TAMPA — The first thing Ashli Dotson thinks you should know about her fiancée is that he digs movies about teenage wizards.
"The funny thing when I met him was that he loves Harry Potter, because he doesn't look like he watches Harry Potter," Dotson told USA TODAY Sports recently, sitting next to Tampa Bay Buccaneers wideout Mike Evans at an upscale seafood restaurant on the eve of the team's recent minicamp.
"Because she thought I was a gangster," Evans added, a smirk breaking through his tough mug. "Everybody thinks I'm a thug or something like that."
Appearances can be deceiving, not unlike how playing on one of the NFL's worst team in The Year of The Rookie Receiver can obscure what Evans accomplished in 2014 with the Bucs, whose bet on Johnny Manziel's Heisman Trophy accomplice paid immediate dividends.
Already a 1,000-yard receiver in the NFL while still learning the game and growing into his 6-5 frame at age 21, Evans describes himself "as a humble guy who minds his own business and just loves to play football and loves to compete" — at anything, anywhere, anytime.
"I was going to ask you to see who ate their food faster," Evans said, "but you had a bigger steak."
USA TODAY
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Surrounded by men in suits on this night, Evans inhaled his sea bass entrée in sandals, sweatpants and a T-shirt that exposed part of the web of tattoos on his arms.
He isn't big on interviews or appearances. He lacks pretense. He is, in some ways, the antithesis of flashy draft classmate Odell Beckham Jr., who collected the offensive rookie of the year award (with 42 votes to Evans' one) days after hosting a Super Bowl week fashion show.
"He's a pretty simple guy," Dotson said, touching off a brief debate with Evans over whether that's an insult.
He's also a pretty talented guy — not especially fast, and not especially polished after playing just one year of high school football and two with Manziel at Texas A&M, but long, coordinated and as dangerous as anybody on the back-shoulder fade.
USA TODAY
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"He played like he had a natural instinct of a guy that's been playing his whole life," said Bucs general manager Jason Licht, who drafted Evans seventh overall, "so you know it's going to get even better."
In 15 games as a rookie, Evans caught 23 fewer passes than Beckham did in 12 games but matched him with 12 touchdowns and averaged 15.5 yards on 68 receptions.
Evans' seven catches for 209 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-7 win Nov. 16 on the road against the Washington Redskins made him the first rookie since Randy Moss — Evans' all-time favorite receiver — in 1998 to have 100 yards and a TD in three straight games.
Thereafter, Evans said, defenses did more to take him out of the game, particularly in the red zone.
WATCH: Winston impresses at minicamp
Jameis Winston makes an impression at Bucs minicamp
01:21
"The quarterback would just look me off, and then I'd be dead," Evans said. "And I didn't understand, because I always think I'm open. Just throw that thing up."
Exchange an offense steeped in chaos following former coordinator Jeff Tedford's heart surgery and a Josh McCown-Mike Glennon quarterback platoon for new boss Dirk Koetter and No. 1 pick Jameis Winston, and it's no wonder Evans believes he has a chance to really break out in 2015.
He'll play on an island more often as the "X" receiver in the Bucs' new offense — the same role in which Julio Jones thrived when Koetter was with the Atlanta Falcons.
He trained for a week in March after an invitation from Moss, who followed Evans on Twitter after seeing the rookie mention him in interviews after the Redskins game. (They plan to get together again next month, Evans said.)
He sometimes played around 240 pounds last year — "It was my first time having money," Evans deadpanned — but has dropped into the 230 range, give or take. He's working on flexibility to stop the "little B.S. injuries" that cost him practice time the past two springs.
"When I get that down, it'll make me faster, too," Evans said. "I can't open up as much as I want sometimes, because I'm scared I'm going to tweak my hamstring or something."
USA TODAY
Jameis Winston embraces risk with Buccaneers
Let him get outside against man coverage, Evans says, and there's a 99% chance he catches it or a draws a flag. He believes he's already the NFL's top blocking receiver (check out last year's crushing block on Cincinnati Bengals veteran cornerback Terence Newman).
