Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield 'Not Worried' About Mike Evans

One of the biggest storylines for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season has been the offensive production. With Tom Brady enjoying his retirement, Baker Mayfield has been his succeeder with Dave Canales as the new offensive coordinator.

The 3-2 Buccaneers, however, are coming off a brutal loss against the Detroit Lions where they scored just three total points.

A big key to making the offense work is the pairing of Mayfield and star wide receiver Mike Evans, who is attempting to eclipse the 1,000 receiving yards mark for the tenth straight season. Evans has 386 receiving yards and three touchdowns on the season.

Against the Lions this past weekend, though, Evans caught just four of his ten targets for 49 yards. There's still plenty of room for the duo to grow this season. Mayfield was asked about their pairing at practice this week.

"First thing I'll say, I'm not worried about Mike," Mayfield said. "When it comes to certain drops, you can go the same way with my stuff, certain missed throws. I'm not worried about it. We'll get it fixed."

At this point in their careers, both players are veterans. Mayfield is an incredible leader. The two truthfully will find a way to fix their issues moving forward, and the offense will benefit from it overall.

"It's never about hitting the panic button. It's still instilling confidence. The ball is always going to come his way," Mayfield continued. "I'm still going to find ways to get him the ball. And especially Chris [Godwin] obviously, a tough guy for us, he took a few shots for us late in the game. Just continuing to give them chances to make plays on the ball. They're a great player for a reason."

This is encouraging talk from Mayfield. Understanding that there's much room to grow, and him finding that deeper level of connection with his star receivers will exponentially raise the ceiling of this offense is important for continued growth for the team this season.

Evans was asked about a few close plays and drops so far on the season.

"That's football," Evans said. "There's a lot of unfortunate plays that have happened throughout my career, I've got a lot of lowlights, as well. But, it's football. Those things happen.

"I had a lot of opportunities to get the ball last week, I know I missed one, but other than that, teams do a good job of game planning against me."

Watching how Mayfield and Evans move forward this season, and whether or not their connection improves week over week, will be an interesting storyline to continue following.

Stick with BucsGameday and the Locked On Bucs podcast for more coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throughout the 2023 season.

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