Mike Evans elected not to test free agency this offseason, re-signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a two-year deal earlier this week.
While the general expectation was that the Buccaneers were the favorites to retain Evans all along, the star wide receiver says that his wife also played a role in him choosing to stay.
“I don’t want to say I was waiting for my wife to speak up, but she just planted it,’’ Evans said Friday, via Rick Stroud of The Tampa Bay Times. “These things are just like day and night. You have to think about it. We were thinking, and it just hit her and she said, ‘Maybe we should stay in Tampa, babe.’ I mean, I wanted to be in Tampa, and they offered me great money. It wasn’t about the money. I just wanted to see everything as a whole, and if we were going to get Baker [Mayfield] back and things like that. But I know I can play with whoever is at quarterback. Obviously, I hope it’s Baker.’’
Evans, who played his collegiate football at Texas A&M, was selected by Tampa Bay with the seventh overall pick of the 2014 NFL Draft.
The 30-year-old immediately established himself as one of the best wide outs in football, catching 68 passes for 1,051 yards and 12 touchdowns during his rookie campaign.
That marked the first of 10 straight 1,000-yard seasons for Evans, setting an NFL record.
Most recently, Evans registered 79 catches for 1,255 yards and a league-leading 13 scores in 2023, earning his fifth Pro Bowl selection.
Evans’ best season thus far came in 2018, when he hauled in 86 receptions for 1,524 yards while reaching the end zone eight times.
The Bucs are coming off of a 2023 campaign in which they went 9-8 and won the NFC South division title. They then went on to rout the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs before falling to the Detroit Lions in the Divisional Round.
Now, it’s up to the Buccaneers to re-sign Mayfield so he can be throwing passes to Mike Evans again next season.
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