Why Evans leaving TB was ‘kind of shocking’
Mike Florio and Chris Simms explain why they were surprised at the details surrounding Mike Evans' departure from his longtime home in Tampa Bay.
Video Transcript
We mentioned a couple of Buccaneers players from the Super Bowl LV championship team that will be playing flag football on Saturday.
Mike Evans no longer playing for the Buccaneers.
And one of the strange aspects of his decision to sign with the 49ers, I didn't see, and had been trying to get for eight days, nine days, the details of his contract because the numbers that were out there- Yeah three years, up to 60.4 million.
Like, let's see what the deal's really Let's break it all down.
Mm-hmm.
Let's take it one year at a time, signing bonus, base salary, all the other stuff that's in there.
We have the full details at PFT.
It's a three-year, $42.5 million deal.
It's about 14 million, 14.1, something like that, million per year, which is well below- Yeah the top of the market.
It's less than half of what Alec Pierce is getting per year on his four-year deal with the Indianapolis Colts.
And there's been this sense that maybe the, maybe the Buccaneers really didn't wanna continue this.
But at that price, maybe you find a way to do it.
Jason Licht speaking yesterday, and I don't know whether this was a press conference or he just was interviewed by Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, but Stroud has the quotes.
And Licht said that he doesn't feel betrayed by the fact that Evans- moved on.
He earned the right to make the decision.
He loves this team.
He loves everything about it.
I think he wanted a new challenge.
Yeah.
And that's kind of the vibe we got last week.
Yep.
Like, he wants to go to a place where he thinks he can finish his career with a ring, and for whatever reason, he doesn't believe that that's gonna happen in Tampa.
He thinks he's got a better shot- Yeah, it's interesting with the 49ers.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is.
It, it is interesting.
A- a- and, you know, the, the move shocked me.
It shocked me because I just thought, Mike Evans, I know how much he's loved by Tampa Bay down there.
You know, I know, you know, the Glazer family, the people down there in that organization.
I mean, he's, he's one of the favorite players ever in, in the history of the organization, and rightly so, 'cause not only is he an awesome player, but he's an awesome guy.
He couldn't be a cooler, better guy.
He's easy to approach.
Niceness is just natural and easy to him.
I They wanted to make this work.
They truly did.
But yeah, I was like you.
I kind of was like, "Well, he'll be back with Tampa.
They'll figure this out."
I mean, it's just, he's a, he's, he's, he's, he's the franchise, part of their DNA.
That'll happen.
And then whoa, he's going to San Francisco, which on top of that surprised me, one, because I just went, "Wow, he's not usually a Kyle Shanahan type of guy that way."
As we've talked about before, Shanahan's a little bit more into the route runners, the guys that work the middle of the field, intricate short routes, doing that.
Brock Purdy's not necessarily the quarterback that throws 50-yard bombs down the field, which is what Mike Evans has made a living doing.
So just at base level from the fit and mix, I went, "Woo, man, he's leaving the place that loves him," and Baker Mayfield, who can really throw the ball down the field, and he's going to the 49ers.
And I'm a little surprised by the money because like you, at first I saw the same thing, 20 million, and then I started to see that it w- it was less than 20 million.
I went, "Ooh, he's going to the 49ers," and that's usually not my friend Shanahan's kind of guy, and he's got Brock Purdy, who's not really famous for throwing bombs.
But either way, he felt like it was the right move for him, and, like he said last week, he thinks he's the missing piece to get them to the Super Bowl.
And as we've been discussing, he goes from state with no income tax to- Yeah, lots of tax highest rate of 13.3% in California that's gonna come right off the top, and he's gonna be practicing next to the electrical substation that may or may not- aggravate his chronic hamstring issue.
I wonder, 'cause I've thought about this from the perspective of were the Buccaneers just ready to move on?
And it sounds like they made a competitive offer.
I think so.
Licht said they offered more money, significantly more money- Yes than what the, the, the 49ers offered.
I- That's what I've been led to believe, Mike and I, I did, I said significant- Yeah I said significantly.
I d- the significantly's not in the quote, so I don't wanna oversell it.
