Prior to the NFL Draft in 2018, the Chicago Bears created waves when they acquired wide receiver DJ Moore. In the upcoming months, the squad is anticipated to add another exceptional player.
In an audacious forecast published recently, ESPN analyst Aaron Schatz predicted that Chicago will target free agency wide receiver Mike Evans this summer and sign him in order to center the Bears attack around the rookie quarterback he feels will lead the team in 2024 and beyond.
On Sunday, January 7, Schatz said, “The Bears will invest in a new quarterback by signing Mike Evans, one of the top free-agent wide receivers, and use the No. 1 pick on that quarterback.” “DJ Moore and Evans would work well together in this offense as Evans has 10 straight seasons with 1,000 yards.”
The only player with a longer streak of 1,000 yards in a season than Evans is Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice, who had 11 such seasons in a row when playing for the San Francisco 49ers from 1996 to 2006. The legendary Randy Moss of the Minnesota Vikings also had ten seasons of 1,000 yards in his career, but not consecutively.
Evans, 30, is among the greatest wide receivers to have ever played thanks to his career accomplishments, and he is far from done. In 2023, he was named to the Pro Bowl for the fifth time in his career. After leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their third consecutive NFC South Division championship, he will participate in the postseason. After the 2020 season, Evans was awarded a Super Bowl ring by the Bucs as well.
It’s possible that Evans’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles during Wildcard Weekend will be his final one while wearing a Tampa Bay jersey. The wide receiver, who will become a free agent in March, played the last season of his eighty-five-million dollar, five-year deal with the Bucs in 2023. Over the course of a new four-year contract, Spotrac predicts his market worth to be close to $24 million yearly.
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 is the team’s lone genuine playmaking threat on the edge. After concentrating primarily on defense in 2023, Chicago is expected to allocate a large portion of their $62 million salary cap room to the offense in 2024.
According to Schatz’s forecast, the team will trade Justin Fields and choose a quarterback this April with the first overall pick—likely Caleb Williams of USC or Drake Maye of North Carolina. The Bears could decide not to, given that Fields’ performance gained momentum towards the end of the season following his four-week absence 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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