Mike Evans listed the teams he thought about signing with in free agency

For the 11th straight season, Mike Evans is at Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp but we were increidbly close to that not being the case.

Evans very famously drew a line in the sand last August as he approached the final season of his contract, giving the Bucs an ultimatum to re-sign him then or risk losing him. Tampa Bay gambled, opting to not meet his demand and see how things played out.

What happened next was a season in which Evans continued to solidify his Hall of Fame case but did so under the eager lights of teams hoping to steal him away in March. That nearly happened, but Evans and the Bucs found a way to meet in the middle and stick together.

Losing Evans was a front burner fear all year for Bucs fans, and it sounds like those fears were very much justified.

Mike Evans says he thought about signing with the Chiefs to play with Patrick Mahomes

While sitting down for an interview with NFL Network at Bucs training camp, Evans once again talked about how close he came to hitting free agency and the teams he was considering signing with. We've heard the interest about Houston in the past, but Evans tossed out the Chiefs as a team he was seriously considering if he had hit the open market.

"In the back of my mind I'm thinking Houston and Kansas City," Evans said. "I'm thinking those two teams, and obviously I'm thinking the Bucs. It would have been extremely hard, if I hit free agency, to leave here."

Thankfully Evans didn't have to leave, and the Bucs re-signed him to a two-year deal right before the legal tampering window opened. He confirmed that while it was his own decision to make, his wife Ashli and his children convinced him to stay in Tampa Bay.

"She didn't want to pack up and move everything. So it was really her decision is the reason why I decided to stay," Evans said. "I'm not saying I would have chose some place else, but I was going to hit free agency. Then we were at dinner and she said, 'babe I think we should stay in Tampa'."

Ashli Evans will forever be goated for her role in the Bucs retaining one of the best players in franchise history. It's also notable that Evans circled back to his interest in the Chiefs, something that we had heard mentioned before but only in passing.

There were rumors at the time that a team like Kansas City might swoop in as a perfect landing spot for Evans, with the New York Jets making sense for the same reason. Evans playing with Tom Brady elevated his already insanely high game to truly Hall of Fame levels so seeing him in an offense with Patrick Mahomes would be borderline unfair.

One issue there as the Chiefs' cap space issues. While Evans might have been interested, Kansas City had a hard enough time fitting Chris Jones back onto the books, which would have left little room for Evans.

Then again, Evans staying in Tampa Bay might be a major Sliding Doors moment for the NFL. Let's say he had left and then signed with the Chiefs -- does that mean Chris Jones hits the open market and goes somewhere else? Kansas City lost L'Jarius Snead to keep Jones, but this scenario sees them lose two key defensive players and potentially one to a rival AFC team.

Evans staying in Tampa Bay is good on a number of different levels for the Bucs, but it's an interesting What-If with ripple effects across the league to wonder what would have happened if Jason Licht hadn't worked out a deal.

Thankfully, we won't ever have to find out. Evans is still with the Bucs and now one step closer to pulling off the feat of having spent his entire career in Tampa Bay.

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