Mike Evans Injury Update Crushes Week 1 Fantasy Outlook

It sucks to draft a player in the first few rounds and then have them on your fantasy football bench in Week 1. That's the potential situation playing out with Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans, however, as he's listed as questionable against the New Orleans Saints and isn't practicing on Thursday.

Evans was already in a shaky spot thanks to a tough matchup with cornerback Marshon Lattimore in Week 1. That wasn't going to be enough to make Evans a player to bench. Now compounding things with the injury news, Evans is going to be incredibly hard to trust — if he suits up at all.

Evans turned a combined 11 targets into just 4 receptions and 69 yards across two games against the Saints last year, getting totally shut down by Lattimore. Now nursing a hamstring injury, he's certainly not going to be any more effective if he's on the field.

The team will likely take it especially easy on a soft tissue injury after a shortened offseason, trying to keep Evans healthy for the long term. Even if he starts, there's a real chance his snaps are limited or he makes an early exit.

Even if Evans plays, we have him at just WR36 in our updated Week 1 fantasy football rankings. It's a frustrating way to start the season for fantasy football managers, but you're better off benching Evans whether he plays or not.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.