If Bucs Can Only Bring One Back…
February 19th, 2024
Radio legend weighs in.
So here is a tough call.
Let’s say both Baker Mayfield and the greatest Bucs receiver of all time, Mike Evans, test the free agent market and get significant offers that are too rich for the Bucs’ blood. What does Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht do.
Does he stick with his very first draft pick as a Bucs shot-caller, Evans, or go with a proven quarterback, Mayfield?
Joe posed that question to radio legend, the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo of SiriusXM and ESPN fame.
A sports radio pioneer, Russo admitted that question is very tough while the close friend of JoeBucsFan.com columnist Ira Kaufman was kind enough to give Joe a moment at the Super Bowl Media Center at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
To say Russo is a busy man on Radio Row is a gross understatement. Between his responsibilities with SiriusXM and ESPN, everybody and their brother wants him on their TV or radio show.
So Joe asked Russo, which is it, who gets the new Bucs contract, Mayfield or Evans?
“First off, Evans, historically, is a Hall of Fame wide receiver,” Russo began. “When you have a Hall of Fame wide receiver and he’s been in Tampa his whole career, he’s got to be on your team. They’ve got to figure out a way to keep him. He’s a great player. He had a good game against the Lions. We all know how great he is.
“But you know, Mayfield found a home there. So I think it is important that both come back. The quarterback of course — listen, is Mayfield a Hall of Famer? No, Evans is. But you have to have the quarterback. If ya’ had to make me pick? I probably would take Mayfield.
“But Evans deserves to finish his career as a Buc. He’s a great wide receiver. He’s underrated, historically.”
“This Joe” believes Russo is dead on correct that Evans is underrated. It seems that just this year people began giving Evans his due. But man, you still hear people rattle off four or five receivers they’d rather have. Mostly, it seems, these are fantasy types. Give Joe reality football!
And yeah, if you don’t have a quarterback, you’re basically p!ssing in the wind. Stop it with the Trent Dilfer nonsense! That was a quarter of a century ago.
What would Joe do if it was Evans or Mayfield? Franchise Mayfield.
(Hat tip to Russo’s long-time SiriusXM producer and personal time manager Eddie Erickson, and thanks of course to Russo himself for taking time to talk to Joe.)
February 19th, 2024 at 7:35 am
Make the phone call to Brady.
February 19th, 2024 at 7:53 am
Gotta keep Mayfield. If you don’t have a QB then you’re gonna be shopping for one. WR is much easier to replace.
February 19th, 2024 at 7:57 am
Mayfield. Hard choice no one wants to answer, but if there is a bidding war, ME13 only has a few more years, so the Bucs would have to let him go.
February 19th, 2024 at 7:59 am
Not that I am a fanboy of Mayfield but the question is really moot , you have to have a Quarterback or all else is gibber jabber, how’s that for dating myself 🙃🙂🙃🙂
February 19th, 2024 at 8:03 am
You lost me at proven quarterback. You keep Evans period. Either draft a QB or look at vets like last year. Let Mayfield regress on some other team. Not here.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:04 am
It wouldn’t hurt too much to shove Evan’s contract down the road, won’t be but for a few years
February 19th, 2024 at 8:05 am
These hypothetical questions are interesting but aren’t relevant……
Why? Because you have a 3rd party in the mix….AWJ……if you sacrifice him, then you can afford both Evans & Mayfield.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:17 am
Tampabaybucfan, it’s not just AWjr but also LVD, and Whirfs will be paid top 3 LT money next year too. You can’t ignore that on the horizon.
