Mike Evans may look like he's still 25 when he's on the playing field these days, but the fact is he turned 31 in August just before the start of his 11th season. He is officially one of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers team captains, but even without a "C" on his jersey he would be mimicked and followed by his younger teammates, watching how he handles good times and bad.
There's a long, long way to go in the 2024 season, but right now the times are definitely good for the Buccaneers. Coming off an uplifting 20-16 win in Detroit in Week Two, the Bucs are 2-0 and favored against the Denver Broncos at Raymond James Stadium in Week Three. The offense is clicking in Liam Coen's new system and the defense has managed to weather a rash of injuries to key contributors to rank seventh in points allowed.
So what kind of counsel does Evans give his younger teammates in a situation like this? Essentially, keep your head down and work.
"I just tell the guys, 'Keep working. Continue to do what got us here,'" he said. "That's putting in the work each week and going out there and playing hard.
"That's the start we wanted to be on – undefeated to start. Another opportunity here to keep it going. We've got a tough team coming in that's going to play really, really hard so we have to match that energy."
The Buccaneers appear to be in no danger of letting their win over Detroit – one of the favorites in the NFC to make it to the Super Bowl – go to their heads. They are well aware that they started each of the last three seasons 2-0, as well, and went on to lose in Week Three each time.
"It just put us at 2-0," said Evans. "Obviously, we wanted to beat them because they beat us twice last year. They're a really good football team with a lot of great players. That's a good feather in the cap, but we want to keep it going."
Evans' work this week includes studying Denver's Pro Bowl cornerback, Pat Surtain II. Evans is expecting to be shadowed by Surtain, after the Broncos gave that treatment to Seattle's DK Metcalf in Week One and Pittsburgh's George Pickens in Week Two. The Broncos' defense has also blitzed at a very high rate through the first two weeks, which has resulted in lot of man coverage. Evans called going up against Surtain a "great challenge," but he's particularly hoping to see a good amount of that man coverage.
"I want to know the opponent I'm going against, but I love when it's just man-to-man, one-on-one, no help around at all," he said. "Just let us play all game, one-on-one. That's what I like, but I don't know if it's going to be like that. Obviously, every week, whoever is guarding me, I'm going to try to go as hard as I can and make plays, but if it's Cover-1, I get a little more excited."
