We came as close as we ever have to Chris Godwin's time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coming to an end. He was a free agent in March, and the New England Patriots tried to pry him away with a blank check offer, but Godwin ended up returning to the only place he's ever called him in his profressional career.
It turns out Tampa Bay almost wasn't his home to begin with.
Buccaneers GM Jason Licht was a guest on Green Light with Chris Long, although he spoke with Beau Allen, and told a story about almost passing on drafting Godwin back in 2017.
"When we drafted Chris Godwin, we had another receiver we were going to take," Licht said. "He went almost like right before us, and we're like 'okay, I guess we'll take Godwin'. The other guy lasted like a year in the league."
Thank goodness things worked out the way they did!
It seems that the player the Bucs were targeting was Louisiana Tech wide receiver Carlos Henderson, who the Denver Broncos took two picks before Tampa Bay was on the clock. That's one of the luckiest breaks ever, as it helped Godwin land with the Bucs and the rest is history.
Licht has a long history of "luck" in the draft, but that's being a little disingenuous to the work his front office has put in to identify key talent throughout the year. He'll always proudly mention how his first swing as a general manager was drafting Mike Evans, and he followed that by bringing in homegrown talent like Tristan Wirfs, Antoine Winfield Jr., Devin White, Carlton Davis III, Jamel Dean, Mike Edwards, Vita Vea, and others who helped bring a Super Bowl back to Tampa Bay.
Missing on Godwin is a pretty wild Sliding Doors moment to think about, though. Would Carlos Henderson have panned out since he'd have been in a different system than he was with the Broncos? Would the Bucs offense not have been in a spot to attract Tom Brady in 2020, or would that have ended up being a missed opportunity as well?
Thankfully we'll never have to find out, because the reality we're living in is the one where Licht drafted Godwin and everything worked out alright.
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