First down maker.
The mark of a good offense is one that doesn’t wait for third or fourth downs to get another series of downs. Now Joe doesn’t have the data but in the recent past, the Bucs have done a very good job of converting on first and second downs.
Former NFL general manager and former coffee fetcher for Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh and Al Davis, Michael Lombardi, always used to say the best offenses played like they were in Canada.
The meaning behind that is in the CFL there are no fourth downs. They play with just three downs.
So, Lombardi often said and typed, NFL offenses need to pretend they are in Canada.
Joe knows one thing: Mike Evans plays like that. The future Hall of Famer was one of the top players in the NFL last year at converting first downs. Some 71 percent of Evans’ catches last year ended up moving the chains for a first down.
That was seventh-best in the NFL last season per _The 33rd Team_.
What makes this feat impressive to Joe is that last year’s offensive coordinator, Liam Coen, largely played a dink-and-dunk offense so Evans didn’t get a lot of shots for a first down. Yet Evans often found a way to move the chains.
This is why the man will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday.