Also the Bucs are still paying out $21.6mil + in voided year money against the cap for ‘24 too.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:20 am
If only one you bring Baker back. Mayfield crushed the Eagles by hitting Rookies and Godwin who is already back. Baker put a perfect touch soft pass on Evans Palms for a sure TD and the sucka dropped it. Dood freaks in high pressure situations. Zo Baker just said screw you and hit a buncha nobodys for big touchdowns. Baker don,t need Evans. We can draft a good receiver at our draft spot.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:28 am
You lock down Evans…& if Baker’s side wants too much…Go after Minshew instead of throwing $30-35M/yr at Baker. Minshew would likely jump for joy at 2yrs -$30M and a real shot at being QB1 back under the FL sun.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:29 am
@Marky Mark
Still salty about one dropped pass that didn’t hurt Tampa cause they still blew the eagles out regardless. Lol Baker does in fact need Evans, baker wouldn’t have gotten 4k yards passing without Evans or nearly 30 tds. No wr in this years draft is gonna produce like mike gtfoh
February 19th, 2024 at 8:29 am
If Baker doesn’t come back the Mike may not sign. Or vice versa. We still have good receivers and a really good one in Godwin. If Evans leaves and JL and TB promise him a receiver at 26 then that might make everyone happy. See what happens today. Really want Mike to stay.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:30 am
I also agree with Mayfield over Evans. All of us were around for the McCown to Evans, Glennon to Evans, and Jameis to Evans years. Those teams were losers. Having a HoF caliber WR does not produce wins if you have bad quarterbacks.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:37 am
How much $$$ is Kirk Cousins looking for? Evans and Cousins would make for a historic season for Mike.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:40 am
Other good teams manage to work the salary cap and keep their star players in the fold. We need to keep the big 4 plus McLaughlin. Use every loophole possible and rework any contract to make this happen. The only thing that could get in the way is if one of these guys asks for excessive money. If that happens they don’t have a team first attitude ala Devin White and we wouldn’t want to cave. Team first. Generally, if a player is over paid especially with guaranteed money they don’t perform up to our expectations because you’ve removed the incentive.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:44 am
Tag AW3. Evan’s will stay to play with Baker but he will not stay to play with a rookie QB, Trask, or Wolford. Package deal with Baker+Evans that is incentive heavy.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:45 am
This has been discussed and already worked out behind the scenes. We’re just waiting to see what decision has been made by the Bucs & the players. Both Evans and Mayfield know what the team has available cap-wise. I firmly believe the deal with BM was done before he signed the one-year contract. Four-year deal with a cap-friendly first year. And for God’s sake please resign the kicker.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:48 am
What happens if they both leave?
February 19th, 2024 at 8:55 am
💯 percent Mayfield over Evans. Mayfield is all but a done deal. Evans depends on his mindset. What matters more to him. Getting a fair deal and finishing your Hall of Fame career in Tampa or being greedy and taking the biggest offer thrown at him. The Bucs will make him a fair offer but it won’t be the biggest offer he gets. If he doesn’t sign before Free agency begins and wants to test the market then I guess we have our answer.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:55 am
Other player’s on this team will be watching this very close. One year quarterback has not proven anything. Every quarterback that the Buc’s has brought in Evans has had a 1000 yards season. Hey be faithful to your players.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:58 am
Bucs can sign both – they just need to use the salary cap credit card and kick a bunch more dead cap into the future…
Buy now – pay later.
February 19th, 2024 at 9:11 am
Put the ball in Mayfields court . He says he wasn’t coming unless he had evens back . So tell him what it’s going to cost to keep his wr on his team . Might help the team save a few million so he can keep him in Tampa .Baker knows he wasn’t everything last year and Mike made him look better just like Mike has done for every qb that has come thru 1 buc.
February 19th, 2024 at 9:12 am
You sign Evans and let him know it is his salary that Mayfield is gone so now it is his responsibility to carry the team to another NFC South title.
Evans needs to go out a Buc.
February 19th, 2024 at 9:16 am
Again this is very simple. Baker is about to get a decent 30+ million dollar season as a Franchise Tag QB. Sign Mike after and go from there.
