Among the many things the Tampa Bay Buccaneers still need to address this offseason is the future of star wide receiver Chris Godwin. Unlike some of the other decisions the front office has, this one is perhaps the most anxiety-inducing because it’s almost entirely out of the team’s control.
Godwin is set to become a free agent when the new league year begins in March, and there will be no shortage of suitors for him. He suffered a season-ending ankle injury back in October but before that he was on pace to be one o the top receivers in the league and Bucs fans are no strangers to the pact he can have on an offense.
Tampa Bay was able to forge ahead without Godwin, but the success the team had in his absence only further emphasizes his ability. If the Bucs were still as good as they were without him, imagine how much better things would have been if Godwin had been healthy enough to play the entire season.
It’s not just Bucs fans and executives pondering that question. Godwin is still in the prime of his career and is a game-changing threat on offense. Any team in the league would be lucky to get him, and it seems that Tampa Bay will have steep competition in bringing him back.
Chris Godwin’s big payday might price the Buccaneers out of being able to re-sign him
We still have a long way to go before free agency truly arrives and a decision needs to be made, but the groundwork is being laid for what appears to be an uphill battle for the Bucs to bring Godwin back.
Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti offered some insight into a potential Godwin deal on the open market, which presents a major hurdle for the Bucs to clear if they want to bring their star receiver back.
"Godwin was on pace for another Godwin-like campaign in 2024 before an ankle injury derailed his season. Teams will have some pause when assessing the 28-year-old coming back from his second major injury, but a weak WR market will help sustain his ability to cash in. The former 3rd round pick carries a 3-year, $66M valuation in our system,” Ginnitti wrote.
There are a few ways to look at this, one of which is less stressful and potentially more realistic than it seems. Obviously seeing a figure like $66 million deserves a nervous spit-take, especially since the Bucs don’t have a ton of cap space to play around with this offseason and have a number of areas to address outside of bringing back Godwin.
It’s not, however, an insurmountable number for the Bucs to reach.
Part of the reason fans shouldn’t be too nervous seeing that figure is because of the other way to see this situation. Godwin is a top free agent, but he’s also still in the building — one he happens to like a lot. There isn’t a soul inside of One Buc Place that has a bad thing to say about Godwin and all indications have been that the feeling is mutual. This seems like a similar situation to what we went through last year with Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans, specifically the latter where it seemed like big free agent money might lure him away from being a Buc For Life.
Godwin firmly fits into that category of player, and it’s hard to quantify how valuable that leverage is for the Bucs. It’s hard to even call it leverage, since that implies Godwin’s loyalty would be used against him as part of contract talks. Instead, that loyalty could help lead us to an endpoint where Godwin returns to Tampa Bay on a deal that doesn’t break the bank but still pays him incredibly well, a form of talking care of their own that the Buccaneers have displayed in the past.
We still have a long way to go, but right now all signs point toward Tampa Bay doing all it can to bring Godwin back. Bucs have found ways to make it work to bring back important and loyal players before, so nobody should panic about losing Godwin until there’s an actual reason to.
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