While this NFL free agency class wasn\u2019t touted as the strongest heading into the offseason, dollars have still been flying around this offseason, and the San Francisco 49ers have gotten in on the action, most notably by signing wide receiver Mike Evans.<\/p>\n
The 49ers were expected to be in on some of the free agent wide receivers with Jauan Jennings heading towards free agency, and they pounced on Evans on the first day of the legal tampering period, inking him on a three-year deal that essentially serves as a one-year contract with two team options.<\/p>\n
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Evans filled a huge hole, adding a bona fide No. 1 receiver when healthy who has been one of the most productive wideouts in the NFL over the past decade. The fact that San Francisco was able to get him on a three-year, $42.4 million deal with just over $16 million guaranteed was one that the team had to take for a player of Evans\u2019s caliber.<\/p>\n
Overall, where does the Evans signing rank among all the signings we\u2019ve seen so far in free agency?<\/p>\n
ESPN\u2019s Seth Walder graded his top 16 free agent signings so far, and Evans cracked the list at No. 8 with an A- grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter seemingly being flush with wide receiver talent not too long ago, the 49ers entered this offseason needing a wideout. They got a good one,\u201d Walder wrote.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEvans is finally leaving Tampa Bay, heading to San Francisco to join Kyle Shanahan and\u00a0Brock Purdy. And while we\u2019re still waiting on all the contract details, the $16.3 million guaranteed makes it seem like they got a good deal. We\u2019ll work under the assumption that\u2019s the one-year cost \u2014 which is what matters here.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvans, 32, is coming off an injury-shortened season that marked the first year he did not reach 1,000 receiving yards. He amassed 368 receiving yards in eight games. If he\u2019s still the same player, he has the potential to be a No. 1 X receiver for Shanahan, adding another dimension to an offense with other veteran playmakers such as\u00a0Christian McCaffrey\u00a0and\u00a0George Kittle. The move lets\u00a0Ricky Pearsall\u00a0be a complementary second wide receiver as he develops.\u00a0Jauan Jennings\u00a0is a free agent.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he does need to figure out the injury issues, I\u2019m curious how Ricky Pearsall can develop with a veteran like Evans working beside him daily. But Kyle Shanahan badly needed that \u2018X\u2019 receiver with Brandon Aiyuk no longer in the fold<\/p>\n
Evans came in behind several \u2018A\u2019 grade signings, with Walder having the following above San Francisco\u2019s top signing:<\/p>\n
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1) Kyler Murray to the Minnesota Vikings<\/p>\n
2) Malik Willis to the Miami Dolphins<\/p>\n
3) Riq Woolen to the Philadelphia Eagles<\/p>\n
4) Rasheed Walker to the Carolina Panthers<\/p>\n
5) Elgton Jenkins to the Cleveland Browns<\/p>\n
6) Isaac Seumalo to the Arizona Cardinals<\/p>\n
7) Braden Smith to the Houston Texans<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s been one of the best signings of free agency and comes with good flexibility in case Evans\u2019s injury issues continue to linger in 2026. Brock Purdy has a new No. 1 target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While this NFL free agency class wasn\u2019t touted as the strongest heading into the offseason, dollars have still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[390,4973,5305,2644,211,4124,54,15906,7,4609,194,6066,253,9314,10117,2812,4827,4097,251,700,259,6,236,109,3993,2392,3268,1161,252,2984,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":["post-823958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-braden-smith","tag-brandon-aiyuk","tag-brock-purdy","tag-buccaneers","tag-christian-mccaffrey","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-elgton-jenkins","tag-football","tag-free-agency","tag-free-agent","tag-george-kittle","tag-houston-texans","tag-isaac-seumalo","tag-jauan-jennings","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-kyler-murray","tag-malik-willis","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-mike-evans","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-nfl","tag-panthers","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-rasheed-walker","tag-ricky-pearsall","tag-riq-woolen","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-signing","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaybuccaneers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823958","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=823958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}