In the decade that Mike Evans has spent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the offensive system around him has been anything but consistent. With four head coaches and six different starting quarterbacks, the most consistent part of the Bucs offense has been Evans himself, and that consistent excellence has pushed him to the brink of history. Evans is just 150 yards shy of reaching the 1,000-yard mark for the 10th consecutive season, according to Kevin Patra of NFL.com.

Evans already owns the longest streak of consecutive 1,000-yard seasons to start a career (nine), which is three more than than the next closest receiver. But if Evans were to reach the 1,000-yard mark again, he'd become only the third receiver in NFL history with 10 or more 1,000 yard seasons, joining Jerry Rice (14) and Randy Moss (10), arguably the two greatest wide receivers to ever play in the NFL. And for that simple reason, it's time we begin having a serious discussion about Mike Evans' place in NFL history.

“I think this guy is a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales said. “His career speaks for itself.”

Yes, it most certainly does. As things stand right now, Evans is 15th on the all-time receiving touchdowns list and 37th all-time in receiving yards. By season's end, it's likely that Evans will have surpassed Keenan McCardell, Rod Smith, Mushin Muhammad and Calvin Johnson to climb to #33 on the NFL's all-time receiving yards list. He's just over 3,000 yards shy of climbing into the top ten in receiving yards, and ten touchdowns shy of becoming one of only 11 players with 100 receiving touchdowns.

Evans has shown no signs yet of slowing down. His 77.3 yards per game is the 5th-highest mark of his career, and he needs only one more receiving touchdown to reach double-digits in a single season for the 5th time in his career. What is it that continues to fuel Evans this deep into his career? The way Dave Canales sees it, it's an internal drive to compete at anything and everything.

“One of the things I've learned about Mike in the offseason getting a chance to spend some time with them in different scenarios outside of the building is he's such a gamer,” Canales says. “He loves to play whatever it is — he's a competitor. Whether it's cards, whether it's darts, pool, shooting around basketballs — he's good. He just kind of finds a way and he's good at everything. That carries over to the way he plays.”