Chris Godwin And His Salary
July 12th, 2025
Value.
Right now, folks are stressed over the loss of Bucs All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs. Understandably.
Wirfs plays the game’s third-most important position (per the late personnel guru Gil Brandt). He’s going to be out who knows how long? Yeah, there’s reason to lie awake at night.
Wirfs’ sudden surgery has pushed aside the nervousness of fans about Pro Bowl receiver Chris Godwin and when he will return.
Last we saw of Godwin, in addition to watching teammates practice he was working with trainers on a side field during underwear football. The time before that, Godwin offered remarks about his new contract.
Godwin allegedly turned down serious creepy Bob Kraft loot to stay with the Bucs (whew). And Seth Walder of BSPN, a guy who never met a number he didn’t like, believes the Bucs are paying Godwin a fair wage.
Joe saw what Godwin can do when maximized last year. Godwin was on fire before his wrecked ankle against the Crows.
Walder said it’s too easy to use that short stretch as Godwin’s norm.
The biggest move was keeping Godwin. The 29-year-old was scorching hot in the seven games he played in 2024 — averaging 2.5 yards per route run — before a dislocated left ankle knocked him out for the season.
I think it’s important to not overweight that seven-game sample (we have a much larger sample of Godwin being good but not elite), but the Bucs didn’t pay him elite money. His three-year deal cost $22 million per year (with $44 million fully guaranteed), which is a fair amount but a bit off the pace of the game’s best No. 2 receivers. It made sense to bring him back at that price.
Joe thinks Walder made an important point. Was that seven-game stretch an outlier? Perhaps. Consider what Walder didn’t point out.
Godwin did this with Liam Coen calling the shots on offense. Coen is gone. Joe’s not saying Godwin couldn’t match his 2024 output with Coen’s successor Josh Grizzard. But it’s unknown what Grizzard can or will do.
Outside of Bucco Bruce Arians, Coen is easily the best offensive coordinator this franchise has ever had. Awfully hard to duplicate that output one season after the architect of that offense leaves.
It may be a bit too high of an expectation to bank on Godwin to repeat his 2024 output.
July 12th, 2025 at 8:14 am
Off topic but important I think. As training camp gets closer and the Joe’s will have an easier time providing us loyal fans with Bucs content, I just want to say thank you. As always the Joe’s have managed to provide Bucs fans with news, notes and antidotes to get us through the “mostly” uneventful dog days of summer. Well done men and a heartfelt thank you.
Lt. Dan
July 12th, 2025 at 8:15 am
Coen’s offense featured the slot receiver, Godwin, so Godwin got a lot more targets. In my mind, he didn’t play any better last year, he just played his normal great game but just more targets in a good scheme.
I don’t want Chris rushed into the lineup. The Bucs may have him on a snap count early in the year so he won’t get many targets early. Of course the national media will over-read the situation with media idiots proclaiming Chris is washed up. Let’s see how Chris moves when he’s on the field and be aware he may be on a snap count.
July 12th, 2025 at 8:18 am
“creepy”. Perfect!
July 12th, 2025 at 9:00 am
the thing that worries me most about wirfs going down is not losing him but i feel like the bucs have been in this position before where they lose another player at the same position and never addressed it when they had the chance which is now before the 2nd player goes down which probably will happen.
July 12th, 2025 at 9:06 am
The girls at the Orchids of Asia in Jupiter massage parlor say “Bobby not creepy, but after 5 minutes he get sleepy”.
July 12th, 2025 at 9:28 am
I assume that Godwin won’t be his best self until later in the season. Drafting Egbuka as a hedge was a wise thing to do. I also don’t see any reason to try to be in any hurry regarding Chris. Great observations, JimBobBuc.
July 12th, 2025 at 9:49 am
Walder … ‘the Bucs didn’t pay him elite money. His three-year deal cost $22 million per year’.
I wonder what percentage of the American public makes $22 mil per year. Kinda seems like that’s an ‘elite’ payday. For its’ part, Google estimates that ‘there are only a few thousand individuals earning over $20 million annually’ in the United States.
And as far as Walder’s contention that Chris’ salary is ‘a bit off the pace of the game’s best No. 2 receivers’ that seems kinda far-fetched. Looking at the salaries of the highest paid WRs, Godwin looks to be the 19th highest paid WR in the NFL. Only 2 teams (Bengals & Commanders) have TWO WRs in the list above him. Bengals have Ja’Marr Chase ($40.3 mil/yr) and Tee Higgins ($28.8 mil/yr) as the #1 and #9 receivers salary-wise. Commanders have Deebo Samuel ($23.9 mil) and Terry McLaurin ($23.2 mil/yr) as the #14 and #16 WRs.
Of course, in terms of highest paid WRs on the Bucs, Godwin ($22.0 mil/yr) makes more than Mike Evans ($20.5 mil/yr). Our TOTAL annual salary for the 2 of them ($42.5 mil/yr) barely exceeds what the Bengals pay for just Ja’Marr Chase ($40.3 mil/yr). Good thing both of them like it here.
