{"id":738994,"date":"2026-02-08T22:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T22:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/738994\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T22:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T22:38:24","slug":"buccaneers-wr-mike-evans-could-continue-playing-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/738994\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers WR Mike Evans Could Continue Playing In 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 offseason will once again include questions about the future of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=EvanMi00,EvanMi20,EvanMi21&amp;search=Mike+Evans&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-08_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mike Evans<\/a>.\u00a0The Buccaneers icon is a pending free agent, and it remains to be seen if his career will continue. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.profootballrumors.com\/files\/2025\/09\/USATSI_25175617-scaled.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-374591 size-medium\" style=\"border: 2px solid #000000;margin: 15px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/USATSI_25175617-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nothing has officially be decided on that front yet. Nevertheless, Sunday has brought about an update of sorts on Evans\u2019 future. Agent Deryk Gilmore <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MikeGarafolo\/status\/2020592879727779982\" rel=\"nofollow\">indicated to Mike Garafolo, Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL Network<\/a> that a 13th NFL season may be in store in this case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMike started the season in great shape,\u201d a statement from Gilmore reads in part. \u201cMost people in the organization said he probably had the best camp of everyone. He finished feeling better than he has in several seasons. I think his competitive nature leads to more football. That is my hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Evans came close to reaching the open market in 2024, but he wound up inking a two-year, $41MM pact. That deal is now set to void on the final day of the 2025 league year. With <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2025\/07\/extension-candidate-mike-evans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">no extension having been worked out<\/a> over the course of the past season, it is once again unclear how this situation will play out. Evans, 32, said in September he would <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2025\/09\/buccaneers-wr-mike-evans-could-retire-following-2025-season\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">contemplate retirement<\/a> after the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>Things certainly did not go as he or the Bucs would have hoped. Various injuries \u2013 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2025\/10\/mike-evans-suffers-broken-clavicle-expected-to-miss-most-of-season\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">including a broken clavicle<\/a> \u2013 limited Evans to just eight games. As a result, the six-time Pro Bowler was held under 1,000 receiving yards in a season for the first time in his career. That will no doubt deal a blow to Evans\u2019 market value, but a new Tampa Bay deal would of course offer a boost to the team\u2019s receiving core.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the Buccaneers already have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GodwCh00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-08_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chris Godwin<\/a> on the books through 2027. He, along with Offensive Rookie of the Year finalist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/EgbuEm01.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-08_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Emeka Egbuka<\/a> and 2024 third-rounder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/McMiJa01.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-08_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jalen McMillan<\/a> could operate as an effective WR trio moving forward. Evans has a Super Bowl title and nearly $155MM in career earnings to his name. Adding to his decorated career will be possible if he elects to continue playing, although a firm commitment on his part will remain something to watch for as free agency approaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 offseason will once again include questions about the future of\u00a0Mike Evans.\u00a0The Buccaneers icon is a pending&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,700,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-738994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-mike-evans","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-tampa-bay","13":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","14":"tag-tampabay","15":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116037414392947767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}