Tampa Bay Buccaneers legend Mike Evans isn’t the first player to leave his first team for somewhere else, and the new San Francisco 49er won’t be the last one.

Here’s a look at how some others who left their first home performed in their new one.

Let's start with Bucs fans' biggest favorite. Tom Brady will be remembered most for what he did with the New England Patriots. The famously sixth-round draft pick for the Pats in 2000, Brady played for 20 seasons in Foxborough, becoming what most consider the greatest quarterback of all time. 

Brady left the Pats for Tampa Bay after the 2019 season. Bucs fans all know what happened next: a Super Bowl. The former Michigan QB and San Mateo, California, native ended the 2020 season with 40 touchdown passes against 12 interceptions, with more than 4,600 passing yards. 

The Bucs rolled again in 2021, going 13-4 and easily repeating as NFC South champs. But Tampa Bay fell in the divisional playoffs to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams in a 30-27 thriller.

Then 44 years old, Brady was statistically better in 2021 than he was in 2020, throwing for more than 5,300 yards and 43 TDs against 12 picks. 

Brady retired after the 2021 season, then changed his mind a little more than a month later. In 2022, he threw for almost 4,700 yards, 25 TDs, and nine INTs, leading the Bucs to another NFC South title, albeit with an 8-9 record.

A loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round ended up being the last NFL game Tom Brady ever played.

Rice and Evans will forever be linked since they share the record for the most consecutive seasons with 1,000-plus receiving yards, at 11. Now, Evans has landed in the place where Rice became a legend.

Rice is widely viewed as the best NFL receiver ever, which is why it was a big deal when the San Francisco 49ers released him in the summer of 2001 after 17 seasons.

Rice isn't remembered for his time with the Oakland Raiders, but for much of those three-plus years, he was pretty darn good. In 2001, Rice went for 1,139 yards and nine touchdowns on 83 receptions at the age of 39. The next year, he was even better, totaling 1,211 receiving yards and seven TDs on 92 catches, and making second-team All-Pro. That season, Rice helped the Raiders to Super Bowl XXXVII, making his fourth and final appearance in the big game.

As Rocky Balboa once said, "Time takes everybody out -- that's undefeated," and it was true even for Jerry Rice. In 2003, the future Hall of Famer regressed to 869 yards and two touchdowns on 63 catches. In 2004, Rice played six games with the Raiders before being traded to the Seattle Seahawks.

Rice then signed with the Denver Broncos, but retired after the preseason, a month shy of his 43rd birthday.

It’s almost impossible to think about Rice without thinking of Joe Montana. One thing the greatest QB/WR duo in history has in common is that they both left the 49ers. 

Friction regarding Montana and Steve Young -- who also wound up in the Hall of Fame -- led to Montana requesting a trade, and as a result, "Joe Cool" became a Chief.

Montana still had some good football left in him. In 1993, he led Kansas City to a come-from-behind win over the Houston Oilers in the Astrodome that put the Chiefs in the AFC title game and contributed to the Oilers becoming the Tennessee Titans.

In that AFC title game against the Bills in Buffalo, Montana missed most of the second half with a concussion and the Chiefs lost 30-13.

Montana led the Chiefs to the playoffs again in 1994, but the team fell in the wild-card round to the Miami Dolphins. That ended up being Montana’s last game.

In two years with the Chiefs, Montana threw for 29 touchdowns, 18 interceptions and 5,427 yards.

Did you know Franco Harris played for the Seattle Seahawks? If you didn’t, don’t feel bad.

Over his Hall-of-Fame career, Harris played 165 games with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The fact that he only played eight with the Seahawks is a good indicator of how his time in Seattle went.  

Over those eight games, Harris never scored a touchdown, rushing for 170 yards on 68 carries for a 2.5 yards per carry average, which was almost two yards less than his career average.

It would take a whole separate article -- or a book -- to explain Favre’s retirement sagas (with Favre, there was always more than one saga), so here is the condensed version.

