{"id":829391,"date":"2026-03-23T16:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/829391\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T16:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:12:15","slug":"why-mike-evans-christian-kirk-signed-with-49ers-per-shanahan-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/829391\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mike Evans, Christian Kirk signed with 49ers, per Shanahan \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Mike Evans<\/a> and Christian Kirk<\/a> had other suitors during NFL free agency, but both wide receivers chose<\/a> to play for 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shanahan was in Southern California over the weekend to lead one of the Fanatics Flag Football Classic teams and spoke to NBC Sports Bay Area about why Evans decided to move to the Bay Area for less money than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offered him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that says everything about how important football is to him,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cHe thinks football first, and with us being the best football situation for him. And when you have guys like that, to me, that gives you a chance to do something special.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Evans\u2019 NFL career speaks for itself \u2014 11 1,000-yard seasons, six Pro Bowl nods,\u00a0first-team All-Pro honors in his rookie season, and two second-team All-Pro mentions. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound wideout is different than any other receiver Shanahan has coached since taking over as head coach in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMike is a unique dude,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cHe\u2019s a Hall of Famer. Never had a guy truly like Mike. Had some Hall of Famers, but they\u2019ve all been wired differently. To get a guy with Mike\u2019s length and what he can do down the field, how big of a competitor he is, I just love the guy that we added, and how committed he is to winning. And that\u2019s why I think he chose to come to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kirk, who comes to the Bay Area following eight NFL seasons, was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft. After four seasons in the desert, the 5-foot-11 receiver spent three years with the Jacksonville Jaguars before heading to the Houston Texans in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Texas A&M products could have earned more money with other franchises and potentially with teams where local governments do not charge residents state income taxes, as California does.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVery similar to Mike, [Kirk] could have gone some other places too, but he wanted to be in the right situation and he liked our place,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cAlways been a huge fan of Christian since Arizona. I feel lucky to get both of those guys.\u201d \u2028\u2028<\/p>\n

Evans and Kirk join a young wide receivers room that includes Ricky Pearsall, Demarcus Robinson, Jacob Cowing, Jordan Watkins and Junior Bergen. Just their experience alone changes the group’s landscape, and Shanahan likely already is scheming ways to use them on the field.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Mike Evans and Christian Kirk had other suitors during NFL free agency, but both wide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,2812,700,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-829391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-kyle-shanahan","14":"tag-mike-evans","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116279374314563686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829391","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=829391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}