Getty Images
The Buccaneers have three clear goals for Week 17. First, get to 11-5. Second, nail down the No. 5 seed in the NFC. Third, get receiver Mike Evans to 1,000 receiving yards.
Evans currently has 960 receiving yards in 2020, his seventh NFL season. If it happens, Evans will become the first player in NFL history to generate 1,000 receiving yards in each of his first seven seasons.
“I think it’s important for him and us,” offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich told reporters on Thursday. “I think it’s important, really, for this organization to have that. That’s a unique thing. Any time that you can be one of one [in] anything, [with] all the special players, all the great players that have came through this league that have done the things [and] played that position. He has the opportunity to be one of one. That’s a unique thing and that just shows how good of a football player he is. That’s special to be one of one of something like that. That’s unique, so obviously you want him to be able to get it. We’re not going to try to force it, but we’re just going to have him play, let Mike be Mike and we’ll see.”
With only 40 yards needed, it shouldn’t be hard to get Evans to 1,000 yards. He’s currently tied with Randy Moss, who had six 1,000-yard seasons in a row to start his Hall of Fame career. Evans quietly is putting together a Hall of Fame career of his own.
For his career, Evans has 529 catches and 8,220 yards. He barely kept the current streak alive in 2017, with 1,001 yards. But live it does, and with 40 yards on Sunday against the Falcons he sets the record.
