The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a very rough Week 7. On Monday, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs got lit up at their own home by Lamar Jackson and the high-powered Baltimore Ravens. But apart from Tampa Bay's 41-31 loss at the hands of the Ravens, the Bucs' woes got compounded by injuries to a couple of their most important players.
Wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin both suffered lower-body injuries. But while Godwin's 2024 season is over due to the gruesome nature of his ankle injury, Evans' injury isn't as serious. He could miss multiple games but he's not ruled out for Week 8's game against the Atlanta Falcons at home either, with Tom Pelissero reporting that the Buccaneers have yet to make a decision on the wideout's status label.
“Let's start out with Mike Evans who was dealing with a hamstring injury going into this game, Pelissero said on Good Morning Football.
“Barely practiced last week, was a limited participant on Saturday, was off the injury, reported good to go. But you could plainly tell even on the touchdown he scored early in that game that Mike Evans was not quite himself. He goes down on that play that you're watching right there with what certainly looked to be a very, very painful hamstring injury.”
Evans opened the scoring in the Ravens game with a touchdown in the first period, which was also his 100th scoring reception in his NFL career. In the fourth quarter, the veteran wideout nearly scored another touchdown but failed to secure the ball as he went down in the end zone. He would depart the game shortly due to an apparent hamstring issue.
“I am told he has an MRI this morning,” Pelissero continued on his report on Evans. “That will give them a better idea of how much time Mike Evans potentially could miss though again watching him limp to the locker room an extremely tough, dude. But hard to imagine he's back here in the short term.
The Buccaneers' offense suffers crippling blows in Week 7
Losing Evans and Godwin to injuries is a big blow to the Buccaneers, to say the least. Tampa Bay relies so much on its passing attack and will now have to rely more on the likes of Sterling Shepard, Jalen McMillan, and Trey Palmer downfield to help out Mayfield.
For what it's worth, the Buccaneers have three more games to play before a bye in Week 11, but those are all against potential playoff teams where Evans would be of big help for Tampa Bay. The Bucs will emerge out of that bye for a Week 12 contest against the New York Giants on Nov. 24 on the road.
On the season, Evans has 335 receiving yards and six touchdowns on 26 receptions.