Truth Or Fiction Surrounding Chris Godwin?
March 6th, 2025
While this is classified as an NFL Scouting Combine rumor by the guy reporting it, Joe is sharing to offer perspective.
NBC fantasy football guru/studio analyst Matthew Berry penned “the top-25 rumors I heard at the NFL Combine” for NBCSports.com.
No. 11 was about pending Bucs free agent receiver Chris Godwin. There’s nothing really new here except for an interesting throwaway line from Berry that may not be accurate.
11. Tampa Bay desperately wants Chris Godwin back. After suffering a serious injury last year leaving his availability at the start of the season in question, I was expecting a one year “prove it” deal for Godwin. But I’m told there is a competitive market for his services and he’ll get a multi-year deal with some guaranteed money. And he’s likely to get it from Tampa, which really wants him back. They love Godwin and so does Baker.
So Berry says Godwin’s availability for “the start of the season is in question?” That’s not what Joe heard, so Joe is skeptical. Perhaps Berry was referring to Godwin’s perceived status at the time of the gruesome injury?
Regardless, the Bucs stressed greatly at the Combine, rightfully so, that Godwin’s dislocated ankle is a major injury.
With any major injury there are question marks, and it’s not like fans can see Godwin workout videos online to assess his health.
Has he run yet? Joe wouldn’t bet on it.
So it’s a question mark how much Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht and Team Glazer are willing to wager on Godwin being worth his market value, a number that’s also unclear.
Before the Combine started, Joe was told Godwin will find a healthy free agent market but at nowhere near the salary some fans are speculating. Then Matt Lombardo reported that agents are rumbling about Godwin possibly getting a two-year deal for $26 million, aka DeAndre Hopkins money.
Joe just hopes the Godwin mystery is solved before he’s free to sign with another team on Wednesday.
March 6th, 2025 at 9:13 am
If Godwin is completely healthy why isn’t he calling a conference to demonstrate it for the media and GM’s.
The Bucs are in the best position to know Godwin’s health. It makes sense for the Bucs to resign him if his leg injury to strong enough to handle the NFL tackling.
We’ll find out how it plays out next week.
March 6th, 2025 at 9:21 am
If the Bucs re-sign Chris Godwin hopefully they can get some ROI. Bucs have really been hurt by players ho are injury prone or lost big time to injuries (Carlton Davis, Antoine Winfield Jr., Godwin, Russel Gage, Ryan Jensen, Jamel Dean, Sirvocia Dennis),
Having big contract C Ryan Jensen and WR Russell Gage as starters at left and right whirlpool 3 seasons ago really hurt the team.
In the words of Parcells: best ability is AVAILability.
March 6th, 2025 at 9:28 am
Neither Godwin nor his agent have released any news about his health. That tells me that he still has a lot of progress to be made, and he’s not overtly advertising his availability to other teams. I think a deal with the Bucs will get done once Godwin understands his market value.
March 6th, 2025 at 9:43 am
Chris isn’t required to “put on a conference” and show anything. He’s not a circus act.
All teams perform physicals, privately.
March 6th, 2025 at 9:44 am
3 years – $50M – $20M Guaranteed + Incentives
Buccaneer for Life!
March 6th, 2025 at 9:49 am
Ankles can be a tricky thing. Granted, I’m not a pro-athlete, but the human body tends to be the human body in every situation.
That said, I’ve never dislocated my ankle before, but I’ve twisted the absolute hell fire out of it many times and can speak from firsthand experience when I say it takes a long while before you’re back to moving normally and not aggravating the injury as it heals.
Think of biting your lip. You know how when you do that, you end up biting it again another few times before you finally stop and fully heal? Ankle injuries work like that, too.
Applying that to the Godwin ankle injury situation: would I be shocked if he’s not ready to go in September? No, not really. But I also wouldn’t be shocked if he was ready and at full speed in August.
