“From A Quarterback Lens”
October 18th, 2023
A Bucs assistant coach opens up.
Bucs game on the line. To whom do you want the ball thrown?
Bucs quarterback coach Thad Lewis seems to have a clear choice, per his chatter on the Buccaneers Radio Network yesterday.
Lewis, a former NFL quarterback, says QBs have a similar thought process. “I’m going to look for the guy that’s going to catch the ball no matter what, if he’s double-covered, single-covered,” Lewis said. And on the Bucs, that guy is Chris Godwin.
“He’s one of the rare receivers that I know that sees the game from a quarterback lens and understands what the defense is doing and what they’re trying to do,” Lewis said.
As for Godwin being Baker Mayfield’s most prolific target on third down this season, Lewis says Godwin’s catch-rate percentage is the real deal. Godwin is catching 73 percent of the balls sent in his direction this year. That’s a percentage point over his career average.
For perspective, Mike Evans is catching about 59 percent of passes this season, also a shade better than his career average, though below his rate during the Tom Brady years.
Lewis lauded Godwin’s smart decisions in zone coverage, and Todd Bowles added that Godwin is a little better than Evans in traffic.
Look for Godwin to continue being a go-to guy in high-pressure situations. “In times of crisis you’re going to think players and not plays,” Lewis said.
October 18th, 2023 at 5:56 am
Overall the team is playing hard, we just need to find a good QB, or at least one that regularly takes advantage of wide open receivers. Baker has missed those reads all year long and defensive coordinators know it.
October 18th, 2023 at 5:57 am
He was clearly the MAN against the Lions. He’s going to get a lot of double teams for his success and talent.
CG14 is the consummate professional who also has the “dawg” in him. He took a couple of big blasts Sunday and still popped up. He never pouts over calls and doesn’t let defenders into his head.
IMHO CG14 might be the most underrated WR in the entire NFL. I love ME13 but at this point but if it comes to a choice between the two I gotta go with CG14.
October 18th, 2023 at 5:57 am
Godwin hands down.
October 18th, 2023 at 5:57 am
K bassuka
Did you sleep through the entire New Orleans game, Or do you just have a hard on against Mayfield?
October 18th, 2023 at 5:58 am
Godwin is an All Pro!
Go Bucs!
October 18th, 2023 at 6:05 am
If we lose to Atlanta and Baker has another bad game, look for the Trask bandwagon to go into a frenzy in Tampa Bay.
If so it does make you wonder if the quarterback competition lost us the game last week?! Baker to Palmer a work in progress on week 5??
October 18th, 2023 at 6:37 am
Oh how I wish we had 53 Chris Godwins on this team.
October 18th, 2023 at 6:48 am
Sunday is a W for the Bucs. They are playing good football with the exception of the run game. Our key problem is we aren’t strong enough on the O-line when we go up against Playoff caliber defenses such as Eagles, Detroit, Bills and 49ers. Baker is protecting and spreading the ball well, however without some kind of run game to slow down the defense, we’re not going far. We will win our division. Between now and then we need to figure out how to make some holes for the RBs.
As far as Trask, I’m confident he’s better than he’s been and would hold his own against most teams, however he would fair much worse than Baker on the same teams mentioned above.
Enjoy Sunday’s game, because we have a beat down coming the following week.
October 18th, 2023 at 7:08 am
Trade for Henry.
Sign Fournette.
And pound the rock!!
Crush defenses like I crush hoes.
Imagine Henry for 3 quarters and then Fournette in the 4th quarter with fresh legs?
200 rushing yards per game.
October 18th, 2023 at 7:09 am
Godwin
October 18th, 2023 at 7:18 am
I think Fournette signed with NE….
October 18th, 2023 at 7:18 am
teacherman777 Says:
October 18th, 2023 at 7:08 am
Trade for Henry. Imagine Henry for 3 quarters and then Fournette in the 4th quarter with fresh legs? 200 rushing yards per game.
That would require good run blocking, which we don’t have.
October 18th, 2023 at 7:20 am
Look, we have 3 wins against bad teams and 2 losses against good teams. In the 2 losses against good teams, our offense averaged 8.5 points per game, and our quarterback threw 1 TD and 2 INT for a terrible TD:INT ratio of 1:2 (a good ratio is the inverse, 2:1). Yeah, Bakey sure is the future of the Bucs! Keep playing Bakey! Let’s not see what our 6’5″+1/8″ behemoth quarterback who outplayed Baker in training camp and preseason can do! No, sir! /s
October 18th, 2023 at 7:23 am
Godwin needs to take Evans spot. He doesn’t have butterfingers.