Well, I think it was- Just the Bucs- I think it was enough offered more.
It was e- they offered more.
It was enough to, I think, actually use the word significant, though.
The, that's my understanding.
Yeah.
That, that is my understanding from- Yeah, the word significant is here.
Oh, okay, good.
It is here.
Okay.
So I didn't just make it up.
All right, good.
Significantly.
Good.
He did say significantly higher offer.
Yeah.
I, I, from, from what I know of the situation a little bit, and again, I don't know every detail, but even just from both sides, it, it sounds like, yeah, he, he got a n- a m- a better offer in Tampa to sit there where you and I would go, "Whoa, that, that's, whoa.
He's, he's going to San Francisco for, for that, that much less.
Whoa, okay."
So I, I, that, that is my understanding.
Now, I don't know what that offer is there, but that is, that was part of the second part of the surprise.
Whoa, he's going to San Francisco.
I can't believe he's leaving Tampa Bay, all of that.
And then to hear, you know, when that happened, I went, "Well, Tampa must have low-balled him and not gave him a real good offer."
And then to hear that, y- you go, "Whoa, all right, so there, there's something here."
He really wanted to leave Tampa and try something new here at the end of his career, and get with Shanahan.
And yeah, it is interesting, I think, to your point, where we view Tampa as a pretty good team and not too far off, where he just thinks, "Wow, I can go win a Super Bowl with the 49ers, and I, I can't do that with Tampa?"
That, that is kind of shocking when you say it out loud.
And that is where my thinking pivoted- Yeah yesterday.
Mm-hmm.
Because I thought this was the Buccaneers making him an offer that they knew he wouldn't accept, but it's respectable.
It's not the kind It, it's almost like what the Steelers did Ben Roethlisberger's last year.
They offered him a reduced salary that they thought he wasn't gonna take, but it was a respectable number, and he said, "I'll take it."
And they're like, "We were ready to move on."
That, that's the way I've heard that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that's old news, but that's the best example I can think of- where the team is making a-A fair offer that is calculated to get- Yeah the player to say- Eh, I can get more "I can go somewhere else for it."
Yeah.
So how about this possibility?
Because we were perplexed by the way the Buccaneers fell apart last year, and we continued to hear these stories.
Remember when Todd Bowles kind of blew a gasket and was going F-bombs galore the night that the Falcons- I was there came back- Yeah and beat the Bucs, the night you were there- Mm-hmm when they had the 50th anniversary, and it's creamsicles galore.
I wonder if Mike Evans 'Cause at the, the final analysis was, like, there's something going on with how they practice.
There's something going on with that team.
Like, I wonder if Evans, who's very quiet and very respectful, and he's not gonna I, I doubt I'd be stunned if he would ever go public with this and put anyone blast.
I just wonder if he from the inside recognized there's something wrong with this team, and I gotta get out of here.
I, I, I would not be surprised by that.
Maybe he's been around enough.
He's been there in the Super Bowl years.
He saw when it was functioning at its highest level and best and going, "Wait, th- this, this ain't working.
This ain't gonna work.
I, I know what it's like, and the detail, then the crossing the Ts and dotting the Is and what it takes to go to the Super Bowl and be one of those teams.
It ain't going on here."
And I've, you know, I've, I've been around some players in, in my career where they were in situations where, yeah, they were on a winning team, Super Bowl, blah, blah, blah.
They get to a team I'm on, and they're like, "Yeah, no, no wonder you guys haven't got where you're go, need to go.
It's, it's, it's not the same here.
There's not a the, the attention to detail."
Maybe you're right, Mike.
He's been around the block, that's for sure.
but to, yeah, to go across the country and start something new, and at this point in your career, playing a totally different system and having to, you know, of course, get, get chemistry-wise on the same page of Brock Purdy, learn the, learn the Shanahan system and what he does.
Probably have to do some things that you didn't usually do in Tampa Bay, but now you're gonna be asked to do that in San Francisco in that offense.
That's what I find interesting.
So, you know, we'll, we'll see where this goes, and, and, you know, it's a, it's a big move, and the 49ers obviously needed another receiver, so that's where it's big for them.
