Managing your family’s wealth means more to Amuni Financial than simply allocating your assets. It means legacy planning, brokerage & advisory services, retirement accounts, college savings accounts and insurance services. With 40 years of experience, let Amuni Financial help you plan ahead and stay ahead.

Call Amuni Financial at (800) 868-6864 or visit Amuni.com.

Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport Twitter account each week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to the Bucs Mailbag each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: Do you guys think this will be Mike Evans last season in Tampa Bay?

ANSWER: It very well could be. It certainly seems like contract negotiations between the Bucs and wide receiver Mike Evans are at an impasse. Deryk Gilmore, who is Evans’ agent, has given the team until Saturday to reach a deal on extension or talks will be done for the 2023 regular season. With the two sides far apart, the guess here is that if a deal is reached, it will happen in the two months between the end of the season and the start of free agency on March 11. I’d put the odds of Evans returning at less than 50% right now. We’ll see what happens this season.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

There are several layers to this contract extension situation and I came up with several possible theories that I wrote about on Saturday in a column on PewterReport.com. Because I linked to that column, I won’t re-hash all of them here. But there is something else I hadn’t really considered until now.

Wide receiver Chris Godwin is in the second season of his three-year contract extension and will become a free agent after the 2024 season. Godwin’s cap value is $20 million per season over the next two years. Should he get an extension, it will likely be for more than $20 million per year, as he’s already the 13th-highest paid receiver.

With Evans looking for an AAV (average annual value) of $28 million per season, it’s doubtful the Glazers will want to pay in excess of $20 million per year for two receivers. Evans’ current AAV is $16.5 million. Only one team in the league has two receivers making at least $20 million per season, and that’s the Chargers. Keenan Allen makes $20.025 million, while Mike Williams makes $20 million. I suspect the Bucs will either keep Godwin or Evans – but not both – much longer.

QUESTION: If the Bucs don’t reach a deal by the deadline, will Mike Evans still give the Bucs a chance to sign him in the offseason? Or will they really cut off negotiations for good if we don’t agree to terms by Saturday?

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: Given Mike Evans’ desire to retire as a Buccaneer, the fact that he’s lived in Tampa going on 10 years now and his relationship with Jason Licht, who selected the future Hall of Famer with his first draft pick as general manager in 2014, I think he’ll restart contract talks after the season and before free agency. Even if Licht has to mend fences with Evans in January and February, the ties between the two men are strong enough to be repaired.

One thing I don’t think the Bucs are inclined to do is use the franchise tag on Evans next offseason. At just north of $28 million, that would suffocate the team’s salary cap next offseason, as the Bucs would have to account for that amount as soon as free agency starts on March 11. The Bucs currently have over $48.7 million in cap room next year, which sounds like a lot, but it isn’t. It would only be about $20 million if the team were to tag Evans.

In addition to Evans’ contract being up, the Bucs also have big decisions to make on inside linebacker Devin White, free safety Antoine Winfield Jr., strong safety Ryan Neal and quarterback Baker Mayfield. And left tackle Tristan Wirfs will be entering his fifth-year option, which has a cap value of over $18.6 million and the Bucs might want to extend his contract before he plays in his fifth year like the team did with Vita Vea a few years back.

QUESTION: How good is Baker Mayfield? Is he washed up or did the Bucs get a steal? It seems like he went from national TV commercials to the joke of the NFL in a heartbeat. Did Cleveland and Carolina not give him a chance, or are the Bucs really rolling the dice?

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: Great questions and we’ll find out soon enough. Looking at the situation optimistically, the Bucs feel like Baker Mayfield is a great fit for Dave Canales’ offensive system. Mayfield has been humbled by the fact that he’s on his fourth NFL team in one calendar year, going from Cleveland to Carolina via a trade and then from Carolina to Los Angeles via the waiver wire. It’s a wake-up call going from the Browns’ face of the franchise to an NFL journeyman in such a short time span.

Mayfield has done all the right things and said all the right things since joining the Bucs, and I suspect he’ll be named a team captain if he starts off the season hot. Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles is going to wait a few weeks before naming captains for the season – or letting the players vote on captains.

Mayfield feels right at home in Tampa as well as this offense, and with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to throw to, the Bucs could have the best supporting cast he’s ever played with. The best-case scenario for Tampa Bay is that he thrives in Canales’ offense, which was imported from Seattle where Geno Smith made the Pro Bowl for the first time after leading the Seahawks to a surprise playoff berth and a 9-8 record.

Smith was also named the NFL Comeback Player of the Year last season. The Bucs would love to see that happen with Mayfield in 2023. More importantly, Tampa Bay would love to see Mayfield truly succeed Tom Brady and become his heir apparent and the team’s long-term solution at QB. It will be fascinating to watch Mayfield’s season unfold. He’s either destined for greatness and a big rebound season or he’ll be the next Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota and Andy Dalton – a former first-rounder who is relegated to being a career backup.

QUESTION: Will Calijah Kancey be ready for Week 1 against the Vikings?

Bucs DT Calijah Kancey – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: We’ll have a much better idea about the health of Calijah Kancey, the Bucs’ first-round pick, and his status for Week 1 on Wednesday. If he practices for the first time since injuring his calf during the first week of training camp back in late July, then I’d say he has a chance to be active for the season opener at Minnesota. If he doesn’t practice on Wednesday, I don’t think he’ll be available for the Vikings game.

I know the Bucs have been very cautious about Kancey’s rehab. The NFL season is 17 games long and the team does not want to rush him back – only to see him re-injure himself and miss valuable regular season games during his first season in Tampa Bay.

Todd Bowles has big plans for Kancey in his defense and is thinking about the long-term. He wants to see his new toy on defense on the field more than anyone, but doesn’t want to jeopardize Kancey’s rookie season, either. Remember, Kancey hasn’t even practiced once in pads yet, let alone played in a football game since last season at Pittsburgh.