October 18th, 2023 at 7:30 am
Baker mayfield is playing good enough for us to win. Mike Evans dropping passes and a few overthrown balls can be corrected. If our offensive line could run block then we wouldn’t be depending on Mayfield to score all the points. When the quarterback is getting hit behind the line of scrimmage before he can throw the ball everyone blames the offensive line, but when the running backs get hit before they can even cross the line of scrimmage everyone blames the running backs, what a backwards world we live in 🥴
October 18th, 2023 at 7:40 am
So your “go to guy’s has zero touchdowns this season? Ok
October 18th, 2023 at 7:42 am
It doesn’t matter who has the best catching rate at this time. What the Bucs need to win is, and I’ve said this many times, Stop killing drives inside red zone with penalties. If Mayfield can cut his over and under throws in half, that’s a rate would worth talking about. As someone said earlier. This is a good team. At some point Bowles is gonna have to hold players accountable. Sit them a game if he has to. Mayfield, Evans and White should be candidates
October 18th, 2023 at 7:47 am
Godwin is a special player! not many receivers ever like this guy.
i remember watching him during a Penn St. bowl game and his
performance was amazing and thinking i would love the Bucs to draft
this guy and then they actually did!
October 18th, 2023 at 8:21 am
How many drops for Mike Evans this season?
October 18th, 2023 at 9:40 am
Last week way too many balls forced onto thompkins and Palmer. Like both of them if evans isn’t getting it done godwin will. Stop forcing it to the other 2
October 18th, 2023 at 10:20 am
To all the idiots blaming QB1 for the offense this week, Godwin’s catch rate and reliability is the precise evidence that the rest of the WR corp and TEs are the problem with their route running, effort, and case of the drops.
Godwin was 6 catches on 7 targets, and the one miss was Mayfield having to throw off his back foot to avoid being sacked on the final drive.
Palmer’s routes show he’s a rookie and Evans timely drops killed the passing attack on Sunday. With no run game, how else is the team gonna put up TDs? You want Mayfield to run every down and take more no-called late hits on the sideline?
October 18th, 2023 at 10:46 am
QB1 played poorly at home against Detroit as QB1 admittedly suggested at the podium.
October 18th, 2023 at 10:53 am
ESPN qbr Mayfield rank number 8 so it always haters can shove it up their ass
October 18th, 2023 at 10:56 am
So why no throws to him in the redzone? Godwin hasn’t caught a TD in forever. Need to get him the ball in the endzone. Shouldn’t be hard, just throw it to him!
October 18th, 2023 at 11:23 am
THE GOAT KNEW
TB12 threw to reliable WRs who performed no matter what. Godwin was his favorite WR target in big moments and big games. Godwin had more targets in the 2020 playoff run than any receiver or TE. Game respects game.
October 18th, 2023 at 11:54 am
Agreed! They don’t get more solid than Chris.
October 18th, 2023 at 12:56 pm
Watch more – you really need to watch more, given that you fail to acknowledge that Mayfield’s play sucked last Sunday – that is how he described it himself in the post game presser … and he wasn’t being modest either.
He consistently overthrew open receivers down the field with uncatchable balls .. and was only able to ineffectively dink and dunk, such that he was only 2 of 12 in converting third downs … and of course failed to get the end zone at all.
What – are you his girlfriend?
October 18th, 2023 at 12:58 pm
RichieRich – Mayfield is ESPN 25th ranked passer … so shove it up your own.
October 18th, 2023 at 1:20 pm
@stpetebucfan I have watched every game twice and even in the NO game he missed on long throws. Fortunately for us NO’s offence is so putrid that we overcame those mistakes and didn’t trail.
October 18th, 2023 at 2:02 pm
Have to SEE the recievers in order to throw the ball to them… all midfield sees is the backs of helmets.
October 18th, 2023 at 2:48 pm
Not many expected much offensive production out of the Bucs this year. Bowles will need a couple more years to right the Bucs ship. Either that or Goodby Todd.
October 18th, 2023 at 3:14 pm
@Duane.
Since my other comment didn’t post, I’ll just offer you the ESPN total QBR metric which shows Mayfield as the 8th ranked QB by QBR, since you threw out the fake 25th…
https://www.espn.com/nfl/qbr
I watch games x3+ times and offensive series 4+ times, I’m confident in my analysis.
Watch the ALL22, you’ll learn something about football and why this offense is not working.
In the meantime, stop commenting until you learn to read, as well.
October 18th, 2023 at 6:24 pm
Drew Brees was short and had ABSOLUTELY no problem with hitting wide open receivers 40 50 yards down the field, plus don’t think he had as many batted balls either. On that wide open play to Evans, it looked like he targeted that lineman’s hand cause he threw right to it
October 18th, 2023 at 6:49 pm
“he missed on long throws.”
Not all of them. Against N.O. he had a 42 yarder and 3TD’s which were admittedly on short but tough throw.
He had a 70 yarder againt the Bears and 26,24 and 28 in the other games.
Perhaps you can correct me if that’s just stats. IE perhaps he just dumped the ball ten yards and a WR raced the other 70 or 42 yards.
October 18th, 2023 at 7:33 pm
I just remeber all the people that did not want to pay Godwin after he was coming off his injured acl they wanted to cut or trade him now he the best WR on the team you know who you are. There are alot of flip flowers on this site.
October 18th, 2023 at 7:57 pm
Gotta hate flip flowers.
October 20th, 2023 at 2:10 am
Chris is an all pro. Best hands on the team no doubt