Who Should I Start? Mike Evans or Christian Watson

Monday, March 4, 2:02 PM

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans agreed to a two-year, $52 million deal on Monday that includes $35 million guaranteed, according to his agent Deryk Gilmore. Evans now has a real chance to start and finish his career in Tampa. Evans hasn't really slowed down at all entering his age-31 season this fall, as he has yet to finish any one of his 10 seasons in the NFL with the Bucs under 1,000 yards receiving. He made his fifth Pro Bowl in 2023 and finished with 79 receptions (136 targets) for 1255 yards and a league-leading 13 touchdowns in 17 regular-season games to help quarterback Baker Mayfield to the best season of his career. While Evans is likely to regress in the TD department in 2024, there's no reason to believe he'll finish under 1,000 receiving yards as long as he stays healthy, especially if Tampa also re-signs Mayfield.

Tuesday, July 16, 4:33 PM

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson (hamstring) finally feels he's in a good place injury-wise following his offseason visit to a local specialist. As Matt Schneidman of The Athletic writes, "keeping Watson on the field is paramount for this group to reach its potential since he might be their biggest game breaker." The Packers have one of the deepest wide receiver rooms in the NFL, but that doesn't negate the fact that having the former first-rounder healthy would be huge for Jordan Love and the Packers' progression. "Maybe Year 3 is the one we finally see in consistent stretches the brilliance we've seen from Watson in spurts over the last two seasons," Schneidman added. Watson caught 28 passes for 422 yards and five touchdowns in 2023 as his faulty hamstring limited him to just nine games. His inability to stay healthy so far has dropped him to the WR4 range for fantasy football, but he could see his value rise by playing close to 17 games in 2024.