The 49ers secured a significant addition to their offense in March by signing veteran receiver Mike Evans.
While Evans will be 33 in August, he was still considered one of the top talents available at receiver this offseason. The 2025 season was the first in Evans’ career that he did not reach 1,000 yards, having played only eight games due to injury.
Even as Evans tallied just 30 catches for 368 yards last year, the 49ers are confident he can continue to be effective in their offense in 2026.
“I mean, he’s a Hall of Fame wide receiver,” 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said on Thursday, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “He’s a one-on-one match-up that you can take advantage of when he’s on the field, and when he’s got one-on-one coverage, you want to get the ball to Mike. You feel like he’s going to win.
“He’s about as competitive as they come. He’s a guy who’s going to win his match-ups, and it’s just really cool to have that alpha type of player out on the field at that position for us again. … And we’re going to use him the way he’s been used his whole career, and hopefully, get a few more things out of him, too, along the way, as we get him in our program.”
A six-time Pro Bowler, Evans has recorded 866 catches for 13,052 yards with 108 touchdowns so far in his 12-year career.
The Buccaneers not only signed their top pick, Rueben Bain Jr., but they also got nearly their entire draft class under contract on Thursday.
The Bucs have signed third-round wide receiver Ted Hurst, fourth-round cornerback Keionte Scott, fifth-round defensive tackle DeMonte Capehart, fifth-round offensive guard Billy Schrauth and sixth-round tight end Bauer Sharp, Jenna Laine of ESPN reports.
Those six signings leave only second-round linebacker Josiah Trotter unsigned.
All six signed four-year deals.
The Buccaneers have their top draft pick under contract.
Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports that edge rusher Rueben Bain has signed his rookie deal with the team. It’s a four-year contract and, as is the case with all first-round picks, the team holds an option for a fifth season.
The four-year deal is worth over $23.76 million with a signing bonus of just over $13.74 million.
Bain was usually projected to be drafted before the Bucs were on the board at No. 15, but he wound up sliding to that spot in what the Buccaneers believe was a piece of good luck. They benefitted from another slide in 1995 when they picked up defensive tackle Warren Sapp and Bain might have been channelling that common thread when he donned Sapp’s jersey for Thursday’s arrival to Tampa’s rookie minicamp.
Former Buccaneers (for the 2025 offseason and training camp) safety Shilo Sanders interjected himself into the NFL narrative last week, with misogynistic comments directed at Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
That puts him on the radar screen for relevant news. Here’s something, from Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today.
Shilo has a pending bankruptcy case, arising from $11 million in debt. The debt traces to an incident from 2015, when a then-15-year-old Shilo Sanders allegedly assaulted and severely injured a security guard at his school. The security guard sued Shilo and his parents. (His father is Colorado coach Deion sanders.)
Shilo’s parents eventually were dropped from the lawsuit, but a default judgment of $11.89 million was entered against Shilo Sanders in 2022, after Shilo failed to show up for the trial of the case.
Shilo Sanders filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to have the debt discharged. A trial is set for later this year on the question of whether the debt can be discharged. If it was a “willful and malicious injury,” it can’t be discharged.
Shilo Sanders has claimed he acted in self-defense.
Most recently, the parties have been arguing over the evidence that can be introduced into the record at the looming trial, with Shilo’s lawyer trying to exclude evidence regarding his history of discipline in unrelated matters.
The trial on this specific issue is currently set for August 31.
Undrafted in 2025, Shilo Sanders signed with the Buccaneers. He was released during the preseason and has not signed with another team.
Jameis Winston is going to eat a W this summer. Along with the rest of the letters that spell, “World Cup.”
Fox has announced that Winston will serve as a correspondent for its coverage of the FIFA World Cup, to be played throughout North America in June and July.
Winston, the first pick in the 2015 NFL draft, has gone from five-year starter in Tampa Bay to backup who periodically gets the call to play.
From 2015 to 2019, Winston started 70 games with the Buccaneers. Since 2020, he has started 19 games while playing for the Saints, Browns, and Giants.
On the media side, he first rose to prominence while working for Fox during the week of Super Bowl LIX. He also appeared on the Netflix broadcast of MLB’s opening night in 2026.
Winston will be able to waltz into a media career, whenever he’s ready to make the transition. For now, Fox seems to be the favorite to eventually turn temporary assignments into something more permanent.
