Bruce Arians' prediction and a recent Bills trade signal Mike Evans could stay put. Signs point to a Super Bowl contender in Tampa Bay.
The immediate future seems bright for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as they look to keep Mike Evans in the fold instead of entering free agency.
We don't know definitively yet what the team’s all-time leading receiver will decide, with free-agency negotiations kicking off Monday, March 9.
But two bits of recent news are good signs Evans will stay put and won’t end his career in a different uniform. The first is straightforward.
Appearing in a Feb. 28 episode of "Outspoken with Dan Sileo" on SportsGrid TV, Buccaneers senior advisor Bruce Arians -- Evans’ head coach when the Bucs won Super Bowl LV in 2021 -- said he’d be "very, very shocked" if Evans decides to go somewhere else.
Arians, who had open-heart surgery on Feb. 6, has said he feels great and apparently is already back to advising the Bucs.
The second bit of news doesn’t scream Bucs on the surface, but could help Tampa keep him.
Moore has eclipsed 1,000 yards four times in his career and is still in his 20s, and the Bills liked him enough to send a second-round pick to Chicago for him.
Why this matters to Tampa Bay is the Bills had been one of the top teams linked to Evans.
For Evans to leave Tampa Bay after 12 seasons, odds are it will be for a team that has a chance of getting Evans one more Super Bowl before he retires.
Per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Evans' agents have said the future Hall of Famer is seeking a situation with a team that:
1. Has a trusted quarterback
2. Is Super Bowl contender
3. Has a quality offensive coordinator
4. Will give him a big role in the passing game
There aren’t many teams that meet those criteria, but Buffalo could be one of them, having made the postseason in each of the last seven seasons.
But will the Bills add another, max-contract receiver in addition to Moore? Not likely.
Considering Buffalo is more than $32.3 million over the salary cap (ranking 31st out of 32 teams in available cap space), the odds of the Bills adding Evans were already long, and now, receiver isn’t the pressing need it had been.
With the Bills presumably off the board for Evans, he could still be an option for the Philadelphia Eagles -- if Philly decides to move on from AJ Brown.
The New England Patriots did move from Stefon Diggs, and would be a team Evans could chase a Super Bowl with, considering they came up just short in Super Bowl LX.
But per a report by Tony Pauline of Essentially Sports, the Patriots aren’t expected to be a factor in the Evans sweepstakes.
Evans’ agent, Deryk Gilmore, told Pewter Report on Wednesday that Evans met with the Bucs last week and the meeting "went well."
“Mike loves Tampa,” Gilmore said, “always has and always will.”
Gilmore also told Pewter Report new Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson has reached out to Evans to discuss how he’d fit in schematically, another good sign for his possible return.
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