March 6th, 2025 at 9:57 am
I personally would not re-sign him. He may still be good after this injury, but offering him great money on the gamble would be stupid.
March 6th, 2025 at 10:09 am
If the Bucs are questioning Godwin’s mobility I hate to say it but I think you may have seen the last of Godwin in a Bucs uniform. If it’s true then they need to get an established FA edge rusher and go out and get a wide out for the #19 pick. Spend 2nd rd on ILB or corner
March 6th, 2025 at 10:10 am
2 years and 26 million sounds reasonable. Include incentives to bring it up to 30-35. That way the Bucs are protected if he’s not back to 100, and Godwin gets rewarded if he’s back to where he was and puts up great numbers.
March 6th, 2025 at 10:36 am
Just noticed that the Bucs are playing a very dangerous game right now with their salary CAP. Bucs currently have $8.4 mil of CAP space, but not that many contracts that we can rework to gain space to sign any UFAs.
o Vea has the biggest CAP hit at $21.0 mil right now. But because we minimized his CAP hit last season, his CAP hits for 2025 is $21.0 mil, for 2026 it’s $22.5 mil and for 2027 it’s $22.2 mil. That’s a ‘Pay me now or pay me later’ conundrum.
o Dean is the next biggest CAP hit at $15.3 mil right now. If we release him, looks like we’d still ow a Dead CAP of $6.9 mil for 2025 plus another $4.6 mil for 2026. And oh ya, then we’d have to replace him.
o Problem comes in that below those two, we currently have a number of players with big contracts but low CAP hits (we’ve kicked them to the future?). Example: Winfield – CAP hit $8.0 mil, Dead CAP $45 mil, average salary $21.0 mil. Similar situations with Mayfield, Wirfs & Evans.
I’m not sure how Bucs will solve this conundrum. We might’ve painted ourselves into a corner (still have probably 12 of our own UFAs to re-sign, not counting signing any new FAs to fix holes).
March 6th, 2025 at 10:44 am
Whew, disregard. Those were the 2024 numbers. I feel so much better now. We have some decent room to maneuver in 2025, and that’s a very good thing.
Bucs currently have $9.0 mil of CAP space (Top-51). The numbers also still include Whitehead’s $4.5 mil, and that should’ve gone by the wayside. BUT … we have SIX major contracts that we could reconfigure to pick up space. That’s a LOT of wiggle room, although I’m surprised that we haven’t already redone some of those deals.
March 6th, 2025 at 10:47 am
I’m confident in Licht and Greenberg to continue managing the cap masterfully, and won’t be surprised to see Chris’ next Bucs contract as another example of Licht’s brilliance in Joe’s Jason Licht Series.
March 6th, 2025 at 11:17 am
Please get it done. Chris Godwin is a great player and a great teammate and a better man.
March 6th, 2025 at 11:41 am
DR, Yes, I heard yesterday from Greg Auman on 620 that they could free up plenty of space. Which conflicted what you originally posted. So yes, plenty of room to maneuver.
March 6th, 2025 at 12:17 pm
“If Godwin is completely healthy why isn’t he calling a conference to demonstrate it for the media and GM’s.”
Because he doesn’t need to. A team is goi g to pay him an offer the Bucs can’t match. He’s the top wr with Higgins tagged and there are a lot of young QB and not young QB that could use him and the salary cap and salaries out of control don’t be surprised. He will get 3years 100m
March 6th, 2025 at 12:36 pm
That same article from Berry lists Tucker as a favorite for RB2 since he was talked about lots at the combine but White wasn’t.
Not very realistic considering White is still our best pass blocking RB. Tucker RB2 for us as a runner, no doubt, but unless his pass blocking gets a lot better in the next 6 months he’s gonna be relegated to #3 again.