Asked if it's a competition to be the best of a draft class that included instant stars Beckham of the New York Giants, Sammy Watkins of the Buffalo Bills and Kelvin Benjamin of the Carolina Panthers, among others, Evans said: "I'm just trying to be the best, period."
The Bucs love his mental toughness, honed through a string of adversity dating to his father's murder when Evans was 9.
He has a 3-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, whose name is tattooed on Evans' left forearm. She visits regularly from her mother's house in Texas.
He shares a condo with Dotson, to whom he proposed during an early Christmas celebration. (The ring was in a box of Louboutin shoes.) She has laid the groundwork for their February wedding in Houston and describes Evans as a homebody more eager to eat Chipotle and watch a movie than have dinner out or party in a nightclub.
That, too, runs counter to the image portrayed in a video posted last August to TMZ.com, showing Evans involved in a heated altercation with bouncers at a Miami nightclub — recorded months earlier, before the draft, he said — that spilled into the street.
"I'm just not in the spotlight like that," Evans said. "If I feel myself about to do something stupid, I have to think twice. To me, everybody has a camera. Everybody is a reporter."
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He says he likes making people's day and always tips well, backing up the statement by dropping a couple $50 bills on the table before he and Dotson head for the door. Nobody in the restaurant seemed to notice him.
That figures to change if Evans can help Winston turn around a Bucs franchise that has made three coaching changes since its last playoff trip in 2007. While Beckham's one-handed snag on Sunday Night Football was one of last season's signature moments, Evans' only national TV appearance was a 56-14 blasting at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons on a Thursday night in Week 3.
One year after the Bucs finished 2-14, Evans says he believes they can be a playoff team and stay that way year-in and year-out. If he's assessing his powers correctly, his visions of becoming the NFL's premier receiver in the process may be no illusion.
"If we all get 200 targets, put in the same situations," Evans said, "I think I'll do just as good as anybody."
"The funny thing when I met him was that he loves Harry Potter, because he doesn't look like he watches Harry Potter," Dotson told USA TODAY Sports recently, sitting next to Tampa Bay Buccaneers wideout Mike Evans at an upscale seafood restaurant on the eve of the team's recent minicamp.
"Because she thought I was a gangster," Evans added, a smirk breaking through his tough mug. "Everybody thinks I'm a thug or something like that."
Appearances can be deceiving, not unlike how playing on one of the NFL's worst team in The Year of The Rookie Receiver can obscure what Evans accomplished in 2014 with the Bucs, whose bet on Johnny Manziel's Heisman Trophy accomplice paid immediate dividends.
Already a 1,000-yard receiver in the NFL while still learning the game and growing into his 6-5 frame at age 21, Evans describes himself "as a humble guy who minds his own business and just loves to play football and loves to compete" — at anything, anywhere, anytime.
"I was going to ask you to see who ate their food faster," Evans said, "but you had a bigger steak."
USA TODAY
Buccaneers offseason report: Jameis Winston among rookies who could revive offense
Surrounded by men in suits on this night, Evans inhaled his sea bass entrée in sandals, sweatpants and a T-shirt that exposed part of the web of tattoos on his arms.
He isn't big on interviews or appearances. He lacks pretense. He is, in some ways, the antithesis of flashy draft classmate Odell Beckham Jr., who collected the offensive rookie of the year award (with 42 votes to Evans' one) days after hosting a Super Bowl week fashion show.
"He's a pretty simple guy," Dotson said, touching off a brief debate with Evans over whether that's an insult.
He's also a pretty talented guy — not especially fast, and not especially polished after playing just one year of high school football and two with Manziel at Texas A&M, but long, coordinated and as dangerous as anybody on the back-shoulder fade.
USA TODAY
NFL offseason reports: Follow in-depth reviews for all 32 teams before training camp
"He played like he had a natural instinct of a guy that's been playing his whole life," said Bucs general manager Jason Licht, who drafted Evans seventh overall, "so you know it's going to get even better."
