Fantasy Football Player Notes

There may be no fantasy wide receiver who's continually undervalued more than Mike Evans. He's now turned in at least 1,000 yards in seven straight seasons with a handful of different quarterbacks, and has scored at least eight touchdowns in five of them. The reason he can't be considered in the elite tier is due to the number of mouths to feed in the Bucs offense. Think about it this way: Despite Chris Godwin being hurt for a while and Antonio Brown not joining the team until mid-season, Evans finished with just 109 targets. He's one of the better WR2's to have in fantasy, but he doesn't come with top-five upside unless there are injuries to those around him.

If there's one thing we can say about Godwin with Tom Brady under center, it's that he's a near lock for six-plus targets per game. He saw at least six targets in 10-of-12 games despite all the other talent on the roster, which is never a bad thing. The downside is that Godwin never really got into any sort of WR1 groove. He didn't hit the 100-yard mark until Week 17, when Mike Evans was essentially out of the lineup. To be fair, Godwin was playing through a few injuries last year, which may have hindered his upside, but we did watch Mike Evans' relationship with Brady grow as the year went on. On top of that, Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski returned to game shape, which will certainly cap everyone's upside. Godwin should be a solid WR2 on a weekly basis, but it's tough seeing him approach top-12 territory without an injury to one of Evans or Brown.

Brown was expected to be back with the Bucs all along. From the time he joined them in Week 9, Brown finished as the No. 38 wide receiver in fantasy. And to be fair, he got better as the year went on, as he had to get back into football shape. Over the final three games he saw 27 targets and turned them into 19 receptions for 266 yards and four touchdowns. Look, he's not going to surpass Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, but he'll be closer than some think.