March 6th, 2025 at 1:00 pm
Godwin is more likely to sign a 1 year deal for $26M than Lombardo’s 2 year deal at $13 per year. If Godwin goes to free agency his floor is $25M. The Evans contract is the floor if he stays. Christian Kirk got $17M per 3 years ago. Why would Godwin sign for $13M? It’s Godwin and Adams in free agency and that’s it. Everyone else is washed up or a backup. Godwin is going to be the top target for receiver needy teams. Some of you guys need a dose of reality. Put down the pipe.
Keep in mind Godwin does NOT want to be an outside receiver. –Joe
March 6th, 2025 at 1:04 pm
Godwin has a dislocated ankle. His leg didn’t fall off. There’s zero chance he doesn’t fully recover
March 6th, 2025 at 1:58 pm
If the offers are for 15 million a year he may sit out a year or wait until someone comes a calling into the season. Maybe Brady will bring him out to Vegas to work with Guerrero and throw to him on his off days at Fox.
One thing for sure is once the hint of desperation is in the Air and a guy discounts himself to the tune of say 4-8 million a year or 10-15 in Godwin’s case on a prove it deal, some may have some luck, and get a pretty good deal like 3 year 100+. No matter how well they play they will never get close to Top Pay for the position.
Bucs over did it on the franchise tag with Godwin and will probably need to low ball him with the injury being the excuse. Thik he’s to smart to bite.
March 6th, 2025 at 2:16 pm
Absolute coaching malpractice by Bowles that has put Godwin and Bucs in this position…Godwin at the time was top 5 WR in league.
Bucs down 41-18 to Ravens with 6:32 left in game. Godwin suffers serious ankle injury with 1:04 left in game, down 10. Bucs already lost Evans with a serious hamstring injury earlier in same game…play Atlanta the following week. Need to think the total season, not 1 game in October.
Know when to waive white flag and play for another day. I am still pissed about that ridiculous coaching decision. 😡😡
March 6th, 2025 at 2:43 pm
PoundTheRock
Bucs had a chance to win that game bozo.
So you think all NFL coaches should bench their starters everytime the odds of winning a game is unlikely??
Thats not how it works in the NFL, Maybe you should try being a soccer fan.
March 6th, 2025 at 3:02 pm
Hey Tbbucs3 …you are thick, perhaps dumb!
Bucs had zero chance of winning game BOZO!
Down 10pts with just over a minute and zero timeouts.
You must have been high!
Instead you lose both of you top 2 WR’s…and go onto lose that game as well as the next 3 games. If Atlanta doesn’t go in the tank, losing Godwin deep sixes the season. Coaching decisions matter.
Coaching malpractice BOZO!
It isn’t soccer, you must have been expecting extra time and penalty kicks!
March 6th, 2025 at 3:14 pm
So im assuming you think the Colts should’ve benched all their players on Monday Night Football 2003 when they were down 35-14 against the Bucs in the 4th quarter?
Great message PoundTheRock has for a coach to send to its players…”hey guys, if its not looking so great, lets just give up!” LMAO!
March 6th, 2025 at 3:26 pm
Dude’s broke down. Time to retire and enjoy his tens of millions of dollars. Light need to pass. Save the money for a proven edge rusher.
March 6th, 2025 at 3:27 pm
I would be shocked if Godwin took a deal in the $16m-$18m range like some have said. Complete trash WRs you never heard of are getting $15m a year. If Licht does get Godwin to come back on a deal like that, I’ll be amazed – and how knows, maybe it happens since he got Evans to come back on what seemed like an insanely cheap deal as well.
March 6th, 2025 at 3:31 pm
“Need to think the whole season, not one game in October”. You’ve got that backwards PoundTheRock. If they score in 45 seconds then with a successful onside kick they have 25 seconds to get in field goal range to tie the game.
March 6th, 2025 at 3:31 pm
If “we”
March 6th, 2025 at 3:52 pm
Joe … ‘So Berry says Godwin’s availability for “the start of the season is in question?” That’s not what Joe heard, so Joe is skeptical.’
Me too Joe. Chris isn’t doing his rehab in isolation; the team has been monitoring this from Day 1 for sure, and has almost surely been an active participant in his rehab. That 2-week extension to get a deal done was no fluke.
