The race is on.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans has begun his career with one of the most impressive streaks in NFL history. A hamstring injury has put it all in jeopardy.
Evans' streak is this: For the first 11 seasons of his NFL career, he has reached 1,000 receiving yards. It's the most such seasons to begin a career in league history.
The only player to ever have 11 such seasons in a row, at any point in his career, was Jerry Rice.
Rice's streak was also exactly 11, so if Evans did it again this season, he'd stand alone with the greatest streak of 1,000-yard seasons ever.
But that's where the injury comes in. A nagging hamstring issue has kept Evans out for the last three weeks, and he's running out of time to get to 1K.
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The count right now is 140 receiving yards on the season for Evans.
So the flip side is he needs 860 more to get to 1,000.
The Buccaneers, beginning with their Week 7 game on Monday night that Evans is supposed to be back for, have 11 games remaining.
What's that math? Evans needs to average 78.2 receiving yards per game, while playing in the remaining 11, to get to 1,000. If he were to miss another game or two, obviously that'd greatly raise the average he needed to achieve.
On the one hand, it's just a personal milestone, and the Bucs' pursuit of a Super Bowl is more important.
On the other, it was so clear in the emotion of the final game of last season when Evans got to 1,000 again that this is something that means a lot to him and his teammates. So they wouldn't love to see the streak end.
There'll be a balancing act of doing what's best for the streak, for Evans and for the team, but if the Buccaneers can pull it off, it'd be cool to see Evans make some more history.
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