Every NFL team’s highest salary for the 2023 season
By Nick Villano
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Mike Evans — $23.698 million
What a strange place the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in. They were Super Bowl contenders at this point last season. Tom Brady returned from a short retirement, and they still had most of the team that won the Super Bowl a year prior. Now, they are facing a downfall of epic proportions.
Tom Brady is gone, but there are still a lot of stars on the team. The defense is stacked with Vita Vea, Devin White, Shaq Barrett, and Lavonte David. The offense has fewer stars, but it’s hard to find a veteran receiving trio as good as Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Russell Gage. The fact that they are veterans means they will make a premium, and the three of them combine for $36.6 million this season.
A large majority of that is Evans’ contract, which pays him more than $23 million. He’s a Buccaneers legend and not ready to say goodbye to stardom. He still has his 1,000-yard streak going. Can he keep it going this season?
It will be hard with Baker Mayfield under center, but the Bucs have an outside chance to be a sneaky team. That’s still an awful division. Evans can rake in yardage against some terrible teams. We can’t see the Bucs ever cutting Evans, but this is the last year of his contract. No matter what happens, this is probably the last time we’ll see him throw on the number 13 at RayJay.