Is Evans a missing piece for 49ers?
Mike Evans is a different kind of player from what Kyle Shanahan is used to working with, but Mike Florio and Chris Simms are confident the 49ers will get a lot out of the wide receiver.
Video Transcript
And somehow Evans has gotten it in his head that Shanahan's the man.
Yeah.
I'm not saying he isn't- Yeah I'm just saying Evans has gotten that in his head.
Yeah, I- it seems like it.
He got that from someone, he got that from somewhere, and he's convinced that he's gonna go there, and he's gonna have some late season renaissance.
And he called himself last week, the missing piece for the 49ers.
Yeah.
And the way that I interpreted him saying that, Shanahan probably told him that enough times- that it just pops out of his mouth now- when he talks about it, 'cause Mike Evans seems too humble to just come up with that phrase- on his own.
Yeah.
I feel like he heard it from someone, probably as part of the recruitment process.
And, and off we go with Mike Evans as a member of the 49ers.
Yeah.
And look- Yeah they, they were, they were so bad last year at the receiver position that Evans, future Hall of Famer, he, he's gonna make them better walking through the door, even now that he's creeping deeper into his 30s.
They- d- he's still scary.
He can still run by you for big plays.
Brock Purdy, what's he famous for?
What do When, when I picture Brock Purdy, I picture like those 15 or 20 yard end cuts, you know, kind of over the linebacker.
A play action comes up, okay, linebacker's trying to run back because he bit on the play action fake, and Brock Purdy's throwing something over the middle, and there you're gonna see Mike Evans, big Mike Evans, going up and get it.
That's where it's a match made in heaven.
Because Brock Purdy throws beautiful footballs in that area of the foot- of the, of the, the field, and Mike Evans will thrive there.
Now, he might not as- catch as many 50 yard bombs like we talked about, because Purdy's not that kind of guy, but yeah.
They'll And Shanahan'll figure out exactly how to use him.
One thing, I, you know, I know he's my friend, but, eh, eh, you know, what you said there is, is kind of, yeah, commonplace.
I mean, Tom Brady thinks Bra- Shanahan's the man.
Troy Aikman said if he started a team, Shanahan'd be his head coach.
And it's pretty widely viewed that way as far as the offensive side of the football.
So I do think, yes, receivers and skill players look at the 49ers around the league sometimes and go, "Man, guys are just open and running free, and I don't even know if that guy's as good as I am, but he's got better stats, and he's got these highlights every week," because Shanahan's just getting people open everywhere.
And Mike Evans has been around enough to, to know that.
Eh, the other interesting a- thing I think about this too, Mike, just, just real quick, 'cause I know we're gonna change gears for a second.
It does tell you with Jauan Jennings, what, what the hell is going on?
What did Jauan Jennings price himself at?
I mean, 49ers, I, again, I, you know, I'm, I will say it, I mean, my, I know my friend like Jauan Jennings.
They thought he was a damn good player, but he's overpriced himself here, and he fit the system and what they did, but they, they obviously felt they couldn't even get something done with him to where they just pis- pivoted to Mike Evans and said, "Okay, boom, ooh, ooh, we can get you for this.
This is awesome.
We'll take it.
Let's go."
And I just found that to be the other interesting angle on the, conversation altogether there.
And here we are 10 days into free age, free agency, and Jennings is still available, and 10 days is a lifetime as far as free agency goes.
Oof.
The money is gone.
It's gone.
And Jennings is gonna end up doing a one-year deal somewhere, unless he decides to wait for someone to get injured- Man that that may gave him more leverage.
But yeah, and this is the guy, we talked about this the other day, Super Bowl LVIII.
Yeah.
There was a period of time talking it through in the press box, Sherrone Williams has one of the Super Bowl MVP votes, like, "Is Jauan Jennings the MVP of the Super Bowl?"
And then he had the big year in '24, 975, I believe, receiving yards, exceeded the deal that he did.
Because he became a free agent after that Super Bowl.
Yes.
And he came back on a very reasonable deal, like two years, 14 million total with the 49ers, had that big year, started agitating for more, it never worked out, and, and now, now he's looking.
Yeah.
And who knows where he's going to be
