{"id":822550,"date":"2026-03-20T05:15:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/822550\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T05:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:15:31","slug":"bucs-made-significantly-higher-mike-evans-offer-than-49ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/822550\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs Made ‘Significantly Higher’ Mike Evans Offer Than 49ers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Evans<\/a>\u2018 decorated Buccaneers tenure came to an end last week when he agreed to join the 49ers<\/a>. His departure was not the result of Tampa Bay losing a bidding war, though. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During his first public comments since losing Evans, general manager\u00a0Jason Licht\u00a0spoke about the negotiating process in this case. He said (via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>) the Buccaneers made a \u201csignificantly higher\u201d offer than the one Evans ultimately took with San Francisco. He noted that was applicable to Tampa Bay\u2019s \u201cfirst offer,\u201d meaning further negotiations were something Licht and Co. were willing to pursue.<\/p>\n

Instead, Evans had his 49ers agreement in place shortly after the legal tampering window opened. The six-time Pro Bowler took a three-year, $42.5MM deal to head to the Bay Area. In practice<\/a>, though, his contract is for one year and $14.3MM with team options to follow. It is certainly not difficult to imagine the Buccaneers managing to submit a more competitive bid, especially in the case of a short-term offer.<\/p>\n

Evans noted finances were not the main factor in his decision to leave. The 33-year-old will be counted on to handle a key role in San Francisco, something which may not have been as much of an assurance with Tampa Bay. The Bucs re-signed Chris Godwin<\/a>\u00a0last offseason, a move which was followed by the draft additions of\u00a0Emeka Egbuka<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tez Johnson<\/a>.\u00a0Those three, along with\u00a0Jalen McMillan<\/a>, will form the bulk of the team\u2019s WR room for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Evans] means everything to me,\u201d\u00a0Licht said (via Stroud).\u00a0\u201cBut he means everything to the entire organization. Obviously, he\u2019s the best offensive player we\u2019ve ever had and an even better person than he is a player. So, it\u2019s always tough\u2026 It became pretty clear that him and his family were just ready, like he said publicly, for another chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Bucs move on without Evans for the first time since his arrival in 2014, they will attempt to avoid the late-season struggles which kept them out of the playoffs. Tampa Bay went 2-7 after the bye in 2025, something Licht and Evans spoke about leading up to free agency. Both parties will look to enjoy a stronger showing down the stretch after going their separate ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Evans\u2018 decorated Buccaneers tenure came to an end last week when he agreed to join the 49ers.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,700,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-822550","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\/116259804005353482","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822550","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=822550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}