{"id":820476,"date":"2026-03-19T03:56:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T03:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/820476\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T03:56:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T03:56:27","slug":"bucs-offered-mike-evans-significantly-more-money-than-49ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/820476\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs offered Mike Evans ‘significantly’ more money than 49ers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addressing the departure of longtime Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans<\/a>, general manager Jason Licht said the organization offered the star player \u201ca significantly higher\u201d deal than the one he ultimately signed with the 49ers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The six-time Pro Bowler signed a three-year, $42.5 million contract with the Niners, ending his 12-year run in Tampa Bay, despite an aggressive push by the Bucs to get the wide receiver to stay in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a significantly higher offer [than the 49ers] and that was just the first offer,\u201d Licht told reporters Wednesday, according to ESPN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The comments seem to indicate that the Buccaneers would have been willing to continue to negotiate to keep Evans in the fold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TampaTampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans runs during an NFL football game between the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 21, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we did everything we could,\u201d Licht said. \u201cI had a lot of talks with Mike about that. He and I have a very good, obviously good relationship, but we talked. \u2026 When a player\u2019s reached his level for as long as he has, we tend to have deeper discussions with those players, and there was basically nothing we could have done differently. And I feel very strongly about that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Evans\u2019 reps said that the decision \u201cwasn\u2019t about money\u201d in a statement released after he signed with the Niners, and Evans himself reiterated that during his introductory press conference in San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Licht, who drafted Evans in 2014, insisted that he wasn\u2019t \u201cbetrayed\u201d by the player\u2019s decision, but described it as being \u201cin mourning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looks on prior to a game against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on December 21, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMike gave us everything he had for his 12 seasons here and established himself as one of the best players in the league,\u201d Licht said. \u201cSo to say it again, one of our best players we\u2019ve ever had \u2014 I don\u2019t feel betrayed. He earned the right. I said that over and over. He earned the right to make this decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd sometimes you\u2019ve got to talk it over with your family and just sometimes you\u2019re just ready for another chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Addressing the departure of longtime Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans, general manager Jason Licht said the organization offered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,700,6,2592,1161,252,2624,2623,9,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-820476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-mike-evans","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nfl-free-agency","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116253832545601393","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820476","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=820476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}