Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans' agent fuels hope for a return, citing his client's competitive drive and desire to continue playing football.
Deryk Gilmore, the agent for Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans, like most of us, loves watching his guy play.
Sending a message to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo on "The Insiders" on Sunday, Gilmore said he hopes Evans is coming back to play more.
Sitting under a pergola amid a chanting crowd outside Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the site of Super Bowl LX, Garafolo read Gilmore's message about his client's future.
"Mike started the season in great shape," Gilmore's note read. "Most people in the organization said he probably had the best camp of everyone. He finished feeling better than he has in previous seasons.
"I think his competitive nature leads to more football."
The six-time Pro Bowler and two-time All Pro is coming off an injury-wracked season in which he appeared in eight games and finished with just 30 receptions for 368 yards and three touchdowns. It was the first time in his 12-year NFL career that Evans ended a season with fewer than 67 catches and 1,000 yards receiving.
Evans, 32, had never played fewer games than 13 in his career and has started in every game he's appeared in but one. The Galveston, Texas, native has been remarkably durable throughout his career, missing several games in 2019 after suffering a season-ending hamstring injury in Week 14. That durability has helped the former first-round draft pick (seventh overall) to consistently play and produce at a high level throughout his career -- by the end of the 2024 season, Evans had tied Hall of Famer Jerry Rice's NFL record of 11 consecutive seasons with at least 1,000-yards receiving.
Evans is coming off a two-year, $52 million contract extension and speculation has run rampant about whether the 6-foot-5, 230-pound wideout will test free agency, given his age -- he will turn 33 in August -- and the numerous injuries he suffered through this past season, including a hamstring injury, a concussion, and a broken clavicle that sidelined him from Week 7 through Week 14.
Evans' agent on Sunday seems to have addressed whether injuries would prompt his client to retire.
What Gilmore did not address was whether Evans would enter free agency and what his outlook might be with the Buccaneers.
Before Evans signed his extension in 2024, there was some surprise when the Bucs did not offer him an extension heading into the 2023 season, which would have sent him to free agency the next year. He and his agent set a deadline for the team to offer an extension, but that September date came and went.
The Buccaneers had no plans to trade him, and there was no hint that Evans would sign elsewhere, as Gilmore said at the time Evans wanted to a contract that would make him a "Buc for Life." Evans, as reporter Jeremy Fowler noted at the time, was unlikely to be tempted to play elsewhere: "He’s GM Jason Licht’s first draft pick in Tampa and a pillar there on and off the field."
Speculation has been breathless about what Evans will opt to do. And in the meantime, people inside the building who know Evans are making their own guesses.
Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield, speaking on last week on "The Rondé Barber Show," that he can’t see Evans retiring.
“Understanding who Mike is, this is my guess, that he didn’t want it to end this way,” Mayfield said. “He knows the potential if we’re able to stay a little bit more healthy."
In late January, on the "Up and Adams" podcast, Buccaneers senior advisor and former head coach Bruce Arians said he doesn't think Evans will retire either.
Free agency opens March 11 with the start of the new league year.
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