February 19th, 2024 at 9:21 am
Gotta dock Mike for every drop or pass that doinks off his hands though
Too many gaffes for a guys who (supposedly) wants $25 million a year
February 19th, 2024 at 9:22 am
Joe … ‘What would Joe do if it was Evans or Mayfield? Franchise Mayfield.’
No way Jose. Mayfield WITHOUT Evans is a crapshoot at best. Mike accounted for 13 of his 28 passing TDs for a reason. Not to mention that franchise-tagging Baker for $36 mil is an extremely high-priced 1-year bandaid. What happens in 2025? And especially if the Bucs screw the pooch in 2024 without Evans?
The ONLY 2 Bucs I’d even consider franchise-tagging are (1) Winfield; and (2) McLaughlin.
February 19th, 2024 at 9:27 am
And BTW, why folks are talking about the Top-4 UFAs (Mayfield, Evans, Winfield and LVD) but NOT McLaughlin is far beyond me. Chase accounted for 120 points last year, over one-third of what we put on the board. He hit on an incredible 93.5% of his FG attempts (29 of 31), and 7 of 8 of those were from BEYOND 50 YARDS. We’d be dumber than dirt to let him escape. Lock him up early ($4-$5 mil) because he’ll have LOTS of suitors.
February 19th, 2024 at 9:46 am
You sign Evans and you tag Mayfield. It’s a no-brainer Evans is proved that he can do it year in and year out Mayfield hasn’t.
February 19th, 2024 at 9:56 am
Sign Gardner Minshew cheaper than Mayfield and about as good. Then keep Evans and Winfield. Evans made Mayfield look better than he actually is.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:15 am
Do like a central banker does. Kick that can down the road. Do not face reality. Extend and pretend!
February 19th, 2024 at 10:29 am
Sign Gardner Minshew cheaper than Mayfield and about as good – HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. Baker is WAYYYYYY better than Minshew.
Baker – 4 years, $150 million. $100 mil guaranteed
Mike Evans – 3 years, 65 million. $30 mil guaranteed
AWJ – 4 years, $75 million. $45 mil guaranteed
Chase – 4 years, $23 million. $15 mil guaranteed
February 19th, 2024 at 10:56 am
Now Bucs don’t have to worry about signing Mayfield. Jimmy G to the rescue. Jimmy G got caught on a PED violation and now the Raiders can void his contract.
Freaking Raiders can now sign a top FA using Jimmy G’s $11 million without getting stuck with it on their salary cap #’s.
Out with Mayfield and in with Jimmy G. Good luck.
Evans wants out also. Not looking good.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:05 am
Sign Mike, let BM walk in free agency. We have a qb on the roster who’s better than him
February 19th, 2024 at 11:07 am
Mike also played volleyball in the Detroit game….. look, I LOVE Mike, but we can’t just ignore his drops (a stat that is really hard to get a definitive read on) in BIG moments, and I know everyone has drops, his just seem to come at the worst possible time. It has to be a factor in his contract….. I can only recall like 2 drops from CG all year ALOT more from Mike stick out in my mind.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:48 am
I haven’t really studied the film on Evan’s drops (maybe all that hi-tech gear they wear has an answer?) but to my eye, his drops are mostly the “painful” ones where he’s running open deep at full speed where, if he catches it, it’s probably a TD (see “painful). He’s a “long-strider” when he runs at top speed but he’s not a “smooth” runner so I think there may be a head-bobble or wobble issue affecting his vision of the ball when he’s in full-stride.
You’ll notice when he has to lay out or stop or come back to the ball he rarely misses it and I think it’s because his vision is better in those cases because there’s little to no head movement.
As for the Mayfield or Evans debate, Mike shows no sign of the dreaded “cliff”…..yet. I’m not saying it would be easy to replace him but there are other FA WRs out there who are younger, very good and probably cheaper. Brandon Aiyuk of the 49ers comes to mind.
I’m still holding out hope that we can re-sign both along with David, Winfield, etc. I hear the retirement rumors already about LVD so I hope if he does hang ’em up he does it before draft day and not wait until camp and say “Naw, I’m too old for this sh*t” and walk away.
