Jameis Winston thinks Mike Evans is just as good as Julio Jones

Jameis Winston loves Mike Evans. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback loves his star receiver so much, that he thinks he’s as good as the best receiver in the NFL. Here’s what he said yesterday:

You think about the receivers that are in our conference, Julio Jones is going to be placed probably before him, but Mike is every bit of Julio. And I commend Julio because he’s a monster too, but I love Mike. I love our guys.

Well, I guess it’s always good to hear your quarterback speak highly of his receivers. And Evans is very, very good—he’s just not at Julio Jones’ level, or at least not yet. Jones put up over 100 yards per game in each of his past four seasons, while Evans has yet to top 85 yards per game.

At the same time, Evans is actually off to a better start to his career than Jones was at the time. Evans has played in 46 games, catching 238 passes for 3,578 yards and 27 touchdowns. Jones played in 34 games, catching 174 passes for 2,737 yards and 20 touchdowns in his first three years in the league.

That doesn’t make our current Evans a better player than a younger Julio Jones, but it certainly means his production has been stellar. Hopefully Evans can live up to Jameis WInston’s expectations and outplay Jones for the first time in his career, too.