Favre retired from the NFL in 2007, ending a 16-year run with the Green Bay Packers. Then he un-retired to play for the New York Jets. 

After another offseason of speculation, Favre came back to the NFL in 2009, this time with the Packer rival Minnesota Vikings.

At 40, Favre put together one of the best seasons of his career, throwing for 4,202 yards, 33 touchdowns and a career-low seven interceptions.

Ironically, a ill-advised pick by Tracy Porter of the New Orleans Saints in the NFC title game is the play that Gen Z and Millennial NFL fans will remember most about that season and, frankly, of Favre’s post-Packers run.

Aside from 2009, Favre had a wild 2008 season with the Jets, throwing for 22 touchdowns and 22 picks. 

In 2010 with the Vikings, he threw 19 picks to 11 touchdowns, suffered an injury later in the year and retired from football for good.

Similar to Favre, only this one involved a darkness retreat.

After months of speculation, the Packers traded Rodgers to the Jets in late April 2023, the day before that year’s draft, ending Rodgers’ 18-year run in Green Bay. 

Rodgers’ first season with the Jets lasted four plays, ended by an ankle injury.

He played his only full season with the Jets in 2024 as a 40-year-old, and put up decent numbers (3,897 yards, 28 TD, 11 INT), but the Jets went 5-12.

After another offseason of speculation, Rodgers signed with the Steelers in June 2025. He led Pittsburgh to the playoffs in Year 1, but that season ended with an embarrassing 30-6 home loss to the Houston Texans on a Monday night in the wild-card round.

Rodgers ended the year with 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

As of March 2026, Rodgers’ plans for next season are unknown.

Rarely is an NFL legend just as closely identified with one team as he is another, but Reggie White was that dude.

When White signed with the Packers in 1993, he had already put together a Hall-of-Fame career, making first-team All-Pro six times with the Philadelphia Eagles and winning Defensive Player of the Year in 1987.

In his six seasons with Green Bay, White would make five more All-Pro teams, win another Defensive Player of the Year award and, perhaps most importantly, a Super Bowl ring.

White was just as dominant with the Packers as he was the Eagles. As for his season with the Carolina Panthers in 2000, well, that sort of just happened.

Since Mike Evans inspired this article, it’s appropriate to end it by talking about another All-World receiver.

Moss played for three more teams in his Hall-of-Fame career, but his transition from Minnesota to New England -- with a detour in Oakland -- is what we’ll focus on.

From 1998-2004, Moss was one of the best Vikings ever, named first-team All-Pro three times and in 1998, having what some consider the greatest rookie season ever, finishing with 1,313 yards, 17 touchdowns on 69 catches.

But the disorganized Vikings and Moss had tired of each other after the 2004 season, and as a result, they traded him to Oakland in March 2005.

Moss was solid for the Raiders in his first year, ending the season with more than 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns on 60 catches.

The next year, he regressed to 553 yards and three touchdowns, and was traded to New England in the offseason.

Anybody who thought Moss’ best days were behind him was proven wrong in 2007. The favorite and most dynamic target of Tom Brady that season, Moss totaled 23 touchdowns -- a career-best -- and 1,493 yards on 98 catches, helping the Pats to the only 16-0 regular season in NFL history.

Moss played two more seasons in New England and eclipsed 1,000 yards both years. 

A month into the 2010 season, Moss and New England split, and he was traded to the team that drafted him.

Moss’ return to Minnesota lasted a mere four games, and he spent the rest of that season with the Tennessee Titans.

Moss retired in August 2011, then returned to the NFL with the 49ers in 2012, ending that season with 434 yards and three touchdowns on 28 catches, helping San Francisco to a Super Bowl berth. 

Only time will tell how Evans’ second wind in San Francisco will bring.

ㅤ

Join our ROUNDTABLE community! It's free to join. Share your thoughts, engage with our Roundtable writers, and chat with fellow members.

Download the free Roundtable APP, and stay even more connected!