Mike Evans offered to take less money to keep Buccaneers together

Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans wants to run it back with the same team that won Super Bowl LV on Sunday night. 

Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians told Peter King of NBC Sports that Evans offered to reduce his 2021 salary for the good of the team. 

“Mike Evans is the most unselfish superstar I’ve ever met,” Arians said. “He’s told us to use some of his money if we need to contracts to keep the team together.”

The Buccaneers have a laundry list of players who need new contracts, including Rob Gronkowski, Leonard Fournette, Chris Godwin, Lavonte David, Ndamukong Suh, Shaq Barrett and Antonio Brown. 

Evans is due to earn $12.5 million next season and has a cap number of $16.6 million. If he restructures his deal, some of that money will go toward re-signing key players. 

With the salary cap expected to drop to $180 million, the Buccaneers, like many teams, will have to do more than get one player to restructure his contract if they want to keep the same team together for 2021.