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As Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver Mike Evans potentially embarks on free agency after the season, Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay sees reasons for suitors to beware.
“Mike Evans is one of the greatest receivers of his generation and remained an elite contributor during his age 30 season, but the savvy veteran could quickly start losing the battle against Father Time,” Kay wrote.
Evans has been a mainstay for the Buccaneers offense since the team took him with the No. 7 pick out of Texas A&M in 2014. He has 10-straight 1,000 yard seasons, and Evans helped the Buccaneers to the franchise’s most successful stretch in history with a Super Bowl win and four-straight playoff appearances.
“While Evans managed to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to another NFC South title and a playoff berth after catching 79 passes for 1,255 yards and a league-high 13 touchdowns, tiny cracks have been showing in the foundation,” Kay wrote. “Evans didn’t miss any games this season and has been sidelined for just three games since 2020, but he’s long been dealing with nagging minor injuries that force the team to lighten his load—he recently logged a DNP at Saturday’s practice for rest—leading up to game day.”
Whether or not the Buccaneers can retain Evans’ stable services remains to be seen since his agent’s Week 1 deadline for a new deal didn’t get done. Other teams interested in Evans will have to assess the decline risk versus his career-long stellar play.
“There’s no doubt that Evans is still playing fantastic football—having arguably the best season of his career despite losing Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady to retirement—but betting that he’ll be able to maintain that type of production over the life of his next contract will be a risky endeavor,” Kay wrote.
Mike Evans’ Asking Price a Concern for All
Contract concerns with Evans apply to all suitors, including the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay could afford Evans with $48.7 million on cap space, but the Buccaneers face multiple priorities for free agents such as quarterback Baker Mayfield and linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White.
“Evans is currently finishing out a bargain five-year, $82.5 million contract,” Kay continued. “He’s likely going to get a significant raise in the neighborhood $24 million annually, the value that Spotrac projects his next deal to ring up at.”
“While the 2023 version of Evans would be commensurate with that type of pay, it wouldn’t be a shock to see his production drastically drop-off after all the mileage and wear-and-tear from his illustrious career catches up,” Kay concluded.
Mike Evans Decline is Inevitable
Kay could be correct about Evans’ timing on a decline. As SB Nation’s Kenneth Arthur pointed out, receivers thriving past 30 is a rarity.
“Now teams see that there’s more value in simply replacing a receiver at or near the end of his second contract with a player on a rookie deal rather than paying him $20 to $30 million on the salary cap. Receivers got paid so much that teams have already been in the process over the last few years of finding ways to pay a lot less, even if the replacements don’t turn out to be quite as good,” Arthur wrote.
Evans turned 30 this season, and he finished in the top 10 for receiving yards and touchdowns. His reception total, 79, was only good for 24th in the league.
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