Page 23 - Florida Sentinel 8-23-19

Sports
Mike Evans Misses Buccaneers Practice With Leg Injury Ahead Of Game Vs. Browns Friday
Bucs’ Jameis Winston
Knows What’s At
Stake This Season –
‘This Is The Year’
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans was not on the practice field Monday.
Evans reportedly exited Sunday's practice early when he was holding his left quad area after making a nice catch on a deep ball down the sideline.
"He didn't return to prac- tice and did not participate in the drills open to media on Monday."
Evans has been a domi- nant pro since his 2014 NFL arrival, amassing five 1,000- yard seasons and earning two Pro Bowl berths.
The 6'5", 231-pound wideout, who the Bucs drafted seventh overall in 2014, provides quarterbacks with a large security blanket downfield if needed.
game's most durable and re- liable offensive threats. He only missed three games over his first five seasons, and one was due to a suspen- sion after a fight during a game against the New Or- leans Saints in 2017. He has- n't been sidelined for a matchup since a hamstring injury forced him off the field in Week 1 of the 2015 season.
The Bucs are in trouble if Evans misses any time, al- though the extent of his in- jury is unclear with the team's home opener slated for Sunday, Sept. 8, against the San Francisco 49ers.
Evans has averaged 143.4 targets per season over his past five years and is re- sponsible for much of the team's offensive production.
The conversation halts every few feet.
From the moment his cleats hit the red clay-colored pavement, Jameis Winston was besieged by one request after another.
They want to chat.
Or an autograph.
Or a picture.
They all want a glimpse of
the quarterback. The face of the franchise. The Bucs’ leader.
One young man interrupts Winston to ask if he’s ever thrown a football over “Pike House,” the campus home to Florida State’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. The former Heis- man Trophy-winner and BCS national champion acknowl- edges the feat of strength while scrawling his name on the back of a child’s jersey.
The gauntlet of fans begins just beyond the doors of the team’s indoor practice facility and resumes once Winston trudges across the outdoor football field.
His voice trails off in mid- sentence. His body veers in another direction without warning. “I’m sorry,” he says, politely pausing the discus- sion at hand.
Practice ended almost an hour ago, but the quarter- back’s duties are far from over.
“He’s the man of the peo- ple,” jokes a public relations staffer.
Despite the adulation, this is a make-or-break season for Winston, both in Tampa Bay and for his career. Not only is the former No. 1 overall pick in the final year of his rookie deal, but failure to take the next step could relegate him to
Jameis Winston enters this season under his third head coach since he was drafted in 2015.
the long list of former first- round quarterbacks who never realized their vast po- tential.
Despite the promise Win- ston showed his rookie sea- son, Lovie Smith was fired after the team finished 6-10. Dirk Koetter lost his job after last season trying to raise Winston’s mistake-prone game to the next level. Now, the Bucs have entrusted him to Bruce Arians, a cele- brated quarterback whisperer.
In other words, Winston has run out of second chances. “He feels bad that they didn’t win and his coach got fired. I can tell,” Arians told Yahoo Sports, noting the pressure Winston feels to live up to the hype of being a No. 1 pick. “Oh, yeah. There’s no doubt. I saw it with Tim
Couch. Same thing here.” For all of the uncertainty surrounding Winston's fu- ture, there is no question where his heart lies. Or what
he expects of himself. Fatherhood, he says, has
changed him. So has his fi- ancée, with an upcoming wed- ding next year.
MIKE EVANS
However, Tampa signal- callers have sometimes en- countered trouble finding Evans: The sixth-year wide- out has just a 55.1 percent catch rate for his career.
Still, Evans is one of the
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