Could The Bucs Trade Chris Godwin?

Moving Chris Godwin this week, next week or any time before the 2024 season feels like a very unlikely prospect for the Bucs. And there are a variety of reasons why that’s the case.

But before we get into those, let’s consider the main reasoning provided in that CBS Sports article: Godwin’s contract itself.

Yes, the veteran wide receiver is due a lot of money in 2024 and without restructuring the contract and tacking on extra void years or inking him to an extension, he’ll have the highest cap number on the roster this season. Would any of the teams Cody Benjamin have the cap room or flexibility to even acquire Godwin in a trade?

But the key point to push back on is the idea of Evans commanding “top dollar” on his own new contract. Evans signed a two-year deal last month worth a maximum of $52 million with $35 million guaranteed. But the details are important.

As Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo explained in March, Evans’ 2024 salary is the league minimum for a player with his service time, which is $1.210 million. OverTheCap has his cap number at a little over $5.5 million for this season. That’s hardly “top dollar” and shouldn’t come close to forcing Tampa Bay into a mindset where it feels it will need to trade Godwin.

And then there are the other, more football-related reasons why the Bucs won’t look to trade Chris Godwin. For one, Tampa Bay isn’t deep at wide receiver right now. The receiver room isn’t deep enough to lose Godwin and still keep the team competitive in 2024. And that’s obviously the goal, as Jason Licht, Todd Bowles and everyone else inside the AdventHealth Training Center are operating with the intention of four-peating as NFC South champions this fall.

Beyond the fact that such a trade would hurt the 2024 team’s chances, new offensive coordinator Liam Coen has already begun preparations for his first year in Tampa Bay and has spoken about his plans for Godwin to operate more out of the slot this season. The Bucs will look to reap the benefits of these plans and hope to get Godwin back to where he was before the knee injury he suffered near the end of the 2021 season.

There’s also the question of whether the return from a hypothetical Chris Godwin trade would make the move worth it. How many teams are going to line up for a 28-year-old who has one very expensive season left on his current contract?

The fact that he’s two years removed from a knee injury that has seemingly slowed him down won’t help, nor will his drop in touchdown production. He had 21 touchdowns from 2019-2021, but in the last two years combined, he’s posted five.

None of this is to say Chris Godwin wouldn’t have any trade value, nor is it a suggestion that he’s not valuable to the Bucs.

The point is that making a trade that would weaken the Bucs’ 2024 team is only worth considering if the return is significant. And it’s hard to imagine the return being significant enough to make the idea of such a deal plausible for Tampa Bay.

What If The Bucs Did Trade Chris Godwin?

In the event that the Bucs did want to move Chris Godwin, which is unlikely, they’d save a big chunk of cap space in 2024 while getting something in return for a player who was set to hit free agency next offseason anyway.

If Tampa Bay doesn’t like its chances of retaining Godwin next spring or simply doesn’t plan to re-sign him anyway, perhaps a trade could be of interest. It would have to be the right deal, first off. But if the right deal surfaced and the Bucs pulled the trigger, what would that mean for the team’s wide receiver room and draft plans?

Of course, the fact would remain that such a move would leave a giant hole in the team’s wide receiver room for this upcoming season. The Bucs, as they’re currently constructed, aren’t in a place where they can cope with the loss of their No. 2 wide receiver.

If the Bucs were to trade Godwin before the draft later this month, wide receiver would become an even bigger position of need and a higher priority than it already is. Even with Godwin, the receiving corps lacks significant depth.

There’s obviously Mike Evans at the top with Godwin behind him. But then comes second-year receivers Trey Palmer and Rakim Jarrett, as well as the infrequently used Deven Thompkins, whose production over the years has been sparse.

What would work in Tampa Bay’s favor in this scenario, though, is that the 2024 NFL Draft is deep at receiver. The team wouldn’t be in position to select one of the top pass-catchers like Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., LSU’s Malik Nabers or Washington’s Rome Odunze, but Florida State’s Keon Coleman, LSU’s Brian Thomas Jr. and Texas’ Adonai Mitchell are realistic first-round options.

Western Kentucky’s Malachi Corley, Florida’s Ricky Pearsall, Washington’s Ja’Lynn Polk, South Carolina’s Xavier Legette, Michigan’s Roman Wilson, North Carolina’s Tez Walker and UCF’s Javon Baker are among the Day 2 possibilities at wide receiver. With as stacked as this year’s receiver class is, there are bound to be some strong options still available on Day 3.

The point is, if the Bucs did want to move on from Chris Godwin a year early and get something in return for him, they would desperately need to pick up one of these receiver prospects. But as exciting as a young rookie wide receiver might be, there’s little to no guarantee that they’d be able to step right up and step into the void that Godwin would leave.

And that’s why such a trade would come at the expense of the 2024 Bucs. Given the way the team has gone about the offseason, making a move that would weaken this year’s squad would fly in the face of what Jason Licht, Todd Bowles and Co. are looking to accomplish this season.