Buccaneers: Chris Godwin continues to shine at OTA’s

The Buccaneers third round pick had another impressive day at organized team activities on Wednesday.

When the Buccaneers selected Chris Godwin in the third round of this years NFL draft, most of us assumed it was a long-term investment. The Bucs already had Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson locked in as their starting pair of receivers with Adam Humphries a strong and reliable option in the slot. Godwin would come in as a rotational player for the first year of his career, and then slowly assimilate into being DeSean Jackson’s heir apparent. Well, if OTA’s are any indication, that timeline is being sped up significantly. One way or another, Chris Godwin is going to play a lot this season.

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Thursday was Godwin’s latest opportunity to show off on the practice field and he did not disappoint, reeling in multiple touchdown grabs of the highlight reel variety.

That wasn’t all that we would see from Godwin either, as he made another touchdown catch on a fade pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick. This has become the standard for Godwin this off-season. After a rookie mini-camp in which Godwin described himself as nervous and shaky, it’s been full-steam ahead as the off-season has progressed. After nearly every workout we’ve seen glowing reviews of the Penn State product, like this one from the first of June:

It’s important to remember that this remains the most primitive, basic form of practice there is in the NFL, so Godwin’s performance should be taken for what it is. With that said, you can’t ignore a rookie that dazzles the media, coaches, and teammates as many times as Godwin has. We did not hear these types of reports so often about the teams’ last mid-round receiver project Kenny Bell, and in fact heard much more negative news than positive.

If Godwin continues to shine in training camp you can expect the Bucs to rapidly remove the training wheels. The Bucs have zero qualms about giving big roles to rookies as we’ve seen countless times over the last few seasons. What they will need to figure out is the “how”; Godwin had very little experience playing the slot receiver at Penn State, so do the Buccaneers take an established slot weapon in Humphries off the field for the sake of Godwin’s superior raw talent? Do they instead opt to let Godwin rotate exclusively in at wide receiver – his natural position – to spell Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson? These things will work themselves out, but it’s something to keep an eye on as we draw closer to training camp.

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Where do you think Godwin fits into the wide receiver depth chart this season? Will the Bucs bring him along slowly, or will his continued dominant practices force their hand?