July 12th, 2025 at 10:06 am
They moved him back into the fulltime slot roll last season and thats where he eats.
July 12th, 2025 at 10:21 am
DR… Was thinking the same thing. I didn’t look it up like you did, so thank you. But I thought $22 million (with 2/3 of a guaranteed) was a decent price for a second receiver. There’s some teams out there with mostly young receivers where none of them are making that much. Also, those teams usually suck. LOL
We’re in a very lucky position to have two extremely experienced veterans that are making less than they could be making, and two high potential young players that could end up being our number one & number two down the line. If Tez ends up producing any at WR and being a good punt returner, icing on a very skilled cake.
July 12th, 2025 at 10:43 am
Suh
July 12th, 2025 at 11:09 am
BucEmUp … ‘They moved him back into the fulltime slot roll last season and thats where he eats.’
Ya but that’s also where he’s gotten beaten up … twice now.
July 12th, 2025 at 11:32 am
Bucs are HIDING a worrisome and lingering injury situation here. Godwin’s likely to miss MULTIPLE games. And even a chance the season could be lost. This is very very bad.
July 12th, 2025 at 11:34 am
LT Dan I second that. Joe(s) are always making sure us diehards have something to get us through the dead period. I appreciate you guys and am thankful to have this site to check in on multiple times a day! Looking forward to many more seasons!
July 12th, 2025 at 11:51 am
Jeff never has anything positive to type!
July 12th, 2025 at 11:52 am
Forgot to add Jeff’s usually wrong!
July 12th, 2025 at 12:00 pm
I saw him recently in public. He was walking and moving normally. Certainly not football, but I think he is further along on his recovery than the Bucs are letting on. Great news on a great guy.
July 12th, 2025 at 12:01 pm
Todd, that’s funny man. And, kudos to Lt. Dan for giving thanks to where it’s do.
July 12th, 2025 at 12:15 pm
Lt. Dan and Mac:
No, thank you for being regular readers! As Joe always says, without guys like you, this site wouldn’t exist. Thanks to you and many others, Joe is able to have Bucs content each day, every day.
July 12th, 2025 at 12:43 pm
I think Egbuka will be one of the best Slot Receivers in the NFL.
But Godwin can be an outsider WR, opposite ME
And he will take less hits as and outside WR
July 12th, 2025 at 12:46 pm
The biggest move was putting him back at the slot position for the majority of snaps – something I have confidence Grizzard will do, as well.
I have all the confidence in the world in the Bucs passing game this season, no matter who plays and who coaches. The question is going to center around what plays are called and when. The Bucs threw it a lot more on first down last year than they did the year before and with great success. Hopefully that trend continues with Grizzard.
July 12th, 2025 at 12:58 pm
Jeff said “Bucs are HIDING a worrisome and lingering injury situation here. Godwin’s likely to miss MULTIPLE games. And even a chance the season could be lost. This is very very bad.”
Well, if last season is any indicator, the offense’s points per game did not suffer at all due to Godwin’s absence (especially after Evans came back). A little over 23 points per game with both players out, around 29.5 when they had both Evans and Godwin and just shy of 32 points per game with Evans but no Godwin during the regular season.
Add Emeka and maybe Tez and who knows? They could be even better than that with or without Godwin. It all comes down to Griz.
July 12th, 2025 at 2:12 pm
Tbh, idk what this article is about…fan stress, Godwin value, his production in his abbreviated 2024 season, Kraft creepy cash vs Godwin’s high moral ground, the changing of the OC and future production….it’s a shotgun article. Scatter shot. We have a protagonist (Godwin), but the plot is shifty. Could have been cut and paste from multiple articles. I feel like we’re being bounced from the frying pan (Wirfs) into the fire (Godwin)
July 12th, 2025 at 2:25 pm
Correction: Coen was the Bucs best OC ever, bar none. Arian’s never put together a running game like the one we had last year.
July 12th, 2025 at 3:30 pm
I haven’t considered Chris in my evaluations for this year. Always thought it was unrealistic he would/will ever be himself again after seeing that injury but I really hope I’m wrong.
Great person and player. Wishing him the best of everything.
July 12th, 2025 at 3:32 pm
No Wirfs. No time to throw. $50M in receivers won’t help that.
July 12th, 2025 at 3:44 pm
I thought Coen was great for 1/2, or 2/3 of the year. Now that the smoke has cleared from last season I’m starting to wonder how good he really was. Carberry was probably handling most of the run game, Grizz was pass game and 3rd down coordinator.
I think there’s a reason Liam has switched jobs every year. He parlayed a great statistical year (how much was coaching, how much was the talent?) into some serious $ – good for him – but I have zero doubt that Grizz is/will be a better OC for the Bucs
July 12th, 2025 at 5:04 pm
@gone-
If Grizz can be better than what Coen did for us last year, we will be crazy good.