Rachaad White responds to Sauce Gardner trying to recruit Mike Evans to Jets

After a decade with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Mike Evans is set to hit the open market for the first time in his career and teams have been lining up for months to try and convince him to leave.

The contractual cloud has been hanging over the Bucs all season, with Evans issuing an ultimatum before Week 1 that did team didn’t end up meeting. Everything he did this year, including turning in another season where he went over 1,000 yards receiving, was projected against knowing he’d be looking for a new deal once the offseason rolled around.

We’ve finally reached that bridge to cross, but it’s not going to be one the Bucs easily make to the other side of. Less than a day after the team failed to reach a long-term deal with ahead of a dead cap deadline, Sauce Gardner jumped on social media to try and start recruiting Evans to the New York Jets.

Needless to say, it wasn’t just Buccaneers fans who were annoyed by his antics.

Rachaad White responds to Sauce Gardner trying to recruit Mike Evans to Jets

Not long after Gardner sent out his little recruiting message, Rachaad White stormed into the chat to let the All-Pro know it’s not going to be that easy.

White exploded onto the scene this year for the Bucs, finishing the year with over 1,500 total yards while drawing comparisons to Christian McCaffrey. He fully established himself as a weapon for Tampa Bay’s offense, but it’s clear he’s not ready to watch another one walk away.

The Jets have been lurking in the background of the Mike Evans situation since before the season started. There were rumors that Joe Douglas called the Bucs ahead of this year’s trade deadline to inquire about a deal, but those were corrected to state that the conversation happened during the preseason.

Either way, the call was made and the Jets’ interest in Evans is clear. The sales pitch of trying to win a Super Bowl with another Hall of Fame quarterback, backed by a world class defense, is a pretty good one but it’s not some sort of trump card.

All along Evans has stated that his desire is to retire having spent his entire career in Tampa Bay but he’s not going to settle for less to make it happen. New York, Kansas City, Detroit, and Houston have all been named as potential landing spots — laughably, so have the Panthers — but it’s up to Tampa Bay to make sure he doesn’t get away.

If they need any further evidence beyond what fans have been saying all year, White’s comments make it clear his teammates would prefer he not play anywhere else either.

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