ESPN analyst Aaron Schatz recently authored the bold prediction that Chicago will pursue, and ultimately sign, free agent wide receiver Mike Evans this offseason to build around the rookie QB he believes will captain the Bears offense in 2024 and beyond.
“The Bears will use the No. 1 pick on a new quarterback and invest in that quarterback by signing Mike Evans, one of the top free-agent wide receivers,” Schatz wrote on Sunday, January 7. “Evans has 10 straight 1,000-yard seasons and would pair nicely with DJ Moore in this offense.”
Evans’ streak of 1,000-yard seasons is second only to that of Hall of Fame wideout Jerry Rice, who strung together 11 such consecutive years 1996-2006 as a member of the San Francisco 49ers. The legendary Randy Moss of the Minnesota Vikings also had ten seasons of 1,000 yards in his career, albeit not consecutively.
His career accolades put Evans alongside the best wide receivers to ever play, and the 30-year-old is far from finished. He earned Pro-Bowl honors for the fifth time in his career in 2023 and will appear in the playoffs after helping the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win their third straight NFC South Division title. Evans also won a Super Bowl ring with the Bucs following the 2020 campaign.
Tampa Bay will host the Philadelphia Eagles over Wildcard Weekend, which could well be Evans’ last game in a Tampa Bay uniform. The wideout played the final season of his five-year, $82.5 million contract with the Bucs in 2023 and will hit the free-agent market in March. Spotrac projects his market value at nearly $24 million annually over a new four-year contract.
Given that the Bears failed to acquire Chase Claypool in 2022 and have seen Darnell Mooney decline in each of the previous two seasons, Moore represents the team’s only genuine playmaking threat on the edge. Chicago has a projected $62 million in salary cap space and is likely to invest strongly in the offense in 2024 after focusing more on defense in 2023
Schatz’s prediction includes a franchise-altering decision to trade Justin Fields and draft a quarterback No. 1 overall this April — presumably Caleb Williams of USC or Drake Maye of North Carolina. The Bears may or may not do so, as Fields’ play improved down the stretch of this season after he returned from four weeks sidelined due to a dislocated thumb.
In either case, Evans makes sense as an addition to the offense alongside Moore. Fields is only 24 years old and has just three professional seasons under his belt. He never had a true No. 1 receiver until Moore arrived ahead of this season, and Fields has still never played with a Hall of Fame talent like Evans.
If Chicago drafts Williams, 22, or Maye, 21, both will be helped significantly by having a Pro Bowl-caliber player on either side of the offense during their rookie campaigns. Also, if Evans inks a four-year deal as Spotrac projects, his timeline will coincide exactly with the rookie contract of either Williams or Maye in Chicago.
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