TAMPA – Baker Mayfield is aware of the fights between Mike Evans and Marshon Lattimore.

He knows Tristan Wirfs is tasked with keeping the Bucs receiver from going after the Saints cornerback after a play is over.

He knows Evans has been ejected once and served two one-game suspensions for twice blindsiding Lattimore on a play that cost him more than $100,000 in fines.

But Mayfield may be just like the rest of us. “I don’t want anything to be held back,” the quarterback said when asked about the feud.

Say what you will, this battle is entering its eighth season and it’s one of the best in the NFL.

It’s Ali Frazier. Or sometimes, at the very least, Tonya Harding versus Nancy Kerrigan.

At this point, Evans is simply a better player than Lattimore. Even in his 11th year, he is the Bucs’ biggest offensive weapon and offensive coordinator Liam Coen wants to get in early and often.

A series of injuries took away some of Lattimore’s skills, leading him to become the 2017 Defensive Rookie of the Year and a four-time Pro Bowl player.

But that makes Lattimore all the more dangerous. If they leave him one-on-one with Evans, there’s a good chance he’ll hold the horn, get overly physical with him and perhaps provoke him.

It doesn’t take much bait to trigger Evans. In 2022, he believed Lattimore punched Leonard Fournette and pushed quarterback Tom Brady. So he plowed into Lattimore and started a brief fight, which led to his expulsion.

In 2017, Evans saw Lattimore get into the face of quarterback Jameis Winston after a play. Winston wasn’t even in the game, but on the sidelines. In that case, Evans hit Lattimore from behind, and the league later suspended him one game.

More often than not, Lattimore has held his own against Evans, whose only 100-yard receiving game came against the Saints when he had seven catches for 147 yards and a TD in the 2018 season opener.

At 31 years old, Evans said he has grown over the years and knows he can’t do anything to hurt the team.

But don’t expect the physical battle at the line of scrimmage to stop. As Mayfield said, Evans won’t hold anything back.

“As long as it’s, you know, in the piece,” Evans said. ‘I have done a bad job in the past of letting it go over the piece when it shouldn’t have happened. But I’m more mature now and our team is focused on playing the winning ball, and you can’t play the winning ball if you’re getting thrown out and things like that.

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“But I definitely want to have that fire and be physical and a little bit of chirping never hurts. But you definitely have to be smart.”

Logan Hall breaks out

Look who leads the Bucs in sacks.

Defensive tackle Logan Hall, the Bucs’ 2022 second-round pick (33rd overall), is off to the best start of his NFL career. He has three sacks, including two in the Thursday night game against Atlanta.

“The difference between the Logan we’re talking about now and the Logan of the past is the fact that he’s making plays now and he wasn’t making plays before,” said run game coordinator/defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers. “He’s kind of the same guy. He did his job, but he didn’t produce as many plays.

“But now he’s doing his job and making plays. The thing is, you just see the growth that happens with young players. But you see the growth. We have to keep moving in the right direction.”

Much of the pressure the Bucs get comes from the interior line with Vita Vea and Hall. Calijah Kancey is expected to play in his first game on Sunday after overcoming a calf injury.

Hall has gained weight in the offseason and has improved with his technique.

“I just try to have fun with the game,” Hall said. “Play fast. Not everything will be perfect. I think having fun was the big emphasis for me.

‘I use the same movements. I would say I have gotten better in my technique, but the technique remains the same.”

But is its performance sustainable?

‘He’s coming. We always knew he was a good athlete, but it took some time for him to hit his stride,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “He talks to (Vea) a lot, he talked to Kancey a lot on the sidelines about how to attack these guys and what he wants to do with them – less swimming technique and more hands on power and then he uses his moves at the end and his athleticism.

“I think it is sustainable. “I think he’s in action every week and he’s seeing it now, so that gives him more confidence, and we’re looking forward to him getting better.”

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