Could Mike Evans be moving on from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
The 2025 NFL season was one Evans and the rest of the Buccaneers would like to forget. For the Bucs, they finished with just eight wins and couldn’t win the lowly NFC South, and found themselves on the outside looking in from the playoffs.
For Evans, injuries and up-and-down play from former Pro Bowl quarterback, Baker Mayfield cost him his streak of 11-straight seasons with over 1,000 yards receiving, something Evans has done every year of his professional career after being drafted in the first-round by the Bucs in 2014.
While 2025 was not a season to remember for Evans or the Bucs, perhaps it signaled the best time for both parties to move on…an idea that ESPN’s Aaron Schatz agrees with.
According to Schatz, Evans could opt to leave warm, sunny Tampa Bay for western New York and team-up with 2024 NFL MVP, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.
“Buffalo needs a No. 1 option for quarterback Josh Allen, and Evans is still a talented ‘X’ receiver” Schatz wrote. “He has the size — standing at 6-foot-5, 231 pounds — and ball skills to win contested catches. Allen could also trust Evans on third down; in 2024, he had a team-high 220 yards on third down for the Bucs.”
The 2025 season marked the first-time in Evans’ Hall of Fame worthy career that he failed to reach the 1,000 yard mark — but that wasn’t due to his play falling off, but due to the Bucs’ all-time leading receiver breaking his clavicle in October, which forced him to miss nine games.
Despite only appearing in six full games, Evens managed to secure 30 receptions for 368 yards, and three touchdowns during his 12th NFL season.
If Evans departs Tampa Bay this off-season, he’ll leave as the all-time club leader in receptions (866), yards (13,052), and touchdowns (108). Evans’ longtime teammate, Chris Godwin is second in Bucs history in all three categories…but by a wide margin, as Godwin has 621 receptions, 7,626 yards, and 41 touchdowns.
The Bills project to be amongst the AFC’s elite in 2026 and with the club’s window to win a Super Bowl with Josh Allen not getting any wider, Evans would be just what the doctor ordered for the former NFL MVP.
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