Following their Super Bowl LVIII win over the San Francisco 49ers, the Kansas City Chiefs' focus shifted to revamping the top half of their wide receiver room. General manager Brett Veach undoubtedly weighed plenty of options, ultimately landing on Marquise "Hollywood" Brown in free agency and Xavier Worthy in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Apparently, there was almost another choice on the table for the back-to-back champs. Five-time Pro Bowler Mike Evans recently admitted that had he ended up on the free agent market, Kansas City was at or near the top of his list of teams to join.
Speaking to NFL Network at Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp, Evans explained that he's a huge fan of how Patrick Mahomes plays. That factored into the Chiefs being a franchise that piqued the former first-round pick's interest.
"I mean, I've been here my whole career," Evans said. "And that was a goal of mine, honestly. I mean, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking Houston, Kansas City – I love Pat Mahomes's game. I'm thinking those two teams, obviously, and I'm obviously thinking the Bucs. It would've been extremely hard, if I hit free agency, to leave here. This is where my family knows, my kids were born here, my wife's been here a long time – she doesn't want to pack it up and move everything. So really, her decision is the reason why I decided to stay. She loves this place and I obviously love this place but when she gave me the go-ahead like, 'We should stay here,' no-brainer."
The rest is history, of course, as Evans wound up avoiding free agency altogether. Right before the start of it, he and Tampa Bay reached an agreement on a new two-year contract. That took the wind out of any sails hoping for a union with Kansas City, later sending Veach and Co. in another direction. Considering how much smoke there was for an Evans-Chiefs partnership making sense in March, it's interesting to hear him flat-out admit so.
At the time of Evans's signing, I broke down the deal's maximum value and impact from the Kansas City end here on Chiefs on SI.
"Evans was surely someone the Chiefs would have loved to bring in, although the price point does give me plenty of pause. $26 million per season puts him between Cooper Kupp and A.J. Brown in average annual value, which goes mostly against Kansas City's recent M.O. The Tyreek Hill 'reset,' trading a tier-one player, put them in a position to play in the second tier as far as high-dollar spending is concerned. Evans is great, but throwing $50M-plus (and heavy guarantees) at someone who will be 31 to start next season is simply, like you said, too rich for me."
At its core, the Evans contract yields an average annual value of $20.5 million. But with the Buccaneers star having never posted a season with less than 1,000 receiving yards, it's easy to see him racking up multiple incentives. Bonus triggers for statistical rankings and playoff wins likely would've been included in a Chiefs contract, as Veach is no stranger to doing so. With Patrick Mahomes throwing the ball, it's a potential boost for prospective signees.
Nevertheless, we'll never know what Evans would've done in Kansas City. It's safe to say that the Chiefs are happy with Brown and Worthy so far, especially at the combined price points compared to Evans. With those two and Rashee Rice in the fold, time will tell if there's enough talent in the room to complete a championship three-peat.
