Jenna Laine
Multiple Authors
TAMPA, Fla. — Speaking for the first time since wide receiver Mike Evans signed with the San Francisco 49ers in free agency last week, Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said Wednesday that he does not “feel betrayed” by the departure.
Evans, the franchise’s all-time scoring leader, had made several past comments about wanting to be a Buccaneer his entire career, including as recently as last year.
“Mike gave us everything he had for his 12 seasons here and established himself as one of the best players in the league,” Licht said. “So to say it again, one of our best players we’ve ever had — I don’t feel betrayed. He earned the right. I said that over and over. He earned the right to make this decision. And sometimes you’ve got to talk it over with your family and just sometimes you’re just ready for another chapter.”
Evans was Licht’s first draft pick as a first-time general manager in 2014. He was the first person Licht sought on the field when the Bucs defeated the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 NFC championship game that would send them to Super Bowl LV. A framed No. 13 jersey still hangs in Licht’s South Tampa home, with a message that’s addressed to his then-5-year-old son Charlie: “Your dad made the right pick!”
And when Evans inked his new deal in 2014, he said, “I look forward to being a [Buccaneer] for life.”
“He means everything to me, but he means everything to the entire organization,” Licht said. “Obviously best offensive player we’ve ever had and even better person than he is player. So it’s always tough. That one’s really tough.”
Evans’ agents, Deryk Gilmore and Darren Jones, said in a statement just after Evans and the 49ers agreed to terms that the deal “wasn’t about money,” something Evans echoed in his introductory news conference with the Niners.
“The money was not the biggest factor for me. It was just football and something that I can be excited about,” Evans said, adding that he felt like this signing was “giving me a second wind in my career.”
Licht didn’t specify how much the Bucs offered Evans but said, “We made a significantly higher offer [than the 49ers] and that was just the first offer,” indicating that they were ready to revisit the offer and continue negotiating to find an agreeable figure. Evans’ camp had also told ESPN that the Bucs were aggressive in their pursuit of retaining him. Instead, Evans signed with the 49ers on a three-year deal worth $42.5 million that essentially amounts to a one-year deal worth $14.3 million since all but $2 million of the guarantees are paid in the first year.
Licht said he and Evans had frequently communicated this offseason. They texted during the Super Bowl about how the Bucs had defeated the eventual Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks on the road and narrowly lost to the New England Patriots. He expressed excitement about the Bucs’ young receiving corps and was intrigued by the hiring of Zac Robinson, the Bucs’ new offensive coordinator, who had previously worked with Liam Coen when the two were with the Los Angeles Rams. He was excited about the additions of T.J. Yates as the passing game coordinator and Chandler Whitmer as the quarterbacks coach. He frequently sought Evans’ opinion on football matters.
“I feel like we did everything we could,” Licht said. “I had a lot of talks with Mike about that. He and I have a very good, obviously good relationship, but we talked. … When a player’s reached his level for as long as he has, we tend to have deeper discussions with those players, and there was basically nothing we could have done differently. And I feel very strongly about that.”
Licht was asked if retaining coach Todd Bowles factored into Evans’ decision to leave. Bowles, who served as the defensive coordinator in the Bucs’ 31-9 Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs — still the only postseason game in which Patrick Mahomes was kept entirely out of the end zone — led the Bucs to three straight NFC South titles (2022-2024).
But his head coaching tenure saw midseason collapses in 2023 and 2024 and an end-of-season skid in 2025 in which the Bucs lost four out of their last five games, keeping them out of the playoffs for the first time since 2019. The NFC South has been regarded as the weakest division in the league for multiple years.
After the Bucs surrendered a 14-point lead to the Atlanta Falcons in a 29-28 loss in Week 15 — Evans’ first game back from a broken collarbone — he slammed his helmet into the wall of the tunnel and shouted “third-and-28!” expressing frustration that the defense could not make a critical stop with the game on the line. Bowles made a number of changes to the defensive coaching staff this offseason in an effort to correct those deficiencies.
Licht said he feels strongly that Bowles was not the reason Evans left.
“A lot of people were frustrated and Mike was frustrated, as competitive as he is, but nothing was ever directed,” Licht said. “I mean, probably the person that was most frustrated in that particular incident was Todd. There’s a lot of things — every team I’ve been a part of there’s instances like that where players get emotional in times that may be not be as public or caught on camera. I mean, it’s in the locker room, but that had zero to do with it.”
Licht was asked about not extending Evans right after he tied Jerry Rice’s NFL record for 11-consecutive 1,000-yard seasons at the end of the 2024 season, which could have kept him through the 2026 season if it was another two-year deal. But Licht didn’t see it that way.
“He knew that we had a verbal agreement that he can be here as long as he wants, and he understood that,” Licht said. “There was never any clamoring on his part to add years to [his contract]. I also don’t want to hold him hostage either. So I really don’t have any regret about it at that time, no.”
In 2023, Evans expressed frustration over not getting a new deal done before the start of the season and publicly stated he and his agent would not continue negotiating during the season. But Evans had just turned 30 at the time and wanted long-term security.
His goals are different now — to cement his legacy in the NFL and get more chances to impact the game. He saw a receiving corps that now has Jalen McMillan, who led the NFL with seven touchdowns in the final five games of the 2024 regular season as a rookie; Emeka Egbuka, who electrified as a rookie in the first half of the season; and Chris Godwin, who enters his 10th season. While Evans’ 7.63 targets per game were still higher than what he saw in 2021 (7.13) and 2020 (6.81), his 3.75 catches per game in 2025 were a career low.
Licht declined to comment when asked if he had any concerns the 49ers might have potentially tampered with Evans before the free agency negotiation window opened March 9, considering Evans’ former Bucs teammate LeSean McCoy said on the Speakeasy podcast on March 10, “I was actually at his house [March 7]. And we were talking about free agency. … He was like, ‘Yo, there’s a great possibility I’m going to the Niners. I’m gonna have so much space and the opportunity to work.'”
Licht pointed out that players do talk to each other.
“I’m just happy for Mike and I’m happy he found a place he wanted to be, and that’s being truthful,” Licht said. “They’re doing their best to put a roster together too.”
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