It took forever, but the Bucs have finally re-signed wide receiver Chris Godwin to a long-term deal. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Godwin is signing a 3-year, $60 million contract with $40 million guaranteed. The Bucs are using void years to lessen Godwin’s 2022 cap hit. According to several reports, Godwin’s cap hit this year will be just $5 million.
Buccaneers’ franchise player Chris Godwin reached agreement on a 3-year, $60 million deal that includes $40 million fully guaranteed at signing, sources tell ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 17, 2022
Things looked bleak with Godwin’s contract last week. The Bucs had a whole year to come to a deal, and it took every last second to get it done. Tampa Bay was forced to use the franchise tag on Godwin last week in order to keep him off the market. The Pro Bowler’s asking price ended up being well above most projections, as the rising wide receiver market complicated negotiations.
Outside of finding a quarterback (welcome back, Tom Brady!), re-signing Godwin was Tampa Bay’s No. 1 priority. It goes without question that Godwin is the receiver that sets the tempo for the offense. He finished last year with 98 catches for 1,103 yards and five receiving touchdown, along with one rushing touchdown in 14 games.
Bucs WR Chris Godwin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Tampa Bay placed the franchise tag on Godwin before the start of last season too. He was well on his way to earning a huge deal in 2021, leading the Bucs in catches. Godwin was on a torrid pace towards the end of the regular season, putting up numbers such as 15 catches and 10 catches in his last two games.
But a devastating torn ACL on Sunday Night Football against the Saints ended Godwin’s season prematurely. He still had seven catches in that game before exiting early. Despite the injury, the Bucs have made their affinity for Godwin obvious this offseason. Jason Licht went as far to say at the NFL Combine that he “couldn’t imagine” the Bucs’ offense without Godwin
Now he doesn’t have to. With Godwin returning, the Bucs keep their dynamic receiving duo intact with he and Mike Evans. You can make a case that they are the best 1-2 punch at receiver in the league. Amidst a wild offseason in Tampa Bay, this is a huge step in the right direction.
Share On Socials
About the Author: Matt Matera
Glad they got it done. With the inflated insane market for WR’s all of a sudden he definitely deserved what he got. Is just such a well rounded receiver. Plus if players like Mike Williams and Christian Kirk are getting over $20 mil, you knew Godwin was. He’s easily better then both of those players. Especially in this offense. I’m very excited for this off season and it’s really time to crack down on where the Bucs go in the draft. Especially first round.
Yeah the jaguars really screwed the market up but definitely glad they got Godwin off the tag and were able to sign him to a contract.
Yes Jag certainly did, the funny thing is they will still be a bottom team just complicated every team cap situation
I wish it was for longer, 5 yrs would of been nice. I Think we could of let him hit the market and paid no more than 20 million a year,
It is truly amazing how huge the Brady Effect is. Last week the Buccaneers were non-contenders looking at Dashawn Watson. I never believed that a Watson trade was possible. The Buccaneers would lose their three first picks+ other talent for a QB would be suspended. It would take three years to build a half way decent team around Deshawn. I saw it as a franchise suicide move.
Last week the Bucs were still contenders. And while Tom Brady is definitely a positive factor in getting guys to extend, Tom is still just one player, and players take into account all of their teammates, as well as coaches, as well as money, as well as future career (Brady isn’t going to be around after next season, most likely, and these are multi year deals they’re signing). I would say instead that this is the Licht effect. After all, it was he and his roster and coaches who drew Brady to the Buccaneers in the first place … and… Read more »
Nope! It’s all Brady! If Brady didn’t come back, Godwin was a one and done player on his last franchise tag.
Nope – there is no possible way you can know what incentivised any player. And think for a sec, why doncha .. Brady won’t be here after next season anyway … but Godwin signed for three years knowing that. Duh!
20 M is way too much for a player as often injured as he is, and won’t be 100% this year.
We’ll see. Reports on the complexity of his injury and the results of his surgery were excellent. Plenty of current estimates have him back by week 1, which wouldn’t be crazy in the current age of ACL recovery. Time will tell, but I feel good about his 2022 availability right now. Even if he misses a couple, we should be fine IMO.
Guys come back and are 100% from this stuff now. He got market value and they need him.
Now look Mike Evans in the eye and ask him to extend to save the team money. Nothing about how Godwin’s negotiations have transpired is resulting in an overall plus as the long term bad will outweigh the short term cap space. It’s the first multi-year deal the team has overpaid so I guess there’s that.
