Buccaneers
Death, taxes, and 1,000 yards receiving for Buccaneers WR Mike Evans. The towering Tampa Bay wideout has nine straight 1,000-yard seasons, which is the second-longest streak ever behind Jerry Rice‘s 11. But given the quarterback uncertainty, Evans might be harder-pressed to keep the streak going.
“Obviously we’re all going to have to step up,” he said via the Athletic’s Dan Pompei. “And I look forward to that because now I’m the guy. I’m the most accomplished player on offense on our team, and guys are going to be looking up to me to play my best ball. I’m looking forward to doing that.”
Evans is also entering the final year of his deal and the two sides have had discussions on a long-term deal. Evans would love to stay in Tampa Bay for his entire career but Pompei pointed out he has a lot of big career milestones he has in mind as well. Buccaneers GM Jason Licht was also rosy about Evans’ future with the team but he hasn’t cut a check yet.
“I can’t see Mike playing anywhere else,” Licht said. “I hope and think we can figure something out so he can retire a Buc. We want Mike to be here long term.”
- FOX Sports’ Greg Auman says his understanding is the two sides still aren’t close on the value of a contract extension. He does think the desire for Evans to stay is legitimate on both sides.
- Auman mentioned he thinks Evans’ asking price is north of $20 million a year, which makes sense given his career accomplishments and the state of the receiver market.
Falcons
- Falcons HC Arthur Smith said RB Cordarrelle Patterson and CB Mike Hughes will likely not play during the preseason as both players are dealing with soft tissue injuries. He added he will have more information after the preseason game against the Steelers: “We’re not concerned about them long-term.” (Michael Rothstein)
Panthers
The Panthers offensive line had a meeting following their inability to protect first-round QB Bryce Young during his first preseason appearance, prompted by OL coach James Campen. Several players weighed in on the poor performance.
“Yeah, just wasn’t good enough today,” C Bradley Bozeman said, via Panthers.com. “We’ve got to get it cleaned up. Just got to fix it. That’s on us.”
“Just disappointed. Not what we’re looking for at all,” LT Ikem Ekwonu added. “He shouldn’t be getting hit at all. That’s on us. We just weren’t good enough today. We’ve got to just attack it. A lot of things on tape we’ve got to fix. So that’s the goal going into next week.”
Campen didn’t want to discuss exactly what was said during the meeting but it’s not hard to connect the dots.
“Camp called us in, and we just talked. We had to keep it real with each other; the s— wasn’t good enough,” Panthers OL Cameron Erving noted about the meeting. “Top to bottom, it doesn’t matter if it was preseason, regular season, or offseason. The s— was not good enough at any level, from any position, myself included, especially myself. All we can do is come back, try to regroup, and f—ing fix it. We know we did not play to our standard. So all that needed to be said was that s—‘s not good enough. It’s not about who’s in it or who’s called it; it just needed to be said and was said. We saw what happened. Preseason or regular season, that’s not acceptable. That’s the only message we got across to each other, we cannot allow that to happen, ones, twos, threes, fours, it doesn’t matter who’s on the field, we can’t let that happen.”
Carolina’s offensive line is in some flux, particularly at guard. Right guard is an open competition for who will start the season while Austin Corbett continues to rehab a torn ACL and LG Brady Christensen isn’t totally entrenched at his spot either.
“Every position is an open position,” Panthers G Cade Mays said. “Whoever plays best is going to be the guy. We’ve got stuff we’re good at, things we have to work on, but we have to find out and get ready for Monday. Coach Campen’s the same as us. We’re disappointed. We feel like we didn’t do good enough, but we’re looking forward to fixing it. Just flush it and move on, but definitely, it doesn’t taste good and doesn’t feel good.”
- Corbett is hoping to not be placed on the PUP list due to it causing him to miss the first four games: “I’ll leave that to the people upstairs. I’ll just do what they tell me and hope to get out there sooner than later.” (Joe Person)
- Panthers HC Frank Reich says the team will not play QB Andy Dalton this week due to a back issue. They are also still evaluating WR Terrace Marshall for a back issue and he will miss the game as well. (Darin Gantt)
- The Panthers tried out former Titans’ CB Chris Jackson. (Aaron Wilson)
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