{"id":689410,"date":"2026-06-07T07:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T07:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/689410\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T07:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T07:43:14","slug":"baker-mayfield-didnt-seem-happy-mike-evans-bolted-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/689410\/","title":{"rendered":"Baker Mayfield Didn’t Seem Happy Mike Evans Bolted – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMike, why bro?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sort of lost in the mystery of why Mike Evans took a massive paycut to pay a 13.3 percent<\/a> state income tax rate to play with the 49ers is, \u201cWhat does Baker Mayfield think of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

We now know.<\/p>\n

Those two guys were tight, Evans and Mayfield, or at least they were supposed to be. When Evans signed a new deal with the Bucs in 2023, he did so, in part, because he knew Mayfield would be slinging passes his way.<\/p>\n

Mayfield was very diplomatic discussing his contract situation yesterday. But when discussing Evans\u2019 departure, he tried to put a good face on the situation but it was obvious it stings Mayfield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way to sugarcoat it \u2014 it\u2019s disappointing to not have him back,\u201d said Mayfield, who conveyed his disappointment by sending teammate Chris Godwin a text message with a sad face emoji, ESPN\u2019s Jenna Laine typed. \u201cJust the caliber of player he is \u2014 he\u2019s a Hall of Famer \u2014 I thought, you know, he deserved to be a Buc for life. Things happen. But luckily, him and I have a great relationship. Still good friends for life. I\u2019ll be cheering him on except when we play them, if it comes down to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, it wasn\u2019t like the Bucs didn\u2019t try to keep Evans. Joe was told months ago Evans was offered more than $20 million to stay in 2026.<\/p>\n

Instead, Evans took a massive paycut to get out of town.<\/p>\n

Something moved Evans to leave, and Joe doesn\u2019t believe it\u2019s California\u2019s second-rate strawberries. The Bucs cling to the generic \u201cfamily decision\u201d line. They\u2019re tight-lipped about specifics.<\/p>\n

Joe is convinced that until the real truth of why Evans turned his back on both the franchise and his close friends is revealed, Joe is sure this move already likely cost the Bucs Trey Hendrickson and who knows what other free agents \u2014 guys that were or will be soured on the Bucs because one of the team\u2019s greatest players really, really, really wanted to wash his hands of the team.<\/p>\n

(You better believe some agents of prospective 2027 free agents already have counseled their clients, \u201cBe careful with Tampa. Mike Evans threw away a small fortune just to get away.\u201d)<\/p>\n

And Joe doesn\u2019t think Evans leaving as simple as \u201cthird-and-28,\u201d though that likely could have been a factor.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n

Mike Evans Talks Personal Rejuvenation, 1,000-Yard Season Disappointment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMike, why bro?\u201d Sort of lost in the mystery of why Mike Evans took a massive paycut to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[5961,5960,349,99,1824],"class_list":["post-689410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-bucs-message-boards","tag-bucs-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}