This is just silly IMO. Even if you think Godwin’s deal is an overpay (it’s not, but whatever), this is clearly a win-now team. If you’re thinking about our 2024 and 2025 seasons or whatever right now, you’re just flat out missing the boat. We have a chance to contend for a championship this year with Brady. Maybe next year too, who knows. Whether we borrow from future salary caps now or not, once Brady is gone, we VERY likely stop having a chance to win Super Bowls for a bit one way or another. Might as well make the… Read more »
wish we coulda franchised whitehead
The franchise tag for safeties this year is $13M. We just reportedly elected to not even make an offer to Whitehead, who signed for $14.5M over two years. Like it or not, Whitehead just clearly wasn’t in our long term plans. It is what it is. It’s obvious that even if we hadn’t tagged Godwin, we were never going to even consider tagging JW.
This is great news! Does this mean now that the tag is available for another player?
The date has passed.
No. One player per year, with a hard date deadline, which has already passed. Even if the deadline hadn’t passed, we used the tag on Godwin. Can’t just keep using it to disadvantage player after player in contract negotiations.
I Love Godwin but I absolutely hate this. $20mil a year? I don’t like devoting that much money to him for that. Yes he is important, yes he’s tough, but that’s just too much money. They should have rode the franchise tag another year if that was the end result. I never understand why these contracts end up being higher than the franchise tag. Yes it locks him up for a few years but somebody else was gonna pay him $20mil a year? I just didn’t that hard to believe. For that much he better not miss any more games… Read more »
I just sucks cause I’ve loved Godwin since he was a surprise standout, but this just leaves me with a gross feeling. Yes yes yes it’s a business and they have every right to be greedy, but his contract alone is gonna leave us hurting after Brady leaves and it’s gonna create resentment. At least we can dump it after 2 years if he stops pulling his weight.
I think it was more that the jaguars decided to inflate the market but the cap is going to be rising at a crazy rate and it’s only for three years and you can have your mind blown when you see those next up in coming contracts
Maybe Godwin will be traded after this last year with Brady.
If you think Godwin at $20M is a bad deal, you clearly haven’t been paying any attention to the WR market as a whole, which absolutely matters a great deal in these talks. Kenny Golladay signed last offseason for $18M per. This year, Mike Williams and Christian Kirk (hahahahahaha) for $20M. Had Godwin hit the market, I have no doubt whatsoever that he’d have been signed elsewhere for at LEAST $22M or $23M per year. Not even a second thought. Also crucial is the STRUCTURE of the deal. A $5M cap hit in 2022 is a massively valuable detail for… Read more »
Dude – it’s not your money, its Godwin’s money and the Bucs money. This is a business, not a charity, everyone is entitled to negotiate the best deal they can, both sides. Obviously if the Bucs thought Godwin wasn’t worth it, they wouldn’t and tagged him and then negotiated this multi year deal with him.
There is going to be zero, absolutely unequivocally zero resentment amongst anybody in the Bucs organization over this or any other deal the Bucs make. They’re all adults and they all know this is business, not personal.
He is worth every penny he is paid if he is available for the ENTIRE post season. So far, Godwin has not been the Reggie Jackson of the NFL. If that trend changes, I think it will bode well for another run at a Lombardi trophy.
Most wide receivers miss games or play hurt in games, because they get high speed hits from all over the field including those they can’t see coming. Mike Evans typically misses playing time, whether full games, or just sits out many or most snaps, every year, ditto with Gronk, Godwin, AB, you name him. The teams certainly know that fact, as do the players.
good job bucs.
What is with everyone in here saying, that we completely overpaid for him, or nobody was gonna pay him 20+ MIL per season, etc… He absolutely would have gotten 20 MIL per year. Zero debate on that. That’s what elite WRs go for. And yes, he’’s an elite WR. It’s insane that people think we overpaid.
l
Yes, people seem to forget that with the exception of the Covid year, the cap goes up every year. Salaries tend to go up along with the cap so comparing his deal with Evans’ that was signed several years ago doesn’t make much sense.
Exactly, it makes no sense at all. When Mike signed that deal, the salary cap that year was $177M. His deal, which took up 9.3% of our cap in the first year, made him the second highest paid receiver in football. Godwin’s $20M deal comes in a league with a $208M cap, meaning his deal takes up….9.6% of the cap, lol. They’re almost identical deals when accounting for the growth of the cap. And what’s more, Godwin’s deal happened immediately after several other WR deals that easily pushed his actual market value higher than what he signed for. Flat out,… Read more »
And as we’ve seen this offseason, even receivers who are clearly less than elite are getting that. The people you’re talking about are some mix of ignorant and/or delusional, no way around that. Insanely good deal for this team, and a feather in Licht’s cap. Fans were frustrated and downtrodden a week ago, and as it turns out, he has played free agency perfectly. Tagging Godwin, letting Davis hit the market, the Mason trade, all of it, just brilliant. And, crucially, we were 100% ready to hit the ground running and go all out the moment Brady said he’s coming… Read more »
The obvious reason why wide receivers are considered high value players in the league is the obvious fact that this is a passing league now, not a running league. It’s been that way for years. And high impact players like Cooper Kupp have been seen to super energize their offenses in highly impactful ways. Their money is still far below quarterback money, which is seeing top tier quarterbacks getting 40-45 million a year (thankfully our GOAT doesn’t need the money and he has been willing to take below market deals for years in order to enable his team – first… Read more »
Brady’s deal is $25M?
