Bills’ Evans achieved greatness in 2006 with little help

By Anthony Bialy  |   Monday, July 02, 2007  |  Comments( 38 )

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I'd like to meet a Bills fan who isn't sold on Lee Evans. You can still come across the occasional misguided anti-J.P. Losman contrarian along with pockets of grumpy ingrates who don't think Aaron Schobel is all that, but are there any Buffalo backers who think of the organization's top receiver as anything less than spectacular? It would be easier to find someone who doesn't like "Napoleon Dynamite" or "Office Space" than to find a Bills fan who holds a dim view of Evans, who supplanted Eric Moulds in short notice and skyrocketed to elite status last season.

Evans laughed at decent expectations as he sped past them in 2006, accumulating 82 receptions for 1,292 yards; he also rung up eight touchdowns while obtaining 15.8 yards per catch. The yardage was good for sixth best in the NFL. Of course, it's too obvious to say Evans is the best receiver on his team: Next in yardage was Josh Reed with 410, then Peerless Price with 402, an almost comical, Gretzkyesque statistical gap between the best and the rest.

The fact Evans did it without a solid second guy to deflect coverage makes his season even more impressive. So, here's the question: Did the five receivers who racked up higher yardage than Evans have a better counterpart than he did in the platoon to keep defenses from lasering in on the primary threat? As it happens, four out of five of them were aided by playing alongside fellow receivers who also had spectacular years.

Chad Johnson will never admit to it, but he had help last season while leading the league with 1,369 yards. T.J. Houshmandzadeh caught 90 passes for 1,081 yards in 2006. Not to dismiss Johnson, but he was receiving passes from Carson Palmer, a quarterback who not only threw for over 4,000 yards but more importantly also had a top-notch second option. That said, after being spotted a head start, Johnson did beat a horse in a race recently.

The importance of solid teammates toward achieving impressive individual numbers is most obvious in Indianapolis, where Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne finished second and tied for third, respectively, in yards gained, as each went over 1,300 for the campaign. Again, both are great players, but talented co-workers make your life easier. Both beat out Evans in part by serving as mutual distractions to defenses.

Tied for third with Wayne was Detroit Lion Roy Williams, who totaled 1,310 yards while averaging 16 yards per catch. But Williams actually had a complementary wideout last year: Mike "Who?" Furrey, a player whose anonymity belies the fact that he managed to attain 98 catches and 1,086 yards in '06.

Furrey had quite a season, particularly for someone didn't do much in his three previous years as a St. Louis Ram. He actually didn't catch a pass at all in 2005: He switched to safety for that season, a position at which the Rams were severely depleted. That makes last year that much more impressive for Furrey, especially considering he's both a former XFLer and Arena Leaguer (a Las Vegas Outlaw and New York Dragon, if you somehow managed to forget). So, difficult as it is to say, credit Mike Martz for bringing a former player aboard and giving his top guy some help, something Evans largely didn't get.

On the other hand, fifth-place Donald Driver rode alone. He had more than twice as many receptions, 92, as Greg Jennings, who had the next-highest wide receiver total for the Packers with 45; Ahman Green was actually second on the squad with one more grab than Jennings. Driver had a total of three more yards than Evans, making the comparison between the two that much more apt. The one important difference is that Driver is 32, while youngster Evans is only 26 and entering his fourth season, meaning the Bill has that much more upside.

Like Driver, Evans achieved greatness in 2006 despite being the squad's only serious receiving threat, making his season stat line exponentially more remarkable. The positive news for the Bills is that Peerless Price seemed to grow more comfortable both in the offense and with Losman near the end of the first season of his second stint in Buffalo. If Price is able to contribute from the start of 2007 and play even slightly better, it will be that much tougher for secondaries to key on Evans. A Peerless breakout would optimistically mean that Evans' spectacular 2006 was just a preview.

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