Mike Evans — Week 1: Five Third-Down Catches and the Two-Yard Touchdown
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Friday, Sep 11
Evans caught six of seven targets for forty-nine yards and a touchdown in his first game as a 49er, and five of the six catches came on third down — seven on third and four, seven on third and four, eight on third and two, thirteen on third and eight, and the two-yard touchdown on third and two. His seven targets were worth plus eight point two expected points, the most of any receiver on either team.
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Mike Evans's first touchdown as a 49er was third and two at the Los Angeles two, 11 oh seven left in the third quarter, Brock Purdy short left, two yards, 17 to seven. It was his fifth third-down catch of the night, and every one of them moved the chains: seven yards on third and four from the San Francisco 39 on the opening drive, seven on third and four from the Los Angeles 33 on the same drive, eight on third and two from the 18, 13 on third and eight from the San Francisco 30 on the drive that produced the go-ahead touchdown, and then the two-yarder. San Francisco converted seven third downs Thursday. Evans caught five of them.
Seven targets, six catches, 49 yards, one touchdown. The seven throws to him were worth +8.2 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and that is the highest figure for any receiver on either team, more than double Deebo Samuel's +2.9 on the same number of targets. It is high because of the downs he was thrown to on: a 13-yard catch on third and eight is worth more than the same catch on first and 10, and Evans's night was almost entirely third downs. The one incompletion was third and three at the 49 with 32 seconds left in the half. The one catch that was not on third down was 12 yards on second and 10 early in the second quarter.
He was thrown to as often as Samuel and one fewer time than Christian McCaffrey. The difference was where: the McCaffrey targets came out at −4.9, Samuel's at +2.9, Evans's at +8.2, on seven or eight throws each. Nothing he caught went longer than 13 yards.
Back in June the preview called Evans a clean profile against two things — age, and a new system with a new quarterback — and noted that an 11-year streak of thousand-yard seasons had ended on an injury the year before. Thursday was one game against the system question, and the answer was that Purdy went to him on the downs that mattered. It says nothing about the age question and nothing about a thousand yards. San Francisco is home to Miami on Sunday the twentieth. Watch whether the third-down role holds.
_Data via nflverse._
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