Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans is not just chasing history this week against the Saints in the 2024 regular season finale. He’s also chasing a paycheck in the form of a pay increase in 2025.

Evans has a LTBE (likely to be earned) contract incentive that will push his $18 million base salary to $21 million next year if he hits 70 catches and records 1,000 receiving yards. The 31-year old receiver has 65 catches for 915 yards on the year with one game left.

If Evans catches five passes for 85 yards against New Orleans he’ll hit that LTBE incentive that is worth $3 million. So not only does Evans have a chance to add another 1,000-yard season to his Hall of Fame resumé on Sunday, but also put some more money in his pocket next season, which will be the final year of the star receiver’s two-year contract.

Evans is already poised to cash in on a $666,000 bonus for being within the Top 10 receiving touchdowns this year in the NFL. Evans has 11 touchdowns so far, which ranks fourth in the league. It’s a safe bet that he hits that bonus with just one game left.

Mike Evans’ Assault On Bucs, NFL Record Books Continues

Bucs WR Mike Evans Photo by: USA Today

Very few NFL receivers have put up the combination of yards and touchdowns that Mike Evans has in his 11 years in the league. And no one has done what Evans has done in Tampa Bay before. Evans now ranks 24th all-time in receiving yards with 12,595 yards, and ranks ninth all-time with 105 receiving touchdowns.

Evans has double-digit touchdowns in six of his 11 NFL seasons so far, and set the franchise’s single-season receiving touchdown record with 14 TDs in 2021. Evans had 13 touchdowns last year and has a chance to tie that mark with a pair of scores on Sunday against New Orleans or tie his single-season record with a trio of TD.

Evans has already set an NFL record for the most consecutive seasons to start a career with 1,000 yards. The Bucs’ first-round pick in 2014 has ripped off 1,000 receiving yards for the past 10 straight years.

Former Bucs DT Warren Sapp and former 49ers QB Steve Young

He enters Week 18 needing just 85 yards to not only extend that streak to 11 straight seasons, but also tie legendary Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice, who played for the 49ers, Raiders and Seahawks in his illustrious 22-year NFL career, for the most 1,000-yard seasons consecutively at any point in a career.

Rice missed out on 1,000 yards as a rookie in San Francisco, finishing with 927 yards in 1985. But he had 11 consecutive 1,000-yard seasons starting with the following season in 1986 and running through 1996.

Ironically it was the Bucs who stopped Rice’s streak of 1,000-yard seasons. Rice tore his ACL on an end-around in Tampa Bay in the 1997 season opener when defensive tackle Warren Sapp grabbed his facemask and dragged him to the ground, causing his knee to buckle.

The Buccaneers upset the 49ers, 13-7, that day as 49ers quarterback Steve Young was also knocked out of the game with a concussion after middle linebacker Hardy Nickerson accidentally kneed Young in the head after Sapp sacked him.

Mike Evans’ Statistical Production

Mike Evans has recorded 1,000 receiving yards in 10 straight years, but barely achieved that mark in a couple of those seasons. With Evans needing 85 yards against the Saints on Sunday to continue his receiving yardage record into an 11th straight year, he’ll barely top 1,000 yards again this season if he’s successful.

2014 – 68 catches, 1051 yards, 12 touchdowns
2015 – 74 catches, 1,206 yards, 3 touchdowns
2016 – 96 catches, 1,321 yards, 12 touchdowns
2017 – 71 catches, 1,001 yards, 5 touchdowns
2018 – 86 catches, 1,524 yards, 8 touchdowns
2019 – 67 catches, 1,157 yards, 8 touchdowns
2020 – 70 catches, 1,006 yards, 13 touchdowns
2021 – 74 catches, 1,035 yards, 14 touchdowns
2022 – 77 catches, 1,124 yards, 6 touchdowns
2023 – 79 catches, 1,225 yards, 13 touchdowns
2024 – 65 catches, 915 yards, 11 touchdowns