We still have a Super Bowl to play, but rumors involving star players are swirling around, regardless.
The latest rumor involves Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver Mike Evans. According to Essentially Sports’ Tony Pauline, there are plenty of people in Mobile, Alabama (where the Senior Bowl is currently held) who believe “it’s less than 50/50” Evans is with the Bucs in 2026.
Well, we’ve officially entered offseason mode
It’s a silly rumor, honestly. For those unfamiliar, Pauline often puts stuff out like this, but it’s opinion. These aren’t conversations with people directly tied to Evans.
Not only are we still waiting for the Super Bowl – it’s not even February, yet. Evans isn’t going to rush a decision like this and why would he leak any kind of direction, right now, anyway?
Pauline also states part of the conversation involved Evans’ desire to play for a contender. He didn’t necessarily state whether or not Evans believes the Buccaneers are contenders, but they do in fact have a playoff-caliber roster. Now, it’s not a Super Bowl-caliber roster and that obviously is a big difference, but the point still stands in the Bucs being a competitive team and we all know anything can happen in the postseason.
This is ultimately water cooler talk that will further dominate NFL conversation once the final game is played next week.
Advertisement
The Buccaneers are set up to retain Mike Evans
Evans is still a very good player, but he won’t break the bank and Jason Licht knows how to set his contract up in a cap-friendly way if it’s a one-year deal. It shouldn’t require more than $20 million to keep him and it could be even less than that.
The Buccaneers currently have $11,221,758 in cap space after accounting for the draft class and adding one more player to get to a 53-man roster, but they have four contracts that contain at least $17 million in base salary, so they can restructure those to create more room if they desire.
The Bucs need to address the depth along the interior offensive line and at running back, but that won’t be expensive. A new starting tight end could be in play (Kyle Pitts, maybe?), but whether it’s that or Cade Otton, it won’t break the bank, either.
The holes on defense will likely be filled via the draft, because the Buccaneers need more impact players on that side of the ball.
In all, it won’t hurt the Buccaneers to bring back Evans. Meaning, the ball is in his court.
And based on what we know regarding the relationship – it should be an easy decision.
View the original article to see embedded media.
This story was originally published by A to Z Sports on Jan 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.