Why Dan Orlovsky has high expectations for WR Mike Evans with the 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers struck quickly once the NFL’s negotiating window opened on Monday, inking longtime Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans to a three-year, $60.4 million pact. While the timing of the agreement has prompted tampering questions around the league, the on-field implications are what have ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky buzzing.

Appearing on Tuesday’s edition of Get Up, the former NFL quarterback forecast an immediate and transformative impact for Evans inside Kyle Shanahan’s offense, drawing a direct parallel to one of 2024’s most productive partnerships.

“He’s going to be to Brock Purdy what Davante Adams was to Matthew Stafford,” Orlovsky said. “Everyone talked about Matthew Stafford and Davante Adams this past year and all the one-yard or two-yard touchdown passes. That’s exactly what Mike Evans is going to be. There’s one quarterback in the last 20 years in the NFL that has completed over 50 percent of the throws that he has thrown into the end zone. That’s Brock Purdy. Now you add Mike Evans there.”

The numbers support Orlovsky’s optimism. Before a broken collarbone limited Evans to eight appearances in 2025, the 6-foot-5 wideout had pieced together a record-tying streak of 11 consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, a testament to both durability and elite production. Orlovsky argued that Evans’ red-zone presence alone will force defensive coordinators into impossible choices.

“How many corners truly can you put out there by themselves at the three-yard line and say, ‘You go cover Mike Evans one-on-one?’ There aren’t many, so you’re gonna get so many easy touchdown passes down in the red zone and then you’re gonna get so many easy looks for Christian McCaffrey, for George Kittle and that run game. This is an enormous addition.”

San Francisco’s urgency at the position is easy to understand. Last season the 49ers ranked 24th in the league with only 161 receptions from wide receivers, and All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey actually led the club in receiving yards with 924. Purdy, already the most accurate end-zone passer of the past two decades according to Orlovsky’s metric, now inherits a proven WR1 who has averaged nearly 10 touchdowns per season since entering the league in 2014.

The ripple effect could resuscitate an offense that sputtered through injuries and the ongoing Brandon Aiyuk saga en route to a divisional-round exit. With Evans commanding double-teams, intermediate zones should open for Kittle, jet sweeps become more lethal for McCaffrey, and play-action shots offer Purdy safer vertical options.

Free-agency season officially begins Wednesday, yet the 49ers may have already delivered their signature move. If Evans’ health cooperates, Orlovsky envisions a steady diet of quick-strike scores reminiscent of Stafford-to-Adams in Las Vegas, a development that would keep San Francisco firmly in the NFC West arms race and reestablish Purdy among the conference’s most efficient quarterbacks.