A wide receiver actually talking long term?

May 19, 2008   ·   Paul Raymond   ·   Jump to comments

Could it be a star wide receiver actually wants to stay with his current team? It sure sounds like it! Lee Evans has confirmed that he and the Buffalo Bills have been talking about a long-term extension. It is refreshing to hear this, after all the rumors this off-season about someone wants a new deal, this guy wants a trade, etc. Evans is currently in the final year of his initial contract and from the sounds of it, he wants to be a Bill. “With the talent we have on offense, we certainly have the ability to be as good as we want to be,” Evans said. “The biggest thing for us now is to gain confidence. If we can do that, we’ll be a very good offensive team.”

One would have to wonder thou, why Evans would want to stay in Buffalo. In 2006, he had the best season in his young career, catching 82 balls for 1292 yards and 8 touchdowns. In 2007 thou, his numbers dropped big time, all the way down to just 55 catches and 849 yards, scoring 5 times. Still solid numbers, but not what you’d expect from your top wide out. Anyone who knows football thou, knows these numbers aren’t indicative of a drop in his play, it was the supporting cast. He had a rookie QB in Trent Edwards and a rookie RB Marshawn Lynch.

With those two players now having a full season of experience, one can only expect this offense to be even better. In the draft, the Bills even brought in WR James Hardy via the draft to complement Evans. That was another problem last year, Evans had no other wide receiver to take pressure off of him. That should change now. “I watched him play in college and he has tremendous ability,” Evans said. “He does a lot of good things and a lot of things well. He uses his hands and he certainly uses his body. I’m certainly looking forward to him coming out here, stepping up, playing and making a lot of plays. I think he’ll serve as a big compliment.”

The Associated Press projects for Evans to get a deal in the Larry Fitzgerald range, that would be 4-year $40 million range. Personally, I don’t think Evans is THAT good, at least yet. BUT, he definitely is worth a good chunk of change, as he is he home run threat in that offense. I could see him getting a deal in the 4-5 year range, and anywhere from $32 to 45 million. Less then Fitzgerald, but still enough to put him in the upper echelon of wide receivers.

There is no word yet on the details of the current negotiations. Evans won’t even comment on it, which leads one to believe the talks haven’t even gotten close to being serious yet. Evans says, “I don’t really want to speak on it now. There was an offer put out, but that’s as much as I’ll speak on it now.” If Evans does reach the market, one would have to assume the Bills would immediately slap the franchise tag on him.

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