Evans and Tampa Bay

The consecutive 1,000-yard streak was broken in 2025 after the future Hall of Fame receiver suffered a broken collarbone and played just eight games. He will be the Bucs' leading receiver in many categories for a long time (866 receptions for 13,052 yards and 108 touchdowns), but the number won't get any higher as the team elected to let Evans become a free agent and the soon-to-be 33-year old has signed a three-year $60M deal with the San Francisco 49ers.

He was the quintessential No.1 receiver, who helped bring along Chris Godwin when he arrived in 2017 and his own eventual replacement last season - rookie Emeka Egbuka.

Evans in San Francisco

The landing spot seems to be an ideal situation for Evans. In the past few seasons, the 49ers has seen Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk (reserve – DNR), Kendrick Bourne and likely current free agent Jauan Jennings leave the Bay area. The result is the current wide receiver room consists of Evans, young Ricky Pearsall, journeyman Demarcus Robinson and a question mark beyond that point.

Bringing Evans into a Kyle Shanahan offense seems similar to when Los Angeles brought Devante Adams into the Rams offense. Ricky Pearsall isn't Puka Nacua, but is an exciting young talent and signing veteran leadership on the other side of the line seems made for this offense and for Pearsall to take the next step.

Injuries to the 49ers receiving corps in 2025 led to the overuse of star Christian McCaffrey. The nine-year veteran saw 413 touches last season which cracked his career previous mark set in 2019 of 403 touches. He finished top-5 in MVP voting, but Shanahan knows he can't ask the soon-to-be 30-year old running back to carry that type of load for another season. History shows, the season after he saw his first 400-touch workload, still a young 24-year old, he was injured and played just three games. The following season he played just seven games.

So the addition of Evans, hopefully a healthier George Kittle (Achilles) and perhaps a young project receiver in the middle of this April's draft can take some pressure off their best weapon.

Conclusion

Over the past three seasons, with Brock Purdy or Mac Jones as the starter, the 49ers have leaned slightly toward the pass 52.6%-47.4%. That's with CMC carrying a huge part of the passing game out of the backfield. There is no way Shanahan lets his star back take as many hits as last season in 2026, but his backfield options behind McCaffrey are limited. The head coach and OC Klay Kubiak will, therefore, throw the ball more to their receivers.

From 2014 to 2024 Evans only needed about 130 targets to reach his 1,000-yard seasons, so assuming good health (always dangerous for a 33-year old), he should return to his "normal" seasonal production.

Evans will likely receive the "lions share" of the 150+ currently available targets. History has shown us that with 125 targets, Evans will produce 72 receptions for 1,087 and nine touchdowns worth 243.7 fantasy points or 14.3 FPts/G. In 2025, that total would put Evans 14th in FPts/G, just behind A.J. Brown and Zay Flowers.