When the Saints traded Marshon Lattimore two months ago, it took away one of the most personal, nasty rivalries from the NFC South in his longstanding back-and-forth with Bucs receiver Mike Evans.
Now, a week after Evans beat the Saints to make the playoffs, that rivalry could get a new chapter.
Lattimore has played in only two games since being acquired by the Commanders, but if his hamstring holds up, he’ll have a chance to rekindle a colorful history with Evans in Sunday night’s wild-card matchup in Tampa.
“They’re both great players and they both like to compete,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said Monday of their rivalry. “Mike is a pro and he understands what’s at stake. He understands the game. Nothing really needs to be said about that.”
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We’ll say something anyway. These two do not like each other and have gotten under the other’s skin throughout eight seasons of going head-to-head. Their on-field fighting has led to multiple ejections and two one-game suspensions for Evans over the years.
“That’s a real-life beef,” Saints pass-rusher Cameron Jordan said in 2022. “I talked to Mike about it. It went from ‘Aw, it’s nothing’ to ‘They don’t like each other.’ That’s what it is. It’s a very apparent situation.”
You won’t likely see Evans make any public comments this week. Sometimes there’s a mutual respect and admiration in a career-long rivalry, but it’s hard to get much in the way of praise for one from the other.
“We’re two competitors, two of the best in the business and we go at it,” Evans said in 2022. “We get physical and it’s a good matchup.”
Washington could definitely use Lattimore on Sunday, as their cornerback depth has been challenged with him on the sidelines. Few teams have held Evans in check over the years like the Saints did with Lattimore, but the Bucs also went to New Orleans in the 2020 playoffs and ended Drew Brees’ career with a win there on the way to a Super Bowl championship.
“It’s a physical matchup, it’s non-stop. It doesn’t matter what’s at stake,” Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield said last year. “Getting to watch it from afar was fun. Now, being in the middle of it is going to be even more fun.”
Evans nearly saw his streak of consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons end when he was sidelined three weeks with a hamstring injury of his own. He had 335 yards with seven games to play but led the NFL with 669 receiving yards the rest of the way, getting to 1,000 on the last play of the regular season on a 9-yard catch to punctuate the Bucs’ 27-19 win over the Saints. With that catch, Evans matched Jerry Rice’s NFL record of 11 straight years with 1,000 receiving yards.
[Auman: Inside Mike Evans’ historic catch, Bucs’ video that captures the celebration]
Now it’s on to the playoffs and a wild-card matchup with Lattimore and the Commanders. Here’s a brief history of Evans and Lattimore and how they’ve gotten tangled up and physical with each other over the years:
Week 9, 2017: Evans flagged and suspended
Saints are up 30-3, lopsided enough that Bucs starting quarterback Jameis Winston is out of the game. After the Saints force another punt, Lattimore lingers on the field and Winston comes off the sideline, pointing him to his sideline, and he touches the back of Lattimore’s helmet in doing so. Lattimore turns around and shoves Winston, and Evans comes in fast and blindsides Lattimore, knocking him to the ground. They have to be separated, and Evans is flagged but not ejected, then later suspended from the following game.
Week 1, 2020: Lattimore flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct
Lattimore is covering Evans on his route on a running play and the two get physical. Evans shoves Lattimore, Lattimore shoves Evans from behind as he leaves, and Evans hits him hard enough that Lattimore’s helmet comes off. Lattimore gets a 15-yard penalty in what ends up a 34-23 win for the Saints.
Week 2, 2022: Both ejected, Evans suspended
It’s the fourth quarter of a 3-3 game in New Orleans, and Bucs QB Tom Brady is upset because he thinks Lattimore should have been flagged for pass interference on a deep ball to Scotty Miller. As they’re jawing, Bucs running back Leonard Fournette shoves Lattimore, who shoves him back, and again, Evans rushes in and shoves Lattimore to the ground. “Mike Evans, he just rocked Lattimore,” FOX Sports’ Greg Olsen said on the live broadcast. “Wouldn’t be surprised to see some guys thrown out of this one here.”
The benches clear, players have to be separated, and both Evans and Lattimore are ejected. Three turnovers by Saints QB Winston helped the Bucs to a 20-10 win, but Evans was suspended from the next game, which the Bucs lost to the Packers.
The story continues on Sunday night.
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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