In 15 games as a rookie, Evans caught 23 fewer passes than Beckham did in 12 games but matched him with 12 touchdowns and averaged 15.5 yards on 68 receptions.
Evans' seven catches for 209 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-7 win Nov. 16 on the road against the Washington Redskins made him the first rookie since Randy Moss — Evans' all-time favorite receiver — in 1998 to have 100 yards and a TD in three straight games.
Thereafter, Evans said, defenses did more to take him out of the game, particularly in the red zone.
WATCH: Winston impresses at minicamp
Jameis Winston makes an impression at Bucs minicamp
01:21
"The quarterback would just look me off, and then I'd be dead," Evans said. "And I didn't understand, because I always think I'm open. Just throw that thing up."
Exchange an offense steeped in chaos following former coordinator Jeff Tedford's heart surgery and a Josh McCown-Mike Glennon quarterback platoon for new boss Dirk Koetter and No. 1 pick Jameis Winston, and it's no wonder Evans believes he has a chance to really break out in 2015.
He'll play on an island more often as the "X" receiver in the Bucs' new offense — the same role in which Julio Jones thrived when Koetter was with the Atlanta Falcons.
He trained for a week in March after an invitation from Moss, who followed Evans on Twitter after seeing the rookie mention him in interviews after the Redskins game. (They plan to get together again next month, Evans said.)
He sometimes played around 240 pounds last year — "It was my first time having money," Evans deadpanned — but has dropped into the 230 range, give or take. He's working on flexibility to stop the "little B.S. injuries" that cost him practice time the past two springs.
"When I get that down, it'll make me faster, too," Evans said. "I can't open up as much as I want sometimes, because I'm scared I'm going to tweak my hamstring or something."
USA TODAY
Jameis Winston embraces risk with Buccaneers
Let him get outside against man coverage, Evans says, and there's a 99% chance he catches it or a draws a flag. He believes he's already the NFL's top blocking receiver (check out last year's crushing block on Cincinnati Bengals veteran cornerback Terence Newman).
Asked if it's a competition to be the best of a draft class that included instant stars Beckham of the New York Giants, Sammy Watkins of the Buffalo Bills and Kelvin Benjamin of the Carolina Panthers, among others, Evans said: "I'm just trying to be the best, period."
The Bucs love his mental toughness, honed through a string of adversity dating to his father's murder when Evans was 9.
He has a 3-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, whose name is tattooed on Evans' left forearm. She visits regularly from her mother's house in Texas.
He shares a condo with Dotson, to whom he proposed during an early Christmas celebration. (The ring was in a box of Louboutin shoes.) She has laid the groundwork for their February wedding in Houston and describes Evans as a homebody more eager to eat Chipotle and watch a movie than have dinner out or party in a nightclub.
That, too, runs counter to the image portrayed in a video posted last August to TMZ.com, showing Evans involved in a heated altercation with bouncers at a Miami nightclub — recorded months earlier, before the draft, he said — that spilled into the street.
"I'm just not in the spotlight like that," Evans said. "If I feel myself about to do something stupid, I have to think twice. To me, everybody has a camera. Everybody is a reporter."
USA TODAY
Buccaneers' Doug Martin runs from nickname and toward new contract
He says he likes making people's day and always tips well, backing up the statement by dropping a couple $50 bills on the table before he and Dotson head for the door. Nobody in the restaurant seemed to notice him.
That figures to change if Evans can help Winston turn around a Bucs franchise that has made three coaching changes since its last playoff trip in 2007. While Beckham's one-handed snag on Sunday Night Football was one of last season's signature moments, Evans' only national TV appearance was a 56-14 blasting at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons on a Thursday night in Week 3.
One year after the Bucs finished 2-14, Evans says he believes they can be a playoff team and stay that way year-in and year-out. If he's assessing his powers correctly, his visions of becoming the NFL's premier receiver in the process may be no illusion.
"If we all get 200 targets, put in the same situations," Evans said, "I think I'll do just as good as anybody."
