The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in danger of losing Chris Godwin, but they shouldn’t sweat it too much.
For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this offseason is one of uncertainty. The highs of winning Super Bowls are plenty, while the lows usually are along the lines of other teams plucking assistants and losing players due to high salary demands. One of the key pieces to the Buccaneers’ championship season who falls in the latter category is wide receiver, Chris Godwin. who is now set to be a free agent.
Godwin should command big money on the open market, and a hometown discount isn’t too likely. Sure, the Buccaneers could always franchise tag him, but that would also prove costly. While Buccaneers fans may be upset with the reality that the team will more likely than not move forward without the receiver, there really isn’t too much reason to worry.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers should not overvalue Godwin or any receiver for that matter.
The NFL has slowly morphed into a passing-dominant league the last century, so with that being the case, the feeling is that in order to succeed a team needs a superstar quarterback and stud receivers for him to get the ball to. However, this frame of thinking has become somewhat mythical when it comes to receivers, especially in the Buccaneers’ case.
For starters, Tom Brady is the quarterback of the Buccaneers. That in itself should prove alone that the Buccaneers shouldn’t overvalue the position, since Brady has made a GOAT-worthy career out of throwing to middle of the pack to above-average wide receivers. Paying big money to Godwin would hinder the Buccaneers’ chances of keeping the rest of their championship nucleus intact at more important positions, like on the defense for example.
Some of you may still need convincing. Most people understand that big money runningbacks don’t equate to wins since they get beat up and their contracts eat up salary. Well, the same also goes for receivers. Simply put, stud wide receivers don’t win Super Bowls. Sure, Mike Evans and Tyreek Hill, who are the best receivers to win the last two Super Bowls, are awesome, but would they really be as great without their out-of-this-world quarterback play?
Take this stat into account. Do you dear reader know who the last Hall of Fame wide receiver to win a Super Bowl is? The answer is Issac Bruce with the 1999 Rams, and he was only inducted last year. Before that, you have to go back to Michael Irvin with the 1995 Dallas Cowboys.
Simply put, the Buccaneers can’t afford to overpay for Chris Godwin. Sure, it would absolutely hurt seeing him go, but at the end of the day, it really isn’t worth it. The Buccaneers need to do all they can to keep the players who will come back for cheap, like say Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown. Most importantly, they need to keep their defense together, because defense wins championships, and as we just pointed out, wide receivers do not.