Mike Evans has said rather clearly what he wants in free agency.
According to Evans’ agent Deryk Gilmore, “Mike wants to play with an elite quarterback in an offense that will showcase him,” Jordan Schultz of Bleacher Report said. And get the salary of a premier wide receiver. He is unwilling to play quarterback inexperienced. Super Bowl victory is a top priority.
If the five-time Pro Bowler is unable to stay with the Tampa Bay Bucs and enters free agency for the first time, Evans’ priority list for his next team appears to be in line with what the Philadelphia Eagles have to offer.
Evans is precisely the kind of guy general manager Howie Roseman and the Eagles should give priority when free agency opens on March 13. Evans just finished his eleventh season of receiving 1000 yards or more.
With a combined 2,522 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2023, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are among the league’s most productive receiving tandems. However, Roseman and the Eagles experimented with a rotating cast of third receivers with mixed results the previous year.
After being selected by the Eagles on the waiver wire, Julio Jones managed to haul in just 11 catches for 74 yards and three scores. Olamide Zaccheaus and Quez Watkins, meanwhile, hauled in 69 passes for 306 yards and three scores. Together.
Evans is a game-changing addition capable of transforming the entire offense ahead of a 2024 season that the Eagles are projecting as a make-or-break for head coach Nick Sirianni. Additionally, quarterback Jalen Hurts is hoping to recover from a 2023 season that was somewhat of a regression from his MVP-caliber performance in 2022.
The Eagles would have one of the league’s most explosive receiving corps, ranking right up there with the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd combination that powered a 2021 Super Bowl run, if they added Evans to Hurts’ arsenal.
It may be simple to consider Evans an unneeded luxury, particularly before Smith enters his contract’s last year.
But as the Eagles’ playoff defeat demonstrated with Brown’s absence, Philadelphia’s passing attack suffers greatly when Evans isn’t paired with a field stretcher.
Hurts still looked 66 times toward Watkins, Zaccheaus, Jones, and Britain Covey in 2023, despite Brown and Evans controlling 270 targets.
There’s no denying that with a vertical attack, Brown, Smith, and Evans can each attract in the neighborhood of 115–120 targets.
Furthermore, wouldn’t Evans provide Hurts more consistency and upside than Watkins, Zaccheaus, Jones, and Covey put together, since Bucs QB Baker Mayfield recorded a 119.4 passing rating while targeting Evans in the previous season?
Last season, Evans caught 79 catches for 1,255 yards and 13 touchdowns for a club that lost to the Detroit Lions in the divisional playoffs.
The Eagles’ offensive line might be strengthened by adding Evans’ output and reliability, which might reopen Philadelphia’s Super Bowl window.
Although the Eagles have a ton of holes to fix this offseason, particularly at linebacker and in the secondary, it won’t matter if Hurts can’t become one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
Luckily for Roseman, one of the NFL’s most proactive general managers, Philadelphia has enough financial space to make Evans a priority this summer while still adding quality players at critical need spots.
The Eagles are expected to have $39.6 million in salary room in 2024 after releasing safety Kevin Byard, which freed up $13.5 million in space. Philadelphia is expected to have over $75 million in salary space in 2025; but, if the ceiling increases again the following offseason, that amount might go up. The Eagles’ spending flexibility then soars to at least $185 million in 2026.
The Eagles don’t have constraints in terms of cap space or financial freedom, and few teams with excellent quarterbacks who are also Super Bowl contenders have as much off-season resources as Philadelphia has.
Evans may be interested in joining Joe Burrow and the Bengals ($52.1 million), but if Cincinnati can, they might be happy to stick with Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd.
Similarly, C.J. Stroud and the Texans, who have $70 million to spend this summer, are a real danger to win the Super Bowl. However, does Evans think that Stroud defeating the AFC’s titans will be a simpler route to the title game than Stroud playing with Hurts and the Eagles in the NFC?
This is a possible combination to keep an eye on when free agency opens if the Eagles are serious about winning a Super Bowl in the next four seasons and positioning Hurts for long-term success, and if Evans genuinely thinks that competing for rings and playing with a top quarterback is what matters most to him in the next phase of his career.
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