National Football League

Is Bucs WR Mike Evans nearing the end of a magical run in Tampa?

Published Nov. 29, 2023 3:52 p.m. ET

From a distance, the ballcap on Mike Evans' head clearly shows his jersey number, 13, and if you know the Bucs receiver is a huge Harry Potter fan, you recognize the triangle/circle symbol around the numbers as the Deathly Hallows, a mark he literally has tattooed on his own arm.

A fan gave him the hat, knowing how much he loves the Potter books and movies, and Evans is a touchdown wizard, finding constant inspiration in his favorite characters. If you look closer at the cap, that triangle has words along the edges from wise old Professor Dumbledore himself: "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Evans' abilities — truly magical at times — have never been in doubt. At age 30, he's second in the NFL with nine touchdown catches this year, and that gives him 90 for his career. That already ranks 15th in league history, and by the end of this season, he could move past Hall of Famers Isaac Bruce and Rob Gronkowski to rank 12th, with 100 in easy reach next year, helping his own case for Canton someday.

"I've just been playing for a long time, and my skill set and my size, it definitely helps me in the red area, a lot," the 6-foot-5 receiver said Wednesday. "I wish I would have had more touchdowns in my career, but it didn't go that way, so hopefully I can keep getting opportunities. ... You have to keep working, no matter what."

He has been the best part of a struggling Bucs team that has lost six of their past seven games, yet finds itself only one game out of first place in a bad NFC South. Any hope of a turnaround starts with Sunday's home game against Carolina, and the last time the Panthers came to Tampa, Evans exploded. He had 10 catches for 207 yards and three touchdowns as the Bucs rallied from 14 down to win and clinch a division championship in January.

"It's extremely hard, losing like this," Evans said of Tampa's 4-7 record. "Fortunately for us, our goals are still there. They still can be accomplished, and that's what's kind of keeping me balanced right now."

As desperate as things are right now, if the Bucs can beat Carolina (1-10) on Sunday and win at Atlanta (5-6) next week, they'll have at least a share of the division lead with four games to play.

Evans could also be playing his final games in a Bucs uniform, a real possibility that is hard for many fans to imagine. Tom Brady spent three years in Tampa, but Evans is easily the best offensive player in the franchise's history, having rewritten all of the team's receiving records. His time with the Bucs has gone from a 2-14 rookie season to the pinnacle of a Super Bowl championship and everything in between, but his impending free agency leaves him and his team with a difficult decision.

The Bucs are the team that drafted Evans — the house he was sorted to, in Potter parlance — and he will finish this year as the highest-paid player in team history, at more than $110 million. He has a chance to spend his entire career in one place, joining Hall of Famers like Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber and Lee Roy Selmon. The Bucs' limited salary cap and Evans' continued production might make it difficult for Tampa Bay to pay him as much as other teams, so he also could end up like Warren Sapp and John Lynch, who won a championship in Tampa but had to finish their Hall of Fame careers elsewhere.

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The market demand for Evans will certainly exceed the $16 million a year he earned on a five-year deal ending this season, and could easily exceed the $20 million a year the Bucs paid fellow receiver Chris Godwin two years ago. The league's top receivers now make more than $25 million a year, and the Bucs want to keep young leaders and stars like tackle Tristan Wirfs and safety Antoine Winfield, but re-signing Evans at a high salary would be at the expense of keeping others.

One potential suitor and match for Evans could be the Houston Texans, as he's from nearby Galveston and has a strong personal connection to the area. Houston could use a No. 1 receiver to help rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud and has ample cap space to handle the kind of lucrative deal it would take to lure Evans away from Tampa and the home he and his family have built there.

When no extension was reached before the season, Evans said he wouldn't talk about his contract during the season, but both sides have said how much it would mean to keep him in Tampa Bay for his entire career. It could be the Bucs allow him to test free agency and find his value there, as they did with linebacker Lavonte David last spring, signing him back at age 33 on a smaller contract.

Evans has been prolific enough in the end zone this year that he has more than half the Bucs' touchdown receptions — nine of 17 — something he hasn't done since his rookie year in 2014. Only two other receivers in the Past five years have pulled that off — the Raiders' Jakobi Meyers has this year and Davante Adams did for Las Vegas last season, but that's it. It's incredibly hard to pull off catches in the close confines of the end zone when the defense knows you're a top priority, but Evans continues to do that.

"We've seen guys try and double team him, but he still finds a way to win," quarterback Baker Mayfield said. "No matter what the coverage is, he always has a plan based on what route he has of how he is going to try to win based on leverage or coverage. It's something you really can't teach. It's a God-given ability that he has, and he's also had a ton of reps doing it at a high level for a long time. We're lucky to have him, and we've got to keep finding ways to get him the ball."

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Evans' consistency has been the hallmark of his time with the Bucs. He has 850 receiving yards this season, and with 150 more, he'll reach 1,000 for the 10th straight season, extending his NFL record for the most at the start of a career. It will leave him one shy of the longest streak at any point in a career, set by Jerry Rice in 11 straight seasons with the 49ers. Even Rice, as arguably the best receiver the game has ever seen, had to finish his career elsewhere after an amazing run with one team.

That choice is about Evans' future, and his focus for now is very much on the present, on trying to keep the Bucs at least in contention for a fourth straight playoff appearance and third straight division title, something Evans appreciates after missing the playoffs in his first six years in Tampa.

"I've been blessed," he said. "God has blessed me tremendously with durability, and great people around me to help me maintain my health. That's been good for me."

Greg Auman is FOX Sports' NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.