Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver Mike Evans just agreed to an enormous extension: five years and $82.5 million with $55 million guaranteed, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
This is a record-breaking amount of money — and guaranteed money offered to a wide receiver.
Previously, the biggest contract given to a receiver was earlier this year when the Houston Texans agreed to a long-term deal with DeAndre Hopkins for five years, $81 million and $49 million guaranteed.
There are a number of other free-agent receivers that are looking for a similar way to cash in. Odell Beckham Jr. is reportedly looking to make approximately $20 million a season and wants to become the highest paid player in the NFL.
In a video with Uninterrupted, he said, “I’ve gotten to the point where I’m like, ‘No, I’m going to … there’s no need to not talk about it.’ I believe that I will hopefully be not just the highest-paid receiver in the league, but the highest-paid, period.”
Jarvis Landry, Sammy Watkins and Allen Robinson are all quality receivers and are probably pretty happy considering the market that Evans just set for them.
In his first four seasons in the NFL, Evans has totaled 309 receptions, 4,579 yards and 32 touchdowns. He has topped 1,000 yards receiving every year. He was the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. All of these free agent receivers are from that draft class, which looks like it could go down as a historically great one. So, all of these players are going from rookie scale contracts to some of the largest contracts ever. Sounds pretty nice.