to be a Hall of Fame wide receiever. He won a Super Bowl alongside Tom Brady. He's remained consistent with Baker Mayfield under center. Through quite a few different quarterbacks, Evans has surpassed the 1,000 receiving yards mark in each season of his career.

Despite the sustained consistency and yearly big impact, no matter who is under center, Evans continues to be slighted among his position, with less proven pass-catchers being ranked above him. The most recent example of such comes from PFF. They asked who the best receivers since 2010 have been, listing a variety of names, excluding Evans.

While the list of names from PFF certainly hoists some good talents, Evans entered the league in 2014 and has more yards than all but three of those names (Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins and Antonio Brown). On top of this, Evans has pulled down 94 touchdowns in his career, marking the second most on the list.

Evidently, these lists don't matter. For whatever reason — which there is no reasonable explanation — Evans is going to be left off these lists and continually disrespected. In the meantime, he's going to pull down an insane amount of touchdowns while posting over 1,000 receiving yards every season.

By the end of his career, Evans will retire a Super Bowl champion who chose loyaltly and never quite got the respect he deserved. When he's in the Hall of Fame, fans around the NFL might finally see what Buccaneers fans did and respect the incredible career he's building.

Evans and the Buccaneers are preparing for another playoff-hopeful season where he and Baker Mayfield are going to headline the offense as the two ran in back in Tampa. Maybe another season of exceeding expectations can help Evans earn some short-term respect.

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Kade Kimble
KADE KIMBLE

Kade has been covering a wide variety of teams ranging from the NFL to the NBA and college athletics since joining Sports Illustrated's FanNation in 2022.