The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are one of the many teams dealing with plenty of injuries heading into Week 8. The team's wide receiver corps continues to get depleted leaving Jameis Winston with very little to work with as Tampa Bay prepares to play the Atlanta Falcons. With Louis Murphy and Vincent Jackson out, Mike Evans becomes more important than ever.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, Jackson is set to miss multiple weeks after injuring his knee. The issue is not expected to be season-ending, but it will leave the Buccaneers short-handed for the time being. That pairs with the ACL injury to Louis Murphy and the hamstring injury to Russell Shepard. As a result, Evans is the man in charge against Atlanta as he will have the defense's attention.
Evans is getting healthy on the year as his 164-yard performance in Week 7 was a demonstration of that. The Buccaneers are hopeful that Evans can repeat the success against the Falcons' secondary.
"He's tough duty in a man-to-man situation," head coach Lovie Smith said, via ESPN.com. "We got him matched up favorably last week. Hopefully, we can do the same thing. He's a guy that when things aren't going exactly the way you like, you lean on guys like Mike. We all know that Mike is one of the best players on our team and one of the best players in the game."
The Buccaneers will have Austin Seferian-Jenkins back who is capable of doing damage against the Falcons as well. They will be the top two threats that Winston relies on while Charles Sims and Doug Martin are expected to handle the run game. The Falcons are capable of stopping the run game as their defense is one of the best against the rush. That could make for a long day for Martin and Sims who might turn into passing backs instead.
If the Buccaneers feel the injuries are too much to overcome, they have options on the free agent market. Hakeem Nicks, Reggie Wayne and Wes Welker are all available. Murphy is out for the year while Jackson is set to miss significant time. In order to salvage the season, adding another player to the roster might help Tampa Bay.
Despite the Week 7 loss to the Washington Redskins, Winston played one of his better games of his season. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter told ESN that Winston did a solid job of not turning the ball over and extending the play, something the Falcons are very aware the quarterback is capable of doing. Winston's versatility will have to carry Tampa Bay through with the injuries piling up.
"When you take care of the football, it gives us a chance to win," Winston said, via ESPN.com "That's something I'm always going to focus on week to week. The positive thing was we started fast. This year we've been struggling. [Critics say], 'Hey, they don't start fast.' But we started fast. We went up early, but now we just have to finish. We have to play a full game."
