Report: Buccaneers working on extension with Mike Evans

Over the weekend a very bizarre trade proposal went a bit viral thanks to Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans dunking all over it.

In that proposal, the Bucs would be trading Mike Evans to the New York Giants for Saquon Barkley and a second round pick in next year’s draft. The rationale was predictably surface-level and highlighted things like the expectation that the Bucs won’t be good next year and the pending free agency of Evans as reasons the trade makes sense.

Beyond how deeply unmoved fans were by the trade idea itself, the real takeaway was that a national audience was starting to pay attention to the fact that Evans was entering the final year of his contract with the Bucs.

There’s little argument that Evans is one of the best wide receivers in the game, and his talents are clearly coveted by other teams around the league. He looks to be a future Hall of Famer — the first offensive player the Bucs will send to Canton — and still has high-impact years left in his career.

Given the growing anti-Buccaneers agenda that the national media is feasting on, it’s no surprise that the idea of Evans being traded to a “better situation” would be floated. However, it sounds like it will remain the stuff of fantasy as reality is painting a much different picture for Evans.

Buccaneers reportedly working on extension for Mike Evans

While wholly unrelated to the trade proposal that went viral, the Buccaneers front office couldn’t have timed this better. According to Rick Stroud from the Tampa Bay Times, the Bucs and Evans are reportedly working on an extension that would keep him with the team long term. 

“Talks have already begun, and there is a willingness on both sides to get something done this summer,” Stroud writes.

Stroud also adds a quote from Evans’ agent explaining how much the receiver loves Tampa Bay and wishes to remain with the team.

This is obviously huge, not only for what it means for the team on the field but for the perception of it across the league. When Tom Brady retired, just about everybody outside of Tampa Bay did a hard pivot toward fully dismissing the Bucs as a serious franchise. Peter King picked them as the second-worst team in the league and experts have already fired Todd Bowles before the season has even begun.

All of this anti-Bucs rhetoric is why it’s not surprising that Mike Evans would get tossed into a trade proposal thought exercise like the one we saw this weekend. It’s not an accurate depiction of what things are actually like in Tampa Bay, though. Both Jamel Dean and Lavonte David decided to return rather than leave for potentially better situations in free agency, and Baker Mayfield recently revealed that he signed with the Bucs because of how strong the leadership within the organization is.

This news of Evans not only working on an extension but having a deep willingness to continue his career with the Buccaneers in the post-Brady era is further proof that the sky is in fact not falling no matter how loudly and dismissively some might try to say otherwise.