Bills predicted to address biggest offseason need by signing future Hall of Famer originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

There are no two ways about it: the Buffalo Bills need more help at wide receiver and that is arguably their biggest offseason need.

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The selection of Keon Coleman looks like a bust, and the team failed miserably with its free-agent acquisition of Joshua Palmer. That leaves Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid as Josh Allen’s only reliable targets.

Knowing that, Pro Football Focus’ Ryan Smith predicts the Bills will at least partly address their need in free agency by signing Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver and future Hall of Famer, Mike Evans, who is a pending free agent.

“Mike Evans missed time with multiple injuries in 2025 but is just one year removed from ranking third among all wideouts with an elite 90.4 PFF overall grade,” Smith stated. “While the 32-year-old’s best days may be behind him, he can still be a valuable piece on a contending team in the short term.”

While it’s hard to imagine Evans playing for anyone else, NFL insider Tony Pauline reported for Essentially Sports that the feeling in league circles is that Evans is done in Tampa Bay.

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Rumor also has it that the Bills are “likely to target” Evans if he’s available.

“Those I’ve spoken with over the past week believe it’s less than 50-50 the veteran wideout re-signs with Tampa and that his career with the Buccaneers is likely finished,” Pauline reported. “He’d like to go to a contender and win another title. I figured the New England Patriots would be a good fit, as Evans would be the final piece for their offense, yet people in the know believe the Buffalo Bills are the team likely to target the former All-Pro.”

If not for his standing as one of the best players in franchise history, we would think Evans is as good as gone in 2026.

The Buccaneers have a decent trio of receivers under contract for 2026 in Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan, so using some of their $24 million in cap space to re-sign Evans wouldn’t be the best use of the Bucs’ limited resources.

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Evans is getting long in the tooth (33 in August) and his best days are probably behind him. He was also was plagued by injury in 2025.

But Evans did show he can still make an impact when healthy and he would no doubt amount to an upgrade for Buffalo over Coleman and Palmer, assuming he doesn’t hit the wall in 2026.

Signing Evans would be a good start for Buffalo’s quest to improve at receiver, but given the uncertainty surrounding the aging Evans, more will be needed.

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