Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans Express Intentions To Stick Together With Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came up short in the Divisional Round in heartbreaking fashion on Sunday night. With that being said, no one around the league expected the Buccaneers to be in a position to compete for a Super Bowl in their first season without Tom Brady.
That's a testament to the entirety of the players and coaching staff, especially Baker Mayfield. After signing a bargain deal over the offseason with the Buccaneers to rebuild his stock in the NFL, he'll now enter free agency as one of the top available quarterbacks on the market.
Mayfield is coming off a career year under head coach Todd Bowles and offensive coordinator Dave Canales. He completed 364/566 passes (64.3%) for 4,044 yards with 28 touchdowns to ten interceptions during the regular season. He followed that up with back-to-back 300+ yard passing performances in the postseason against Philadelphia and Detroit.
A big part of Mayfield's resurgence was the number of talented weapons around him in Tampa Bay. That included his favorite target, All-Pro wide receiver Mike Evans. If Mayfield is back in pewter and red, he wants Evans alongside him.
"He makes my life easy. He did all year. He did it today, over and over," Mayfield said following the game. "To get everybody back, there have to be sacrifices made. This team's about winning. We have a group of guys who are all about that. If I'm back, I want Mike back."
Evans' tenth season with the Buccaneers ended up being one of the most productive years of his professional career. He tied for his second-most touchdown catches (13) while recording his third-most catches (79) and receiving yards (1,255) in a season. Evans knew from the beginning that Mayfield's addition would be a big boost for the franchise.
“I knew me and Baker would be a good fit," Evans said after the defeat." I like to think I’m a good fit for any quarterback, especially a guy that's really talented, super positive, great energy, fights to the end, mobile, all that."
The face of the Buccaneers thinks that Mayfield displayed how underrated he is this past season. Evans believes that the signal-caller has played his way into a big contract extension.
"Baker's a hell of a player and he showed everybody that he's criminally underrated," Evans said. "I was happy when we signed, knew he would be a great player for us. He played his way into a big contract I believe."
Evans is also up for an extension this offseason after he and the team could not come to terms on an agreement back in the fall. That middle ground is likely to be reached after a season where the Buccaneers and the 30-year-old wide receiver were one of the biggest surprises across the league.
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