Bucs WR Gage Getting Hot At The Perfect Time

He may only have 40 catches for 313 yards — a paltry 7.8 average — this season, but with three touchdowns in his last two games, wide receiver Russell Gage is starting to show the Bucs some return on their investment.

Tampa Bay signed Gage to a three-year, $30 million deal this offseason. The goal was to have him factor in as a main component of the team’s offense, as he was set to serve as the No. 3 wide receiver behind Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. It was a role left vacant by Antonio Brown, and it proved to be a big-time vacancy down the stretch last season and into the playoffs.

In training camp, everything got off to a phenomenal start for Gage. The former Atlanta Falcon proved extremely difficult to cover, flashing early and often in the dog days of summer. But a hamstring injury set him back, and it’s put a damper on his first season with the Bucs.

Gage battled that hamstring injury throughout the preseason. It was clearly still bothering him as the season began and despite posting a 12-catch, 87-yard performance and scoring his first Tampa Bay touchdown in a Week 3 loss to Green Bay, the 26-year-old wasn’t playing like the receiver the Bucs paid him to be.

Then, Gage missed four games — including the entire month of November — with that nagging hamstring injury. But in recent weeks, Gage has become a factor in the red zone, where the Bucs have struggled plenty this season. He caught a deflected touchdown in a 35-7 loss at San Francisco two weeks ago before coming through with eight catches for 59 yards and two scores in a 34-23 loss to the Bengals last week. If he can continue to produce like that over the final three games of the season, the Bucs may begin to feel better about the contract they gave him back in March.

Gage Looking More Like The Receiver The Bucs Know He Can Be

The Bucs saw glimpses of just how slippery and productive Gage can be throughout the early days of training camp. And after his injury struggles throughout the first few months of the season, he’s starting to show some of those flashes again.

“That’s the thing with Russ – we just needed him healthy,” offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich said Thursday. “He can do these type of things – he has a certain wiggle [to] him where he knows how to get open. He can really, really get open. He really knows how to create space, so the more we have him for practice – if we can be healthy enough to practice like he’s been able to the past couple of weeks now – I think you’ll see results like that on gameday. It’s good to have him back out there.”

Bucs WR Russell Gage – Photo by: USA Today

As Gage continues to climb toward 100% health, the wiggle that Leftwich was talking about should continue to resurface. With that, his yards per catch average — which is currently the lowest of his career by far — should improve as well. Remember, this is a guy who caught 66 passes for 770 yards (11.7 avg.) with the Falcons in 2021. The Bucs saw firsthand what he could do, as he totaled 16 catches for 158 yards in two games against Tampa Bay last year.

What has been clicking for Gage is his connection with quarterback Tom Brady in the red zone. It’s something that he attributes to timing, as well as the coverages that Evans and Godwin command from opposing defenses.

“I think it’s timing a little bit,” Gage said Wednesday. “A lot of times, [teams] move the coverage to Mike [Evans], they like to double him, so I get a good bit of one-on-ones. I can beat one-on-ones pretty easily, Tom [Brady] knows it, so we just take advantage of those things when no one’s down there. Mike, Chris [Godwin], those guys are moving coverages away from me and I make the most of those opportunities.”

Whatever it may be, it’s working for Gage. He leads the team in receiving touchdowns with four, and touchdowns have certainly been hard to come by for this Bucs offense in 2022.

Tampa Bay Needs Gage — And Julio Jones — Down The Stretch

Bucs WRs Julio Jones and Russell Gage – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Part of what doomed the Bucs down the stretch and in the NFC Divisional Round last postseason was their depth at wide receiver. By the time they hosted the Rams in the second round of the playoffs, Mike Evans, Scotty Miller and Tyler Johnson were the only healthy receivers on the roster.

Antonio Brown walked off in the middle of a late-season win over the Jets. Chris Godwin tore his ACL in December. Even Cyril Grayson Jr. and Breshad Perriman, two guys forced into larger roles, found themselves sidelined by the playoffs.

What Tampa Bay went through at the receiver position last year is what made the addition of Gage so necessary. It’s also why signing another veteran in Julio Jones made so much sense.

So, as the Bucs look to finish strong, clinch the NFC South and make a run in the playoffs, this is when Gage and Jones need to produce. It almost doesn’t matter that their regular season production hasn’t been up to their standards — now is the time for them to step up and be the receivers the Bucs paid them to be this offseason.