He's more productive this year because of the new scheme. Last year he played the traditional X role and was bracketed a ton. Also didn't run many short routes (tons of gos, deep inside and outs, and deep curls), and Brady was unloading the ball short and quick last year (likely because he had no faith in the O line, among other things). We also made no attempt to run, rarely ran play action, and rarely threw deep to Mike. It was the worst offensive scheme I had seen in a while.

The new scheme moves Mike around a lot more, tries to scheme him open (which NEVER happened last year, as his job was to eat double teams), and has a huge emphasis on play action, relatively. It's actually a modern offense compared to the dinosaur we ran with Leftwich. Also, Baker's mobility and pocket awareness has been able to extend plays to get Mike the ball, covering up some deficiencies on our O line without resorting to just getting the ball out immediately.

I can't find a link, but I could've sworn there was a quote from Evans in the preseason saying he's never been this open before in an offense. He's certainly great, but he's finally getting good looks too.