It turns out Sunday’s 9-0 loss to the Saints isn’t the most devastating moment of the week for the Bucs. On Monday, head coach Bruce Arians announced that wide receiver Chris Godwin is out for the year with a torn ACL. Godwin is currently playing on the franchise tag. He was expected to command top dollar this season as a free agent.
We're wishing you a speedy recovery, @CGtwelve_ 🙏 pic.twitter.com/KNi8yi3oK6
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) December 20, 2021
Earlier in the day, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport had reported that Godwin suffered an MCL sprain. Rapoport said that Godwin would miss the final three games, but be back for the playoffs. Turns out, Rapoport was way off the mark. Now Godwin will be up against it in terms of being ready for the 2022 regular season.
Before going down with injury, Godwin had already compiled a monster season. He led the team with 98 catches for 1,103 yards and five touchdowns. He’s a largely irreplaceable player in the Bucs scheme, due to his versatility as a weapon. Godwin has struggled with injuries however, missing time each of the past three seasons. However, most of those injuries have been short term issues.
“You feel bad for him because he was having such a great year,” Arians said. “And the type of hit it was. Totally legal, but I think that’s one of the things we’ve gotta look at in the offseason. We’re so concerned about hitting people in the head that we’re getting a lot of knee injuries now because of that type of tackle. But it is legal. It wasn’t a bad play at all. You just feel bad for Chris.”
Tampa Bay will get Antonio Brown back this week against the Panthers. Fellow star Mike Evans could also return from a strained hamstring. Breshad Perriman is currently on the COVID list, but could clear protocols by Sunday.
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About the Author: Jon Ledyard
Perhaps the league expands the rule for defenseless players involving the knees. The Saints had some shady tackling techniques throughout the night, perhaps in retaliation for what happen to Winston.
It was a totally legal hit. The rules are clear – defenders can’t hit receivers high, but can hit them low.
The league definitely needs to revisit the current rule .. but on the other hand, if the league outlaws both high hits and low hits, that’s called “flag football”. There is no easy solution to this problem
They were technically legal hits, but in my opinion several of those Saints tackles were deliberate ‘cheap shots’, especially the ones on Godwin and Fournette. A simple solution would be to employ the same rules as in rugby, whereby you must wrap the arms to tackle, thereby making all chop blocks illegal. That could either just be applied to tackles below the waist, thereby protecting the knees, or it could be applied to the body above the waist also. Either way there is no doubt in my mind that a defenseless receiver should not be taking that kind of low… Read more »
they wanted revenge for Winston. I hope AB is healthy. Perriman needs to step up now. we won last year with different people in and out. we can do it again.
I agree 100% and it looked like that dude was trying to do just that, take out Godwin’s knees. We’ve been winning this season with only 2 out of our 3 superstar WR’s for most of the year. Godwin is a big loss, for sure. But getting AB back, still having 2 out of 3 superstars at WR is a very nice position to be in. Before AB went down, he was our leading WR. If Perriman can step up like he did a couple of years ago for us, we might be in about the same position as before,… Read more »
This is a huge loss! We will need AB and Perriman to step up big time! This just awful! Sucks big time!
This is huge. This is a much bigger deal than the loss of the game itself. We’ll see how this team operates once Evans is available to go along with A. Brown.
Make no mistake, this is a tough loss for us. Godwin be the man making catches over the middle and everywheres else. However IF..we are the team we say we are? Then its next man up. Looks like we will be going on the road to play in that frozen GB tundra this year for the playoffs. Get well Chris.
Do you have enough commercials before we can comment? That’s my comment.
This is Devastating. To lose Connors and Godwin for the season is awful. Perriman maybe comes back, AB comes back, but what about Evans?
*O’Connell, not Connors.
O’Connor. Three times a charm. Geeze
Saints were deliberately trying to injure the Bucs players. Zero doubt.
Please. The saints whipped out butts. Inside and out. Injuries are part of the game. Saints Defense was kickin A.. and takin names. Give them credit. We had a bad day at the office.Bucs need to get those..next men up..ready. Or lose again. Yes, its thats simple. Nobody cares we lost. Bucs have got to toughen up if they expect to repeat.There will be more blood. Nature of the Beast.
Brady was struggling going to his secondary reads and check downs the entire game and was clearly putting receivers in harms way routinely. The Saints just wrote the book on how to defend the Bucs. It has a familiar theme going back decades. Pressure and hit Brady as often as possible and good things happen. That was not a win but it was also more costly then just the L on the schedule. Odds of Bucs repeating or even returning to the Super Bowl dropped significantly. Aryans sold his credibility as a leader of men keeping the liars and cheats… Read more »
What the hell are you talking about? What does Antonio Brown have to do with Godwin’s injury? LOL
Saints are a dirty team imo and always have been. From Bounty gate to just all time. That hit Legal by definition was dirty as hell. I hope we face Saints in playoffs and if was me when their WR’s go up to catch ball defenseless I would target their knees and see how they like it. I’d also try to block PJ and blow his knee out. The Winston thing wasn’t intentional just bad luck. Pj Williams aimed for his knees and had all time in world to make that play could wrapper up or could put shoulder in… Read more »
No Godwin is bigtime trouble for the Bucs. He is clearly the best WR on the team, and it really isn’t close. For a team that throws it 47 times a game, regardless of situation, this is a problem.
Nice to see you B.S.. Is it a coincidence that you make a rare appearance after a loss?