Antonio Brown Emerging as Top Receiver Over Mike Evans and Chris Godwin

Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown has had his share of ups and downs in his career, to say the least. However, since he joined Tom Brady and the Bucs, the news has primarily focused on his play on the field and not his antics off it. 

So far this season, Brown has caught 29 passes for 418 yards and four touchdowns. He has undoubtedly become a real option for Tom Brady, but is he now the Bucs’ best option in the passing game? After six games, it appears yes. 

While Mike Evans still leads Brown in total yards with 420, the gap is just two yards so they might as well be tied. Chris Godwin is third with 409 yards. Leonard Fournette and Gronkowski round out the receiving threats on the Bucs with 213 and 184 yards respectively. 

Where Brown has shone is in his ability to make plays after the catch his whole career. He leads the Bucs starting receivers in average yards per catch with 14.4 with his longest reception of the year at 62 yards. That is also a team-high. Brown is also tied for the team lead in touchdown receptions with four alongside Evans. This is made all the more impressive when you see that Brown’s targets are seven less than Evans and four less than Godwin on the year. That clearly shows that Brown is making more with his catches than anyone else on the team. 

What is most eye-opening about Brown this season is that the Bucs are using him more and more each week. This makes sense considering his success but he is starting to out-target the rest of the team and I think that trend continues. In his first two games this year, Brown totaled 10 targets and six receptions against the Falcons and Cowboys. However, the last two weeks saw Brown amass a total of 21 targets against the Dolphins and Eagles. 

Brown’s last game against the Eagles was his best yet across the board. He was targeted 13 times in a game where nobody else on either team saw more than seven. Brown caught nine of those passes for 93 yards and a touchdown. Evans meanwhile has seen his targets steadily decreasing. He topped out with 12 targets in the Bucs win over the Patriots a few weeks ago but has totaled just 12 targets in the two games following that victory. 

While all of this is going on, one very important thing to note is that the Bucs are winning. And if I know anything about sports, it’s that if teams are on a winning streak, they will keep doing the things that got them there. I expect Brown to continue to see WR1 targets and perhaps be the Bucs most-used receiver moving forward.