The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are already thinking about repeating as Super Bowl champions next year, and wide receiver Mike Evans may be willing to give up some money to help accomplish that goal.
Evans signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal with the Bucs in 2018. He has restructured the contract multiple times to give Tampa Bay more salary cap space. Bruce Arians praised him for those sacrifices following the team’s 31-9 win over the Kansas Chiefs on Sunday night, and the head coach said Evans has made it clear he is willing to do it again.
“Mike Evans is the most unselfish superstar I’ve ever met,” Arians said, via Peter King of NBC Sports. “He’s told us to use some of his money if we need to contracts to keep the team together!”
Evans agreed to a restructured contract prior to the 2020 season that freed up nearly $10 million in salary cap space for the Bucs. He didn’t actually take a pay cut, as the team lowered his base salary and converted the money to per-game roster bonuses. Still, it’s an unselfish move that is by no means mandatory.
The Buccaneers signed Leonard Fournette not long after Evans restructured his deal. Fournette played a massive role in the postseason, as he had 448 yards from scrimmage and scored four touchdowns in four games.
Evans was one of the first people to offer extremely high praise for Tom Brady after the quarterback signed with Tampa Bay. He then caught a career-high 13 touchdown passes and won his first Super Bowl. You can understand why he wants to do everything he can to keep the band together.
