Mike Evans Really, Really Wanted To Get Away From Bucs – JoeBucsFan.com

Athletes regularly say when they sign new contracts, sometimes with new teams, it wasn’t about the money. That statement 99 percent of the time is hogwash because it is about the money.

But Mike Evans signing with the 49ers, well, you can make a strong argument it wasn’t about the money. And now we have proof.

The creator, curator and overall guru of Pro Football Talk, the great Mike Florio, was tipped by someone with intimate knowledge of Evans’ contract about the specifics. Joe nearly hit the ceiling.

In short, Team Glazer needs an immediate meeting with football employees, from the lowest rung assistants all the way up. And Team Glazer must demand answers.

Why was Evans so peeved at the Bucs and how do you fix it? Basically, per Florio, Evans is barely making top-30 (!) receiver money, meaning he is barely making No. 1 receiver money.

Here are the full deals, per a source with knowledge of the terms:

1. Signing bonus: $12 million.

2. 2026 base salary: $1.3 million, fully guaranteed.

3. 2026 workout bonus: $150,000, fully guaranteed but must be earned.

4. 2026 per-game active roster bonus: $850,000, fully guaranteed but must be earned.

5. 2027 option bonus: $12.5 million.

6. 2027 base salary: $1.5 million, guaranteed for injury at signing.

7. 2027 workout bonus: $150,000.

8. 2027 per-game active roster bonus: $850,000.

9. 2028 option bonus: $10.95 million.

10. 2028 base salary: $1.7 million.

11. 2028 workout bonus: $150,000.

12. 2028 per-game active roster bonus: $850,000.

It works out to a base package of $42.5 million. The APY is $14.167 million. That puts him near the bottom of the top 30 among receivers.

… We’re still trying to get the details of the incentive/escalator package that supposedly makes the $42.5 million deal worth “up to” $60.4 million. For now, those details remain as elusive as the basic contract details had been, for more than a week after the agreement was reached.

Then, as Florio points out, when you factor California taxes (13.3 percent) vs. Florida (zero), it makes the cheapness of the contract even more of a giveaway.

In short, it’s very safe to assume Evans clearly had zero desire to return to the Bucs and washed his hands of the organization.

Joe could understand if this was, say Devin White. But this is Evans, who the Bucs have long lauded as being such a standup guy, a model citizen and icon of the Bucs family.

There’s a reason Evans soured so much on the Bucs that he took a pay cut of millions to get away from Tampa Bay. Team Glazer needs to find the root reason and take care of it pronto. If not, the Bucs might be wooing college quarterbacks C.J. Carr or Justin Sayin in the near future, involuntarily.

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