Gonna be a long off-season and I HATE off-season
February 19th, 2024 at 11:49 am
Both. Make it happen, Licht and Greenburg.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:56 am
I love how people put HaHaHaHaHa like thats an insult.
I want to go in a completely different direction than BOTH Baker and Mike.
Houston was a CJ Stroud away from being a laughingstock last year.
If Minshew has to lead a team with Josh Allen, Dalton Risner, Patrick Queen, Jeremy Chin and a rookie Keon Coleman instead of Baker and Mike so be it.
You can’t tell me that wouldn’t be exciting.
Quit HOPING anything happens because I for 1 don’t wanna see the same team next year.
Resigning our own players for 1 game above .500 isn’t promising to me and no LMAO or HaHaHaHa is going to deter me.
February 19th, 2024 at 12:09 pm
it’s a flawed question. The Bucs have 3 “must sign” players with Baker, Evans AND Winfield.
I’d franchise Evans, and focus on signing Mayfield and Winfield long term now and use this season to free money to sign Evans long term after this season.
February 19th, 2024 at 1:02 pm
You have e to get over “Mike has to go out a BUC”. Mike is at top value. Make a trade and get yourself right for the future. Franchise Baker. That gets you another year to assess. He can get a bigger BUC payday if 2024 goes well, and you will have reciever help with the returns from the Evans trade. Just look at the ages and the overall performances this year. Evans has lots of key drops, has quit blocking well, and stops running routes when the play doesn’t go as planned (ie. Come back to the QB to offer help). Let somebody else roll their dice on 4 years of Mike.
February 19th, 2024 at 1:11 pm
No-BRAINER choice for me…
MAKE SURE MIKE EVANS STAYS A BUC!!
He’s obviously proven that he can produce no matter who the quarterback is!!
1000 yard season with Mike Glennon & Josh McCown….
He’s the one that makes the offense potent, more than the QB…
February 19th, 2024 at 1:59 pm
Keep Evans no matter what. BM threw some ugly sh**Evans way and stretch Armstrong wouldn’t have caught them. Trask only needs a chance to prove he can handle it. Baker is 1 hit away from holding down the bench for the year. Of course that could happen to Evans as well but if only 1…Evans. Hopefully they can get both and with the other receivers on board, they can be great!
February 19th, 2024 at 2:01 pm
I think u r wrong bout baker needing Evans canales out most of the passing game was targeted Evans way when he was doubled teamed the others did a good job when they got their opportunities go back game by game & also it wasn’t just 1 game with bad drops from Evans I remember he had bad drops with a pass interference at the worst possible time
February 19th, 2024 at 2:05 pm
When u guys bragg bout 1000 yd season if he plays 16 games that means he is averaging 65 yds per game how is that elite elite to me is a least 100 yds a game but not with just 1 big 75 yd bomb per game
February 19th, 2024 at 2:15 pm
Atlbuc says man u r tripe is old very old.drop the k get on board this is a serious posting site no pee brains allowed drop the k off Trask add an H what do u get trash
February 19th, 2024 at 2:24 pm
JOE’S & RUSSO ARE DRINKING AGAIN …
Historical Perspective:
Baker without Evans = Hot Garbage
Evans without Baker = HOF
Evans transforms EVERY QB into super star. Johnny Football = Heisman. Winston = Pro Bowl. TB12 = Super Bowl. Baker = Pro Bowl
Who are you going to keep? How about the guy who can take a $4M QB and put him into the Pro Bowl.
February 19th, 2024 at 3:32 pm
Baker, for sure. He could be MVP one day. He should have had votes this past year.
February 19th, 2024 at 3:44 pm
The only argument to be made about Evans getting his 1,000+ yards with ANY quarterback is that before Brady and Baker, he got the yards but never sniffed a playoff game, let alone a SB title.
