{"id":811594,"date":"2026-03-14T08:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/811594\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T08:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:34:22","slug":"ronde-barber-reacts-to-mike-evans-departure-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/811594\/","title":{"rendered":"Rond\u00e9 Barber Reacts To Mike Evans Departure – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So what does a Buccaneers legend who speaks openly about how important it was for him to finish his storied career in Tampa think about Mike Evans bailing on Tampa Bay in favor of the 49ers?<\/p>\n

Rond\u00e9 Barber chimed in on that subject during his visit to the Jay Recher Podcast<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to see it. Because I wanted him to be one of those guys [with the Bucs his entire career],\u201d Barber said<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kind of take is, as long as Mike\u2019s happy, I\u2019m happy for him. Right? Mike made this decision. I know the Bucs would have loved to have him back and it\u2019s not a money thing. It\u2019s a \u2018I want to try new opportunites\u2019 type thing.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Mike definitely has a lot left in the tank, man. Like I think, we went from the beginning of the year \u2014 and I know this because I talked to Mike briefly \u2014 him thinking about retiring to him then getting hurt, realizing his love for the game is still there, he still has a lot to give and he\u2019s not ready to walk away from the game. And that he\u2019s not walking away but going to another place, it sucks for us as Bucs fans. But for Mike, it\u2019s probably a good thing.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Let him live out his dream. If his dream is not here anymore, that\u2019s fine. There\u2019s never going to be a better offensive player in Bucs history than Mike Evans. I\u2019m confident, in 50 years, people will look back and say Mike Evans is still the best offensive player in Bucs history. So, we\u2019ll always have that. I wish him the best. And I don\u2019t hate that he\u2019s going to John Lynch\u2019s team. Because I root for John; I just can\u2019t help myself (laughs). And they need help at wide receiver, so they got it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think one more important thing, and I think even will even say this, he\u2019s leaving our wide receiver room in good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barber went on to name the key Bucs receivers and say, \u201cThey can probably get by without him. Baker might not say that, but I think the team is in pretty good shape [at receiver].\u201d<\/p>\n

Interesting hearing Barber say Evans\u2019 fire to play was re-kindled after his injury in Detroit on Oct. 20. Two weeks later, the Bucs were enjoying their bye week with a 6-2 record following wins over the Seahawks and 49ers.<\/p>\n

That might have been another good time for the Bucs to remind Evans they believe in him and to offer him a one-year contract extension.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n

Mike Evans: I Was “Looking At Contenders; Guys With Good Quarterbacks”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So what does a Buccaneers legend who speaks openly about how important it was for him to finish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-811594","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-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116226614636316245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811594","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=811594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}