Is Chris Godwin going to be the belle of the free agency ball?

New York Times

06-03-2025

When the free agency feeding frenzy begins, Chris Godwin is likely to be bombarded with offers from around the NFL. With Tee Higgins receiving the franchise tag from the Cincinnati Bengals, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' wide receiver has catapulted to the top of receiver shopping lists for several teams. He is ranked as the best receiver in The Athletic's top 150 free agent rankings and the No. 3 player overall on the board.
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Godwin was leading the league with 50 receptions and heading for a career year before he suffered a season-ending ankle dislocation in Tampa Bay's Week 7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The 29-year-old, who has spent all of his eight seasons with the Buccaneers, looks set to hit free agency for the first time.
On the offensive free agency preview edition of 'The Athletic Football Show,' Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen discussed potential landing spots for Godwin should he hit the market.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in 'The Athletic Football Show' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Robert: Let's get to the somewhat underwhelming pool of big-ticket items in this free agent class. These are the guys who are going to get paid at the top of the market compared to other players available in this group. That starts with Chris Godwin for me. We just talked about how most of these receivers are at 30 (years old) or over 30 (years old). A lot of them are aging players.
Godwin is still only 29 and coming off what had been a fantastic season before he suffered that dislocated ankle. For the most part with these guys, I want to know what you think of their market and where you think makes the most sense for them. Where would you like to see Godwin at the end of all this?
Derrik: Godwin at this point, with some of the other free agents falling off the board, is kind of going to become the belle of the ball. He had what was maybe the best year of his career last year, or what was starting to before he had the dislocated ankle.
Robert: What was that one year? Was that 2021 when he had that incredible year?
Derrik: He was also fantastic that year (98 receptions for 1,103 receiving yards). This year was different because the yards after the catch were just different than they had ever been for him and he was already fantastic beforehand.
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Robert: It was 2019 that he had that ridiculous season — 86 catches for over 1,300 yards (1,333 yards to be exact).
Derrik: It's crazy that he had what was effectively a career year in 2019. And now we're five to six years later and he was having another one in a different style, with a different offense and a different quarterback. He is just the guy that I feel you will get exactly what you're paying for. Obviously, the injury ended his season, but I don't think that's like, 'Oh my God he's coming off an ACL, I don't know what I'm going to get,' type of injury. I think he'll probably be fine.
Robert: He's done this before too. He got hurt in another contract year and was fine coming off of that. He has shown that he can bounce back from this sort of stuff. And again, I don't think it's overly devastating.
Derrik: No, not at all. He makes sense for any team that needs a receiver who's a bit more physical and is going to give you something after the catch. He makes sense for teams like the Houston Texans. He also makes a lot of sense for the Los Angeles Rams. They might try to reshuffle their offensive line and I don't know what they're doing. But if they want to pay for a different receiver instead of Cooper Kupp, Godwin makes a lot of sense. There are some other teams that I'll talk about later and he does have some other destinations that he could go to. He is going to be number one on the market for receivers.
Robert: Now I feel bad because I'm going to spoil it because this is the first team I had thought of regarding where he might make sense, and where he might land. The three teams I had said — two of them you already mentioned. He might make sense in Houston. They don't have a ton of money and they already restructured Nico Collins earlier this week, so we'll see if they do anything other than just cost-cutting stuff. But for the most part, their chips are in. They pushed them in last year. They can make Shaq Mason a post-June 1 cut, but that doesn't give them a lot of cap relief right now so they're playing on the margins here in a way they didn't have to a year ago.
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The Rams also make total sense. If you want to drop somebody in that has a skill set that's analogous to what Kupp gives you but is a bit younger and a bit more dynamic, Godwin is exactly that. The one I would love to see because coming off of last year — a coach who knows how to use him, and you think about him connected with the other receivers in that offense and the other receiving options — is Jacksonville with Trevor Lawrence, Brian Thomas Jr. and Liam Coen. That is something I could get behind because even though he's a slot option, he's a very different slot option than what Christian Kirk is.
Derrik: I love that and that is not the one I had in mind, so you have not spoiled it, I'll have another one later. I would love him in Jacksonville because again there's proof of concept that he can do this very well at a high level in the Coen offense. He's a perfect fit to put next to Thomas Jr. too because they don't do any of the same things. Thomas Jr. is a big vertical threat, explosive and all that stuff. Godwin can do all the dirty work, so it's a perfect pairing to unlock both of them.
Robert: The Rams do make sense, but I wonder if the Rams want to go in a slightly different direction?
Derrik: That's kind of where I'm at with it too.
Robert: Are they going to try to chase somebody more like Matthew Golden in the draft who gives you a bit more verticality to go with Puka Nacua? It's tempting to just do something that feels like a Kupp replacement, but maybe they want to go in a slightly different direction with their offense. The other two teams to me it's easy to picture how he fits there.
Some people are probably going to look at receiver-needy teams that have a lot of cap space like the (New England) Patriots and they're going to try to put Godwin there. Is that something that you'd like to see? Or do you see Godwin more as a complementary piece in an offense that already has what feels like a true No. 1 receiver?
Derrik: If I'm Godwin, even though the Patriots could pay me a bit more, I'm probably at the point where I just want to play for somebody who I feel can win sooner rather than later and I don't know if the Patriots can. I don't know if I love the fit so much with the Patriots because of that. But he's such a good player that if they did it, I'd be like, 'Ultimately this is fine.' However, I just don't know if that's the best use of resources for them.
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