There are plenty of all-time great WRs with incredible numbers that don’t have rings. Julio Jones, Larry Fitzgerald, Cris Carter, etc, etc. Yes, ther are also Dan Marinos and Jim Kellys also, but they had weapons and still came up short.
The QB is the most important position for a reason. Brady won with Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan and a very young, inexperienced Edelman.
February 19th, 2024 at 4:16 pm
Evans has made every QB he’s ever played with look better than they are…
Mayfield’s best career year statistically (which wasn’t that great if you watched every game) had a lot to do with having Evans to throw to….
HALF of Baker’s TD passes in 2023 were caught by Mike Evans…..
If Baker leaves and Evans is resigned – regardless of who is under center, ME13 will still play at a HOF level…
If Evans leaves and Baker re-signs – get ready for a serious ‘regression to the mean”….
February 19th, 2024 at 4:36 pm
Evans made Mike Glennon look like a starting QB.
He even made Baker Mayfield look good.
There is no question about who you’d bring back.
February 19th, 2024 at 4:56 pm
Hate to say it ide let them both go A .500 qb and a receiver that’s pushing 30. No offense to either but I’m not willing to invest like 60 million a year on both
February 19th, 2024 at 5:01 pm
Evans.
February 19th, 2024 at 6:24 pm
I’d rather have Mike as a buccaneer for life. If Mayfield was say CJ Stroud, I would say sign the QB and draft another wideout this season, but Mayfield is Mayfield, we all saw his last pass of the season, he needs a run game and he needs Mike Evans. Sign Mike and the QB will follow.
February 19th, 2024 at 6:28 pm
Mike C: I think Baker throws a pretty catchable ball on the deep shots but his short passes are thrown a little too hard. I think he puts extra juice on the balls thrown over the middle so a mediocre linebacker can’t squeeze the INT. Just my take. His passes are a little high and a little hot to start the games.
February 19th, 2024 at 7:18 pm
Sign Russell Wilson, draft another project QB, move on from Trask.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:12 pm
Ummmm Chief… “Baker is “WAYYYYYY” better than Minshew” might be the THIRD most ridiculous thing I’ve read. Right behind : Baker 4 years $150 Million l. 100 million Guaranteed. And not to mention Mike Evans 3 years 65 Million .
Yes let’s light 100 million on fire for a QB that has played for about 6 teams the last few weeks. Let’s reward a guy who cannot hit any tight windows but dog gone it, he has “moxie”. Just because he pulls off the effeminate head band a lot better than Minshew doesn’t make him worth 100 million. Minshew and Mayfield are essentially the SAME player. “Bridge QB”. Just mediocre enough to back their way into the playoffs.
And that RIDICULOUS insult to Evans you suggested was a more egregious offer Tampa has made in the past including the John Lynch, Warren Sapp and Warrick Dunn offers back in the day. But this forum is a great platform to let fans play “GM” . You would no doubt take the crown away from Dominik as the most inept GM we have ever had. Thanks for playing though.
February 20th, 2024 at 12:28 am
Keep baker… ME13 is old and will go down hill fast. We saw this year with all the drops. It will get worse next year.
February 20th, 2024 at 1:24 am
If Evans did leave, you still have 3 very good receivers that don’t drop a good ball very often with 40 times that make them very dangerous. Palmer ran a 4.3, the fastest at the combine, Moore 4.4, Godwin 4.4. Evans is no slouch at 4.5. But when you have 4.3 and 4.4 guys, you’re sittin pretty good. Those TD runs by Moore & Palmer against Philly were a thing of beauty.
February 20th, 2024 at 9:55 pm
It’s obvious that you keep Evans first. He’s a HOF WR who hasn’t slowed down and stays pretty healthy. You can’t just easily replace what he does. You can’t. Just the attention he draws alone helps the rest of the receivers. Baker’s production at QB, however, is replaceable. We’re not looking at elite QB play, just average at best.