TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have locked up one of the most critical pieces of their offense by signing wide receiver Mike Evans to a new multiyear deal.
It is a five-year, $82.5 million extension that includes $55 million guaranteed, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter. By comparison, DeAndre Hopkins' deal is for five years and $81 million, with $49 million guaranteed.
Evans expressed his gratitude on Instagram. According to ESPN's Stats & Information, Evans' guaranteed $55 million is most among current wide receivers by $6 million.
Evans, 24, joined Randy Moss and Cincinnati Bengals' A.J. Green this past year as the only wide receivers in NFL history to reach 1,000 yards in each of their four seasons. The seventh-overall draft pick in 2014, Evans' 4,579 receiving yards are already third-most in franchise history, while his 32 touchdowns are second-most in team history, the most of any Bucs receiver and sixth-most of any receiver since 2014. He's also been one of the most durable receivers in the league, missing just three games in four seasons.
One of those games came as the result of a one-game suspension in 2017, when Evans launched himself into the back of New Orleans Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore after Lattimore got into a sideline altercation with Winston in Week 9. Evans immediately showed remorse afterwards, calling his own behavior "childish" and "malicious." Evans also had a controversial moment in 2016, when he sat during the National Anthem in protest of President Donald Trump's election during the Bucs' annual Salute to Service game.
Over the past four years -- including three with Jameis Winston -- Evans has accounted for nearly 21 percent of the Bucs' total offense in terms of yardage, 24 percent of its touchdowns and nearly 30 percent of its passing yards. He set the franchise's single-season touchdown catch record with 12 as a rookie in 2014 and matched that number again in 2016.
Evans has been on the receiving end of some of the Bucs' biggest offensive plays in recent memory, a spinning one-handed catch in which he managed to hang onto the ball despite a jarring hit from Atlanta Falcons safety Keanu Neal as he was flying out of bounds. There was also "The Scramble" that year, where Winston narrowly avoided a safety, heaving it 39 yards downfield to Evans, who made a back-breaking catch.
In addition to Evans' efforts on the field, he launched the Mike Evans Family Foundation with his wife Ashli in the fall of 2017, with the goal of serving underprivileged youth through college scholarships and helping victims of domestic violence.