I’m confident that Chris loves being a Buc, and would love to finish his career here. But money represents ‘respect’ to a lot of players (especially QBs & WRs it seems) and Chris has earned ‘respect’. I’m sure that JL would love to get him for an affordable price, but the market is the market. WR prices are up there right now. Example: WRs making $30 mil per year or more … Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, AJ Brown, Amon-Ra St Brown, Brandon Aijuk and Tyreek Hill. That’s $30 mil. There are another 13 WRs making less than those 5 but MORE than Godwin’s current $20 mil per year.
I think an incentive-laden contract makes sense for the Bucs, but it probably doesn’t hold much appeal to Godwin’s agent. If Chris hits FA, they’ll be a lot of suitors.
March 6th, 2025 at 4:07 pm
Hey BOZO,
That was a almost quarter century ago!
You have a better chance to win a lottery than the Bucs did to win that game.
Down 10, no timeouts and just over a minute left…then you lose Godwin, after losing Evans, and still lose game BOZO!
We don’t lose to Atlanta the following week with Godwin in lineup…where was he? He was on season ending injury reserve, lost for the season, on a less the 2% chance of winning…
Bad coaching decision!
You can’t fix stupid!
March 6th, 2025 at 5:34 pm
@poundtherock did you forget they just recovered an onside kick to get the ball back that drive? Why would you sit the starters after successfully recovering an onside kick!!? Hindsight is 20/20 so yea looking back you can say slot of things, but at that moment it was still ball left to play.
March 6th, 2025 at 6:23 pm
Pound the rock…
We didn’t lose in ATL because of CGs absence…
We lost because LVD should have batted down the INT, a no call face mask penalty, bad play calling not being able to run out the clock, a rookie fumbling, Jamel Dean not sitting on a WR for 1 second more…
And that doesn’t even include coaching errors.
CG wasn’t the reason.
March 6th, 2025 at 8:29 pm
Bowles. Not a winner. Per his words ” we play not to lose then try to win” very Tony Dumbgy like…
March 6th, 2025 at 10:20 pm
I dunno…Is tying up 2 large contracts in 2 receivers at the end of their careers on a team that relies on offense a really good idea? I mean we didn’t really do anything without Evans on the field and he is the best but..he can’t do this forever. He has hamstring problems. Godwin has injury problems, takes a lot hits and doesn’t even really play outside all that well. There just I isn’t a high probably they both will be available for 17 games.
March 7th, 2025 at 8:35 am
@PoundTheRock
2% chance of winning is not the same as hitting the lotto. Also, we would have only passed into the endzone at that point. A TD and an onside kick with 40+ seconds would have given us a shot to win. It wasn’t as over as you make it
March 7th, 2025 at 9:37 am
I too am anxious to see how Chris’ recovery is coming along, it is concerning the lack of information that is out there, that is never a good sign, you have to remember Father Time will always be and has always been undefeated , and serious injuries are always on his side,(Mike is also showing signs of wear and tear), and Chris has now had both serious knee , and now ankle injuries , in the real world , Hope is not a strategy , wishes are not plans and Father Time is always lurking in the shadows.
March 7th, 2025 at 6:09 pm
As a fan of the team, I would hate to lose Godwin. He’s done everything the team has asked him to. If he does leave, I hope he goes to Baltimore. It would be the best fit schematically, and his blocking would make an already monster running game nearly unstoppable.
March 7th, 2025 at 8:25 pm
@kaimaru
Only one problem with your logic. Bucs were at their own 39 yd line when Godwin got hurt. So as you say “we would have only passed into the end zone” your take is absolute garbage….those plays are called Hail Mary’s…You are lost!
Try a little harder next time. Actually look into and get facts before you start to beak off…
There was almost zero chance of scoring 10pts in last minute with no timeouts.
Go back to sleep and go back to your dreamland.