“Todd, why are people blaming you for running Mike Evans off?”
Until there is a real answer from Mike Evans himself, Joe can only speculate as to the exact reason that pushed Evans away from the Bucs for good.
(And for the people who cannot understand why this is a big deal, No. 1, Evans was one of the greatest players in Bucs history who was not pushed out the door like Warren Sapp and John Lynch were. No. 2, as recently as 14 months ago, Evans publicly professed his love for the team and how he wanted to retire playing only for the Bucs. Now, 14 months later, he took a massive pay cut not to play for Tampa Bay. That’s major. Additionally, if an organization does not find out what chased off Evans, this can happen next year, two years from now or into the future. If you have a water main leak in your yard, you don’t ignore it hoping it doesn’t ever happen again; you fix it. Frankly, this is the biggest Bucs story since Bucco Bruce Arians retired, maybe the biggest since the Bucs won the Super Bowl.)
A lot of fans are convinced Evans gave up on the Bucs when he had an understandable crashout over the Bucs giving up a first down to Atlanta on national television despite having the Dixie Chicks in a third-and-28 situation.
Good defenses and maybe good defensive coordinators never allow that to happen with a playoff berth on the line.
In a sitdown with select Tampa Bay media today, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht rejected the idea that third-and-28, or even Todd Bowles himself, sent Evans over the edge to decidedenough was enough with the Bucs.
“I feel pretty strongly that — I’ve seen that theory — a lot of people were frustrated,” Licht said. “Mike was frustrated as competitive as he is. Nothing was ever directed at [Bowles].
“I mean, probably the person that was most frustrated was Todd.”
In fact, Licht said the outburst Evans had was borderline normal in unfortunate circumstances throughout the league and it doesn’t mean the upset player wants to pull an Antonio Brown.
“Every team I have been a part of there are instances like that where players get emotional at times where it’s not as public or caught on camera,” Licht said. “[Third-and-28] had zero to do with it.”
Again, Licht referenced a “family decision” motivated Evans to bid adios to Tampa Bay.