ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) -Lee Evans has been a busy man, on and off the field.
The Bills’ top receiver entered this season planning a fast start, and not worrying about his contract talks, which he left for his agent and the team to handle.
Turns out, Evans is taking care of both at the same time.
A notoriously slow starter, Evans is off to his best opening to a season since the Bills selected him in the first round of the 2004 draft out of Wisconsin. In two games, he has a team-leading eight catches for 179 yards, which is plenty for a receiver that had difficulty cracking 200 yards in the first month of each of his first four seasons – and had a meager 22 at this point last year.
Coincidentally or not, Evans was happy to report this week that his slow-going contract talks have suddenly heated up as well.
“We’re a lot closer. We have closed the gap,” said Evans, who’s entering the final year of his contract. “Hopefully, we can get it done sooner than later. But I’m not really worried.”
have declined to discuss the status of contract talks, but have consistently maintained signing Evans to a long-term deal is their top priority.
They had better hurry, because Evans’ stock is on the rise.
With Buffalo preparing to host the Oakland Raiders (1-1) on Sunday, Evans is part of a team that’s off to its first 2-0 start in five years. Modest as that might sound, it’s exciting stuff for a franchise seeking to end an eight-season playoff drought, the longest in Bills history.
“We’ve had a lot of growing pains, and now, through a lot of hard work, you’re starting to see it pay off,” Evans said.
With 102 yards receiving in Buffalo’s season-opening 34-10 win against Seattle, Evans made a bigger impact in a 20-16 win at Jacksonville last weekend. His 37-yard catch up the left sideline with under 5 minutes left set up rookie James Hardy’s 7-yard touchdown reception, which put Buffalo ahead for good.
Evans’ catch on a post-corner route is something he and quarterback Trent Edwards specifically practiced when Edwards visited the receiver’s home in south Florida before training camp.
“That’s what was most fulfilling for me, is that this is a route that we’ve worked on a lot, and a route that he loves,” said Edwards, who delivered a perfectly placed pass over Evans’ shoulder. “To have it happen in a critical situation is very nice because you can say to yourself, `I flew all the way out there to work with him … and now it’s actually translating into a win.”’
The chemistry between the two has been key, especially after last year when Evans complained when the Bills benched starter J.P. Losman in favor of Edwards.
Evans’ concerns were not so much directed at Edwards. Rather, he was unhappy because the change would hinder the offense’s chemistry and require him to adjust to yet another quarterback.
Evans finished 2007 with career lows, averaging 15.4 yards per catch and five touchdowns one a year after he – with Losman as the starter – finished sixth in the NFL with 1,292 yards receiving.
Besides changes in quarterbacks – Buffalo has gone through four during Evans’ tenure – the receiver is now adjusting to his third coordinator in Turk Schonert, who took over following Steve Fairchild’s departure at the end of last season.
Schonert is being credited for reviving a sputtering offense that finished 30th in the league last year by installing an imaginative and aggressive attack that’s both balanced and features many different looks.
Evans’ role in particular has changed. Unlike in the past, when Evans would almost exclusively line up on the outside as the Bills’ deep threat, the receiver is being moved around to keep defenses guessing. It helps, too, that Buffalo is getting other players involved: eight Bills have at least one catch so far.
“It’s a little bit of everything. You can’t just pinpoint one thing,” Evans said, referring to why he and the offense are clicking. “Right now, we’re still growing as an offense, and that’s one of the brightest signs for us.”
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