The Return Of The Real Chris Godwin
June 4th, 2026
Back to the future?
The past few years have not been great for Chris Godwin.
Whether he was recovering from knee surgery or a shattered ankle, learning a new offense or being misused for roughly two-thirds of a season, Godwin hasn’t been himsel, for a full season since the Bucs won the Super Bowl in 2020.
Now healthy, and as he discussed this week, Godwin looks to be heading for a full season of strong, maybe Pro Bowl-level football again.
And Eric Moody of BSPN expects Godwin’s success to carry over to this fall after seeing how he finished the 2025 season strong,
Godwin isn’t a trendy sleeper at this stage of his career, but his role looks more secure after Mike Evans signed with San Francisco. His 2025 season was slowed by recovery from a broken ankle, but Godwin still flashed late and has QB Baker Mayfield’s trust. We have him projected for the second-most targets on the team behind Emeka Egbuka.
The only thing that will stop “Unc” from having the second-most targets this fall will be if Jalen McMillan elevates his game, which easily could happen. Joe expects teams to be more worried about Egbuka and Godwin. Or, sadly, Godwin could get hurt again.
Joe is confident Mayfield trusts all his receivers. But the one he likely has the most trust in is Godwin.
June 4th, 2026 at 7:05 am
Use with caution!
Spread the ball AROUND now that we are not trying to get a future HoF player fat stats !
June 4th, 2026 at 7:06 am
This wr lineup is reminding me of the Rams Superbowl season with Issac Bruce Torry Holt etc
June 4th, 2026 at 7:10 am
I have a feeling that at least 3 receivers will get close to 1000 yards!
June 4th, 2026 at 7:43 am
Beeej Says:
June 4th, 2026 at 7:06 am
This wr lineup is reminding me of the Rams Superbowl season with Issac Bruce Torry Holt
^^^^^^
The 1999 Rams. Also with Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk.
This offense reminds you of the great show on turf?
Like when two children play Star Wars with sticks. The sticks “remind” you of lightsabers, right?
June 4th, 2026 at 7:58 am
Godwin will always have a special place in Tampa fans heart BUT sadly no one at this stage in their career gets better after multiple serious injuries and that age gets better! J Mac is a beast along with hurst and Tez play making abilities and of course #2 from Ohio state the sensation, i believe we can spread the love and have a prolific passing attack! It’s on Zac to make it all work
LFG!!!
June 4th, 2026 at 8:03 am
Hope he stays healthy, but should he have another serious injury, he’s done.
June 4th, 2026 at 8:04 am
Hopefully my gut feeling is right that not only will cg look like vintage cg but jmac is gonna blow up this year
June 4th, 2026 at 8:15 am
I watched a video online showing about 3 minutes of practice yesterday.
Godwin looked a little slow to me and possibly heavy footed, but what do I know.
It did show a lot of CB drills and there are several that flip their hips really well.
Surprisingly Zyon looked the most fluid in that drill.
It also showed the O-Line working on wide zone.
They were just going through the motions, but timing looked decent.
June 4th, 2026 at 8:54 am
I hope Chris has a huge season. Really good for Chris and Buc fans. He is after all in my opinion MR Buc. No one has been more dedicated or selfless to the team. He has woeked extremely hard to come back from awful career ending injuries. Tip your hat to him and lets hope he has a lights out season.
Thanks Chris
June 4th, 2026 at 9:08 am
Between Hurst, McMillan, Egbuka, Godwin, Johnson, Sharp, Otton, Gainwell and Irving, if the Bucs spread the ball around opportunistically and take what the opposing defenses give them, they could all have over 500 yards and Baker could pass for 5,000 yards without anyone having 1,000 receiving yards.
@ Billy Bucco
It is good news that Zyon is moving well.
The talk has been that Zyon was “bored” last year; “distracted “. To me, Zyon always looked like one of the most fluid guys on the field about mid season last year, after which he looked like he was playing through a core or groin injury.
Zyon playing at his best is a big plus.
June 4th, 2026 at 9:16 am
Chris back at 100% makes the QBs job easier, but you’ve got to find him and make the pass because there’s no doubt he can and will get open. That’s the benefit of having Godwin with the occasional explosive play downfield, IF the QB can find him and put passes on him consistently.
June 4th, 2026 at 9:40 am
SlyPirate Says:
THERE ya go with the negative waves
June 4th, 2026 at 10:11 am
I have a feeling Godwin is on his last contract extension in Tampa. That said, I hope he does great.
