Louis Bien claims that the 2014 rookie receiver class is the best group of rookie receivers ever, by basically any measure you can think of. And Mike Evans is at the top of all of the measures he uses.
Leader in yards? Mike Evans. Touchdowns? Mike Evans. Adjusted yards and touchdowns? Mike Evans. Percentage of team receiving yards? Mike Evans. It's just not remotely close at this point: Evans' rookie season has been historically good. He's, quite simply, the best rookie in this already historic class.
Of course, there's just one problem. Well, two. The first is that the Bucs still suck, despite Evans' historic season. The second is that we've seen this song and dance before. We had Michael Clayton. We had Cadillac Williams. We had Mike Williams. We had Doug Martin. We've had very good rookies, who have consistently disappointed in subsequent years.
Now, you could argue that Evans has been better than all of them, relatively speaking. I'm not entirely sure about that -- Doug Martin was third in the league in total yards from scrimmage in his rookie season -- but Evans certainly looks like more of a sure bet than Mike Williams or Michael Clayton, even though he shares a first name with them.
But then, I said the same thing about Mike Williams. And I thought the same thing about Doug Martin. For some reason, the Bucs have had plenty of very good rookie skill position players -- and almost all of them end up disappointing in later seasons.