Bucs’ Mike Evans would rather level a guy than score a touchdown
By Mike Dyce
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers addressed the need for a wide receiver when they selected Texas A&M’s Mike Evans in the draft. Of course they might have gotten more than just someone to catch passes. In an interview with NBCSN and Pro Football Talk.
While on the show, Evans was asked what his best trait was and he had an uncharacteristic response for a receiver.
“[I]n high school I played for a running team, so I had to make sure I knew how to block,” Evans told Erik Kuselias. “And then you know I got to college and Coach [Kevin] Sumlin and [receivers coach] David Beaty said, ‘If you don’t block, you don’t play.’ That’s what their motto was, so you know I had to block and I just like helping my teammates out as much as possible.”
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Then he was asked which he’d rather do, level a guy or score a touchdown. As a wide receiver you’d expect scoring touchdowns to be his answer, but that isn’t necessarily the case with Evans.
“Let me level a guy,” Evans said. “If it’s clean. If it’s clean, no flag. Yeah, definitely.”
So far what head coach Lovie Smith has seen from Evans has him enthusiastic about the first-round draft pick.
“You talk to the players about doing something to make the coaches notice them,” Smith said, via the Tampa Bay Times. “And seeing how guys can perform on the center stage. we have a first-round draft pick. Great catch by Mike Evans out there today but he’s been doing that all week. He’s a good football player.”