Joe has known for months that Mike Evans leaving Tampa for a lot less money — for a team that won six games in 2024 and a quarterback who doesn’t represent an upgrade — is a story whose whole truth is being shielded from the public eye.
It doesn’t take more than common sense and a healthy Buccaneers obsession to understand Evans leaving a city and a franchise that adore him for a gargantuan pay cut is a giant red flag, one that screams there’s a lot more to the story.
Joe was told a long time ago that Evans was offered Chris Godwin money plus incentives to stay with Tampa Bay.
Godwin earns $22 million annually plus incentives on the deal he signed before the 2025 season. Instead, Evans took $14.3 million plus incentives (minus a ton of state taxes) from San Francisco.
Sorry, but nobody likes Brock Purdy that much.
And, Evans has for years expressed a personal aversion to long plane rides. The Niners open this season in Australia and will log a huge amount of mileage, including two east coast trips. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Bay area is nothing like Tampa or South Texas, where Evans has spent his life.
One can be naive and believe Evans was sick of Todd Bowles or he simply wanted to try a new football scene. But Joe has never bought that.
Yesterday, a Bucs legend weighed on Evans leaving Tampa. That would be Bucco Bruce Arians. He doesn’t seem to be buying the public reasons for Evans’ departure, either.
“I was very surprised. I was almost shocked because I know how much it meant to him and I know the offer we made,” said Arians, who has served the past four years as an official advisor to Buccaneer Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht.
“There had to be some underlying thing that I don’t know was the reason. But it wasn’t money.”
Notice how Arians didn’t echo the company lines of “family decision” or “new challenge.” That’s no coincidence.
Arians comments came on the Pewter Report podcast.
Joe is sure Evans flushed away millions of dollars and the “Buc For Life” status he craved for deeply personal reasons. What exactly are those? Joe’s working on being able to share.