June 4th, 2026 at 11:43 am
If Hurst or any of the other talented WR’s develope into a solid go up an take the ball type Red Zone threats then our WRs could be better or at least no worst than witn the one who turned his back on the Bucs. Godwin & Egbuka are pretty good players to start with.i am as comfortable if not more comfortable giving Godwin the “C” especially a healthy Godwin. He has always been a TEAM first guy. GO BUCCANEERS!!!!
June 4th, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Recoveries from 5 bad years are a longshot.
Im rooting for the guy but I prefer evans
June 4th, 2026 at 12:03 pm
@ Beeej Says: about SlyPirate: “THERE ya go with the negative waves”
No. It’s not being “negative,” when someone says something that is SO ridiculously STUPID. What else would YOU expect for someone else to say, when YOU say something THIS ABSURD!? I mean, come on. If YOU aren’t capable of speaking ‘realistically’ then you should expect to be ‘called-out’ on it. So, don’t cry about it! YOU frickin SAID IT. Not HIM.
June 4th, 2026 at 12:10 pm
“I have a feeling Godwin is on his last contract extension in Tampa. That said, I hope he does great.”
I hope he does too, so that we can ‘move him’ for a solid early round 2027 Draft-Pick, when/if we are sitting there at 3-5 and heading to Chicago, before the trade deadline.
June 4th, 2026 at 5:10 pm
Health is what it is – who knows, but I do know Godwin did look good at the end of last year, just Baker’s awful play hid it from everyone (as well as e2, McMillan and Evans’ play).
With that said, if Baker can return to form, and Zac has any common sense at all, he’ll used Godwin the way that Coen was using Godwin – if that happens, everyone will see Godwin still has plenty of juice left.
BTW, for those morons still complaining about Godwin’s salary, because they never have played attention to salary inflation as the cap has skyrocketed, did you see the Christian Watson just got $30M/year? He’s also always injured, and when healthy his best season is 611 yards. Godwin is a bargain at $20M a year.
June 4th, 2026 at 7:55 pm
@Slypirate
I don’t care what anybody says… That was F.A.F! Funny as F!
Come on people, that was Well Said. I mean when I first read what the commenter said, I tried to get into it. Then 1 second later I thought shhhioot! Man, we might be in trouble actually! We have No Proven Nothing at this point. And though I appreciate the (whether you can believe it or not) positive vibes “about our players and their Potential”, I Sure NEEDED a good hardy Laugh! And boy I got one.. NICE.
That’s a “Far reaching” thing to say. (comparing us to the greatest show on turf) It felt juuuust a bit desperate. And btw, you were thinking of when “Bruce Arians” was the TRUE head coach and we COULD COMPETE with the “Greatest Show on Turf!” You didn’t realize you were having a “Flash Back” And that’s OK! You DESERVE HAPPINESS AFTER WHAT THIS h/c (bozo) HAS DONE TO OUR GLORIOUS BUCCANEERS! Though it’s More Than SAD that it’s just a memory now…
And then Slypirate wrapped it So Well I busted out laughing Out Loud! NICE.
Come on people. I’m SORRY but YOU’RE GONNA HAVE TO HAVE THICKER SKIN than that ESPECIALLY this year coming…..! NOTHING looks “GUARANTEED” so we better learn to LAUGH instead of CRY.
(Though I admit with the “current state” of the leadership concerning MY Buccaneers, I have Deep Depression!) Most of us know why….
June 5th, 2026 at 12:27 am
If there’s a way for Twocoach to derail his return to form, it will happen. Never underestimate the power of the Great Regressor.
June 5th, 2026 at 1:15 am
If you guys go back and read what the man said instead of blowing it out of proportion and bashing him he said compared our “WR’s”!!… He did Not say our offense as a whole looked like the greatest show on turf so calm down. And I think you could argue that the Bucs have the deeper group of the two while the rams (arguably) had the better starters in Holt & bruce and Az hakim in the slot.
June 5th, 2026 at 1:16 am
If you guys go back and read what the man said instead of blowing it out of proportion and bashing him he said compared our “WR’s”!!… He did Not say our offense as a whole looked like the greatest show on turf so calm down. And I think you could argue that the Bucs have the deeper group of the two while the rams (arguably) had the better starters in Holt & bruce and Az hakim in the slot.