Todd Bowles Evaluates Chris Godwin’s Return
September 29th, 2025
Amidst the agony of yesterday’s loss, there were several uplifting moments.
One was the return of the second most prolific receiver in Bucs history, Chris Godwin.
After trashing his ankle more than 11 months ago, Godwin got back on the field. And he played 80 percent of the snaps!
Godwin understandably was off his game, but his health was on point. He came out of the game strong, per Todd Bowles’ comments today on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
“It was great to see him back out there for the first time,” Bowles said. “Week by week you’re going to see him get back to his old self. Not that he wasn’t great yesterday but we look forward to seeing more him out there. But he came through the game pretty good.”
What struck Joe was how upbeat Bowles’ tone was talking about Godwin. It was a stark contrast to when he was talking about special teams.
Joe’s impressed by Godwin’s workload against the Eagles. It tells Joe the Bucs didn’t rush him back, even if FOX game announcer Kevin Burkhardt said yesterday the Bucs didn’t expect Godwin back on the field in Week 4. (Don’t ask Joe to speculate; that’s all Burkhardt said.)
The next challenge for Godwin the artificial turn in Seattle — the same stadium where they’ll play World Cup soccer games on grass next year.
September 29th, 2025 at 4:21 pm
This was a “knock the rust off” game. I fully expect to see him make a bigger impact against the sea chickens! Need the old chain mover in full force!
September 29th, 2025 at 4:29 pm
He’ll need a run of games to get back up to speed – probably be after the bye before he looks his old self. Just need the injuries to let up for a few games and get our potential offense on the field together
September 29th, 2025 at 4:41 pm
Roquan Smith is injured.
Hopefully it’s season ending and requires a year of rehab to get back to 70% of his dirty self.
September 29th, 2025 at 4:59 pm
Won’t take long, at this rate, for him to be right back where we’re going to need him to be. Think we’re gonna be surprised how quick he’s 100%.
September 29th, 2025 at 5:05 pm
It was good seeing Chris out there and I’m happy to have him back. Hopefully he’s not having games where he’s being held like a toddler all damn game and the refs sit on their hands about it
September 29th, 2025 at 5:21 pm
Hey Joe, Can I ask you to speculate about what Burkhardt said? 😂
September 29th, 2025 at 6:07 pm
Just wait. The only problem is Grizzard and his inexperience. He’s got a week to get his mental jazz together, or the players will do it for him. Bowles knows it.
September 29th, 2025 at 6:23 pm
Hate Seattle’s turf, loved seeing Chris back out there. A couple more games and he’ll start looking like CG14 again!
September 29th, 2025 at 6:29 pm
Astro turf should be illegal. They have ways to make any and all fields grass. The turf is why we are seeing so many injuries along with the fact that these players are not in football shape come regular season like they were when we had true offseason practices and preseason games. Or should I say useless preseason games.
September 29th, 2025 at 6:38 pm
It’s a long season and to have so many injuries this early bites hard. Maybe the starters should have played more than they did in preseason. Seems starting a lot of them a little more would have prepared for the heavier contact. Back in the old days the starters played at least the first half. Vince Lombardy would call today’s preseason less than fierce. So how has not playing the first stringers in preseason payed off?
September 29th, 2025 at 6:46 pm
He looked good physically, but he had a couple huge drops in the 1st half that hurt bad.
September 29th, 2025 at 7:51 pm
With Chris back, guaranteed that “third downs” success-rate, automatically improves dramatically.
Bowles is in the tread title?
Both Kevin Burkhardt and the GOAT effectively couldn’t believe, as much as announcers can appropriately express, anyway: that Bowles didn’t challenge the bobbled “first down run” at the sticks in the second half. If that was challenged and “brought-back,” it could have resulted in a Buccaneers win; because the Eagles, by getting-away-with the first down & went on to score a touchdown (IIRC).
Bowles didn’t want to take the (even this remote of a chance) chance of
losing a timeout; because he hoards timeouts to use as a safety
net for when he gets confused with making judgement-calls (often); because he doesn’t know what he’s doing with time-management in general.
Up to his old tricks of losing a game again
September 29th, 2025 at 8:17 pm
I was happily surprised he played as much as he did. He’s only going to get better. I think Seattle will have to pay attention to Chris.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:25 pm
He was very obviously rusty yesterday, but it was good to see 14 back out there making some catches and taking some hits. Hopefully by the post bye portion of the season he’s closer to 100%. Be nice to see our full complement of receivers get to work.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:38 pm
It’s like I said many, many weeks ago. If the Bucs didn’t expect Godwin and Wirfs back by week 3 or 4, they would have put them on IR. Fox dude is a moron.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:43 pm
So sad that Ed McSherry is, yet again, trying to blame this loss on Bowles when it is obvious the loss was the result of piss-poor play by the special teams blockers (again), Bucky’s fumble and Baker’s INT.
I’d agree with him about a questionable Bowles decision if he would have said to kick the field goal instead of going for it on 4th and four (and failing). Those three points very well might have made a strategic difference as the game progressed.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:46 pm
BillMFI said “So how has not playing the first stringers in preseason payed [sic] off?”
Every year, leaguewide injuries have progressively risen as more and more teams have stopped playing starters during preseason. The limited number of times teams can have practice in pads certainly has not helped, either. This is not just a Bucs thing.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:49 pm
Estebaan85 said “Astro turf should be illegal”
Amen! Leave the fake grass for baseball, soccer and putt-putt mini golf.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:52 pm
Aqualung said about Roquan Smith “Hopefully it’s season ending and requires a year of rehab to get back to 70% of his dirty self.”
As much as I detest what he has done in the past, intentionally or otherwise, I will never wish injuries on any player. Pretty cold, dude
September 29th, 2025 at 8:54 pm
Godwin looked good and dropped a couple he normally would have caught. I totally expected that and believe he will be much better next week and back to his normal sticky hands self by the time we play San Fran, if not next week.
September 29th, 2025 at 9:12 pm
Considering they had to grab him a lot, seems like he was doing pretty good. He’ll go from good to great within a couple of weeks. Just hope Evans can heal up good and get back soon, because having those two out there with Egbuka is going to cause defenses all kinds of problems.