Just when Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans thought Mike Evans leaving in free agency couldn't get any worse, it somehow did. When Evans announced he was signing with the 49ers, most assumed it was because San Francisco offered a better contract, but it turns out money wasn't an issue.
Evans just wanted to leave the Buccaneers that badly.
Details of his new deal with the 49ers have been revealed, and it's absolutely sickening for Bucs fans. Evans signed a three-year, $60.4 million contract valued at less money than his previous contract with Tampa Bay. It confirms fears that he simply wanted out and was never really going to come back to the Buccaneers.
Greg Auman was among those to pass along the details and summed up everyone's feelings pretty succinctly.
To see Evans take a deal for $14 million a year from the 49ers - 60 cents on the dollar from his last Bucs contract, before incentives - makes me think he wanted out and Tampa Bay wasn't going to be able to re-sign him. They could match or exceed that without any heavy lifting.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) March 10, 2026
Talk about twisting the knife.
Mike Evans let the Buccaneers know how he really felt by taking less money to leave
In most situations like this, this sort of thing blows back hard on the player, but not here. There’s absolute universal agreement among Buccaneers fans over who they’re furious with, and it's not Evans -- it's the team and ownership.
Todd Bowles has once again united fans against him, quickly becoming the scapegoat for who everyone is blaming for the Bucs losing Evans. If only the Glazers would have fired Todd Bowles, Mike Evans would have stayed is the logic -- and it's pretty seductive considering the circumstances.
Clips of Evans screaming 'It was third-and-28, bro!' after the Bucs collapsed and blew a 14-point lead at home to the Falcons last year made the rounds in the wake of his decision. So too have annecdotes about how much miss the playoffs truly bothered Evans and didn't sit well with him.
All of that is splashed against a backdrop where there seemed to be little accountability and mediocrity was rewarded at best and tolerated at worst. Evans might not have said as much, but the contract details with the 49ers speak volumes and it lets the Buccaneers know how he really feels about how things are going.
This isn't the apocalypse; the Buccaneers still have a talented team that should compete next year. For a team that likes to play with a chip on its shoulder, that chip doesn't get any bigger than the best offensive player in franchise history taking less money to play in a more competitive division and leaving the only locker room he's ever known for one he already perceives as being better.