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Film Room: Why Buccaneers rookie Mike Evans is honestly good

Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports

Mike Evans is honest, and that’s why he’s troublesome: he doesn’t hold back. He hits people full force, and leaves them shaking their heads. And now that he’s more confident, he’s more blatant, and more dangerous.

On a play earlier this season, Evans ran right, just outside the numbers, then slapped a cornerback down, raised his right arm and waved his hand to signal he was open. The cornerback caught up but didn’t have a chance. Evans leaped up, extended his hands and stuck the ball onto his right shoulder as the cornerback hung on to make the tackle.

It’s always his arms that cause the most trouble. They’re so long, and he can use his hands to flick cornerbacks away whenever he wants. Referees don’t punish him because the rules are in his favor. Evans has figured that out and taken advantage.

In Week 9, against the Cleveland Browns, he beat a cornerback outside the numbers on his second step, a right-footed jab. Then he ran between the numbers and sideline downfield and out-hustled the cornerback. When the ball was thrown, he turned around and tracked the ball like an outfielder follows a baseball. 

When the cornerback looked up, Evans took advantage and stuck out his left arm to push him away. When the ball flew in, he trapped it over his head and tucked it at his waist as he fell for a 27-yard gain.

Before the 2014 NFL Draft, critics wondered about Evans’s bluntness. They wondered how he would do in the pros, where cornerbacks are bigger, stronger and faster, and if he would adapt once cornerbacks figured out how to defend him. They forget that big cornerbacks are still coming into the NFL, but none of them, not yet, anyway, are as big as Evans. He’s 6-foot-5 and 231 pounds. He’s a wide receiver built like an H-back who's as fast as a running back.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who drafted him No. 7 overall, figured this out,  and now use him wide and in the slot.

In the slot, where he gets low in his stance and long like a Harley-Davidson, he’s a mismatch. Linebackers can’t stay afoot with his 4.46 40-yard dash speed, and nickel cornerbacks are too small to match his physicality.

In Week 11 against the Washington Redskins, early in the fourth quarter, the Buccaneers slotted Evans inside. He was the third receiver in from the bottom sideline, closest to the trenches, when he ran an over route to the inside of the strong-side linebacker and behind an inside linebacker. Deep was a single-high safety, who saw something underneath and ran toward the line of scrimmage. When he did, he left the middle linebacker one-on-one with Evans.

It was already over. Evans crossed the right hash and sped over the left, at one point using his long left arm to separate further. He continued to run downfield until the quarterback dropped a bomb over his left shoulder, which he caught for 56 yards and celebrated in the far left corner of the end zone.

What’s frightening about Evans is he’s quickly become dishonest, and deceptive. He’s learned to study the cornerbacks he is set to face and use their tendencies against them. By picking up those tendencies each week, he’s expanded his repertoire to include double moves.

He sticks his foot out like he's going to run a short route, draws the cornerback in and cuts downfield. It’s like a boxer throwing a jab and then, out of nowhere, throwing a jarring hook that has the opponent figuring out where he’s standing.

In the same game against the Browns, late in the fourth quarter, Evans came off the line and locked arms with a cornerback who struggles with fundamentals. It looked like he was throwing a block, but it was really a stop-and-go. Evans's arms were straight out, and, because he's so tall, the cornerback stood straight, which left him vulnerable to any sudden movement.

Out of nowhere, Evans hopped, pulled the cornerback down and ran downfield open, away from the single deep safety who rotated from the far side of the field. The safety couldn’t come in time to help the cornerback, and Evans caught the pass for 31 yards.

It’s beyond comprehension that a 21-year-old could be so tall and long, yet so fast. Cornerbacks haven’t yet learned they can’t let him beat them outside. It’s where he’s most dangerous, where he’s able to use his length and speed to create separation.

To prevent Evans from dominating, they need to stay in front of him at all times and at the same time keep their hands up in case he tries to sweep them away. When the ball comes, they need to pin him with their back and rear to the sideline so he can’t jump over them to catch the ball. All of this together would be the perfect defense.

But if anyone says they're playing perfect defense, they're probably dishonest.

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