Ever since the Seattle Seahawks hoisted their second Lombardi Trophy after defeating the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX, the league has been filled with free agency moves, and this past week, two Texas A&M wide receivers were at the focal point of the news.
Last Thursday, Mike Evans stunned the football world by signing a three-year, $42 million deal with the San Francisco 49ers, ending a 12-year tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after becoming the team’s all-time leader in each of the major receiving categories.
And just on Monday, Christian Kirk signed a one-year deal worth $6 million, putting the two household names on the same team for the first time in their careers.
Mike Evans, Christian Kirk Each Ink Deals With San Francisco 49ers
Houston Texans wide receiver Christian Kirk (13) celebrates a touchdown in the second quarter against the New England Patriots in an AFC Divisional Round game at Gillette Stadium. | Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images
The two join the 49ers in efforts to bring a boost to the receiving corps after some moves and injuries over the past few years have severely limited the team out wide.
After the 2024 season, the team traded wide receiver Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders, and in the same season, wideout Brandon Aiyuk went down in the middle of the season with a torn ACL and MCL, which carried over to 2025 and forced him to miss the entire campaign.
The injured list grew during the 49ers’ Wild Card win over the Philadelphia Eagles, when star tight end George Kittle suffered a torn Achilles, and will likely result in him missing the first few weeks of the 2026 season.
With the number of injuries the team suffered on the year, the team’s receiving corps was paced by All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey with 924.
Evans, unfortunately, also missed a large portion of the 2025 season with a broken collarbone, an injury that cost him his legendary streak of consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons that he had been building since his NFL debut.
Evans was selected seventh overall by the Buccaneers in the 2014 NFL draft, and immediately saw success with the team, scoring 1,051 yards and 12 touchdowns with the team and later going on to win Super Bowl LV with the team in the 2020 season when they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs under the on-field command of quarterback Tom Brady.
San Francisco marks Kirk’s fourth team in his NFL career since his second-round drafting in the 2018 NFL draft by his hometown team, the Arizona Cardinals.
Kirk spent the first four years of his career with the Cardinals before being traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars before the 2022 season, and spent a single season back in Texas with the Houston Texans in the 2025 season, reaching the AFC Divisional Round, where they were defeated by the Patriots.
During his time in College Station, the Scottsdale native put up 2,856 yards receiving and 26 touchdowns, as well as nearly 2,000 additional yards and seven touchdowns on special teams.
Injuries have plagued Kirk in his career as well to the point where he has only completed two full seasons since he was drafted, but his best season came in his first year with the Jaguars, where he 1,108 yards (his only professional 1,000-yard season) and a career-high eight receiving touchdowns.
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