FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- When Drake London was being recruited, he heard from coaches all over the country trying to get him to campus. How they pitched him, the conversations they had, very often were similar.
One coach was a little bit different. He'd worked with Mike Evans when Evans was at Texas A&M and he knew Evans was one of the receivers London looked up to. So he connected them on the phone. It was a short conversation, more an encouragement than anything else, but it stuck.
London didn't end up at that recruiter's school, but the small relationship with Evans remained.
"He would say like, 'Keep going,' stuff like that," London said. "Just, good job. He didn't really know of me, it was just from a coach, like 'Hey, this kid could be potentially good.' He was following me for a second and now we're playing against each other."
London often watched film of Evans and emulated some of his traits, both at USC and now with the Atlanta Falcons, who face Evans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
The 22-year-old had watched Evans and Calvin Johnson often as he grew his game. Recently, he started studying Dez Bryant to try and pick pieces of Bryant's game. They are all bigger-bodied receivers with good catch radiuses and the ability to jump over defensive backs to make a play.
They all have something similar, a level of aggression to them, how they use their hands to create space and contact. When Scotty Miller arrived in Atlanta from Tampa in the offseason, it was one of the first conversations he had with London.
They talked about routes Evans favored and how he would approach each one. London had his own question list ready.
"The biggest thing is how physical Mike is," Miller said. "If you really watch Mike, same with Drake, Mike will get up in DBs and use his hands to just be the aggressor within the route. I think Drake's done that, whether it's been me kind of telling that it's stuff Mike does and things he does every day on his own."
The ability to rip a ball from a nearby defensive back is something London often works on against air. Every Sunday before a game, London fields a couple of passes in the back corner of the end zone.
He's done it his whole NFL career, but it translated more now. London told ESPN he's more confident in his game, in his approach. This season, he's caught 63.4% of his targets (26 receptions) for 329 yards and two touchdowns. His target share (20.8%) is down from his rookie year (30.9%), but it has to do with the plethora of potential pass catchers in Atlanta.
In his last 11 games, London has been targeted six or more times in 10 of them. In eight of his last 11, he's had at least five receptions, including career highs of nine catches and 125 yards last week against Washington.
It has, in some ways, reminded him of how he played late in his career at USC, more aggressive than at the start of his rookie year when he was trying to adjust.
Not that London was complacent in making the NFL, but things have settled. In doing so, he realized how much more he could do. The spatial awareness -- in part from basketball -- was always there, as was the athleticism. It's combining it all together which changed.
"It's mental. It's physical. It's route running, it's catching," receivers coach T.J. Yates said. "The progression and growth you have with a young player is all-encompassing. And it's all really starting to come together."
It shows daily. Miller said when London gets a couple of catches in practice on cornerback AJ Terrell, he reaches "that mode, gets in that rhythm where he feels like no one can stop him." Perhaps similar to when he played Houston, where London was nodding heavily after massive catches, talking to defensive backs.
Yates said when London gets emotional, it's a benefit because it focuses him even more. It's part of the aggression London has tunneled lately. How he's used it each week. That is where Yates has seen the biggest growth, where London has taken the biggest steps.
"I found a new drive and a new hunger to just be great at the end of the day," London said. "Being here is not enough. A lot of people make it here. There's a handful of people who make it here, but to be great at it, there's not a lot of people who do that.
"So I want to be one of those people."