A lot of idiots commenting here, making trash talk about players or coaches as if they’re drunks yakking it up at the sports bar. Apparently they’re drunk at home on their devices too.
They need to get out of their parents basement, and join the real world.
Very good signing and this indicates to me the Bucs go mostly defense through the draft.
With our resignings, the Mason trade, and the Gage acquisition, Licht has been methodically checking dire needs off the list, I believe to set us up to take the best players we can find come April. Given the focus of this last week thus far, I’d be surprised if we don’t see us sign a couple more outside additions, likely at least one DL and another guard who can at least battle to start, although with that last one, maybe not if the team really, heavily believes in promoting a player who’s already in the building right now.
Good for Goodwin. deserves every bit of it. I’m just sitting here having my evening libation wondering………Where is the cash for the Defense? We got a real good Offense. Now where the hell is..the Pass Rush? Just remember, to win a championship. you gotta stop somebody. You know, like them RAMS..stopped us. Just sayin…
Patience. There’s still a lot more work to do. I won’t judge the things we haven’t done until the finished product is produced.
Time for the D line. Everyone complains about Bowles blitzing but the point is we can’t get to the QB with our front four. Whole season.
Man. Licht continues to solidify his standing as one of the few elite GM’s in football. I don’t love everything we do, of course, but wow. Being in talks with Brady for the weeks leading up to free agency so that when he decided to come back, we had a plan ready to execute. Shaq Mason for a 5th rounder and $8M per year cap hits. Patiently allowing CD to test his market and then getting him signed for less than his tag price would’ve been. The WR market absolutely erupting in the last couple weeks, and then getting Godwin… Read more »
Where’s the apology from the folks on here, who only a day or two ago, were chastising Godwin for being “greedy” and accusing him of not being a “team player” ? None of us know diddly-shit about the negotiations that took place. Nor do we know much about Chris Godwin the person. I know this much; seeking to be compensated commensurate with one’s peers, at what has become the market value, does not make a person “greedy”. We all can agree that people in every walk of life might be inclined to over-value their own worth and tend to devalue… Read more »
For those of you that think 20 mil. is sky high, just wait and see what Devonte Adams gets. Adams may be a slightly better receiver, but I’m thinking in the range of 25 mil.
It’s hilarious how the media writers and a large proportion of commenters here at PR were wailing and moaning and crying about how “dire” the Bucs roster situation was this season, even after the GOAT unretired. I mean really, did you all think that Jason Licht and his support staff decided this month to put on their stupid caps and cease doing what they’ve been doing very well for the last five years? I kept commenting over and over again these past weeks that we need not worry, that the Bucs have a handle on all this and will not… Read more »
To everyone questioning this move I’ll just say this:
Jason Licht is seeing the ball really well right now and is hitting them out of the park with regularity.
I’ll take his judgment on Godwin over yours any day.
The state income tax rate for Mike Williams in California is 10.75%
Some of the cities in California have an additional 1.5% income tax and on top of that Los Angeles has a sales tax rate of 9.3%.
It’s safe to say Chris Godwin is making substantially more than Mike Williams.
Is there some reason why everytime I log into this website and read a post every single ad at the bottom is asking g me if I support Trump, do I feel he was the greatest President, do I plan on voting for him 8n 5h2 next election. I have never voted for him, and never would. My vote is my choice. I am sick of seeing his combover hairdo, and smiling face every time I read a post here. Asking for my email address so they can send me (more?) useless information for and about former President Trump. It… Read more »
Move on then. No one cares….
Yep, just keep kicking the due cap funds down the road and see what happens in a few years. Godwin is a good player but not a $20 million player.
So, do you have a problem with our federal government doing it? Talk about being “over the cap”. The marketplace determined his worth. When you were an officer in the Army, didn’t you expect and deserve to be paid an equal amount with others at your rank? I suspect there were some enlisted folks who might not have thought you or the other higher ranking officers were worth their pay either. Of course when I was in the Air Force the pay was right around the poverty level.
Skip Bayless reported Brady is courting Julio Jones to come to Tampa. Could be interesting