Shawn Siegele looks at Tampa Bay’s addition of Julio Jones and discusses the fantasy fallout for their other trio of receivers.
Reports indicate that the Buccaneers have signed Julio Jones to a one-year contract. We’re still a ways from knowing if Tampa is serious about a role for the former star and if he can generate the type of glowing practice reports that made Antonio Brown a training camp riser a year ago. It’s still a compelling opportunity and one that has the ability to shake up the ADP for quite a few players.
If you’ve been listening to Stealing Bananas and RotoViz Overtime, we’ve been urging you to avoid the price tags on Mike Evans and Russell Gage while encouraging you to load up on Jones before the inevitable signing somewhere.
Now it appears that these two theses will be connected. I was actually in the middle of an Evans discount article when the news broke. From an early-season perspective, the former star looked perfectly set to return big value in 2022.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers ranked No. 1 last season in both overall and situation-neutral pass rate. Tom Brady easily led the league with 5,316 passing yards and sneaked out the passing TD title (43) as well. For his part, Mike Evans ranked second in receiving TDs (14) behind Cooper Kupp, and trails only Davante Adams with 27 over the past two years.
Following the departures of Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown, and with Chris Godwin likely limited early in the season, Evans became a no-brainer pick in Round 2, right?
Well, yes and no.
