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If the Tampa Bay Buccaneers want to get significantly younger at the wide receiver position, this is one way to do it.
As part of a trade proposal suggestion by FanSided’s Ryan Heckman, he brings up a scenario where the Buccaneers would trade wide receiver Mike Evans and a fifth-round draft pick in this year’s draft in exchange for Buffalo Bills wide receiver Gabriel Davis and a sixth-round draft pick in the 2023 NF draft.
Heckman explains why the idea of the trade would make it appealing for the Bucs and why the Bills would be so eager to acquire a bonafide star receiver in Evans.
“Davis is still just 24 years old, giving him a ton of time to develop into the budding star Bills fans once thought they saw,” says Heckman. “But, waiting around for that development shouldn’t be in the cards for the Bills. They need someone to come in right away and be able to take pressure off of Diggs, giving Josh Allen another concrete option on the outside.”
Mike Evans Earns Significantly More Than Gabriel Davis
There’s no doubt that Davis does have potential. The 24-year-old receiver is significantly younger than Evans — Evans will turns 30 years old this year — and his contract is pennies in comparison to Evans due to his fourth-round draft pick billing. As Davis enters the final year of his rookie deal, he’s due to be the 69th-highest paid receiver in the league at a $2.9 million cap hit.
By comparison, Evans is due to earn $23.7 million as the 19th-highest paid receiver in the league. The veteran wideout is also entering the last year of his deal.
However, the disparity in earnings is for good reason. Evans is a four-time Pro Bowl receiver who has posted at least 1,000 receiving yards in every season of his career since entering the league in 2014, an NFL record. Meanwhile, Davis is coming off of his first 800-yard season — 836 yards in 2022 — and caught just 48 of his 93 targets, a reception rate of just 51.6%.
It is worth noting that Davis is technically an NFL record holder after catching four receiving touchdowns during a playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs during the 2021 season.
While the disparity in production between the two receivers is nothing to scoff at, Davis has two things working for him in a potential trade involving Evans — his potential and his low salary cap number.
How a Mike Evans Trade Provides Salary Cap Relief for Bucs
The reason why this trade makes little sense for the Buccaneers is because trading Evans prior to June 1 just does more harm than good. A trade before that date results in a dead cap hit of $21.4 million for the Buccaneers and just $2.3 million in cap savings. Furthermore, they’d be downgrading at receiver from Evans to Davis.
However, a trade after June 1 makes a little more sense. Evans’ dead cap hit then becomes just $9.2 million while the cap savings for Tampa Bay blossoms to $14.5 million. The proposed trade would have to be tweaked a little, with the draft picks being from next year’s draft instead of this year’s.
Head coach Todd Bowles did respond to trade rumors involving Evans and fellow receiver Chris Godwin, essentially shutting down the idea of flipping either player, as noted by JoeBucsFan.
“I don’t know where that [talk] came from, either. Mike’s been one of our best players for a long time. He’s still productive at a high level, one of my favorite guys on the team,” Bowles said back in March. “I don’t see those two guys going anywhere.”
The idea of an Evans-for-Davis swap would obviously be more beneficial for the Bills and would provide salary cap relief for the Buccaneers. But the possibility of it happening is virtually none.
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