Godwin is a great Buccaneer on the field, in the locker room and off the field. But this is about cap numbers this offseason, and trading Godwin makes sense perhaps more than any other player for the following reasons:
1) He's making $20 million salary this year and next, in addition to the $15 mil bonus still owed. No amount of restructuring changes the fact that he's getting paid a ton of money. So, we'd only save $5 mil off the cap this year. But in 2024, if you take into account salary and cleared out bonus, that's about $31 mil cap relief for 2024 and beyond. So taking the $50 mil of dead contracts and $31 mil of Godwin's cap hit. So basically, the Bucs are out of cap hell in 2024, which they need to be to get Wirfs signed. Godwin is the highest paid player still on the team this year, and he will be next year as well as it stands now.
2) Godwin is not overpaid, in fact his contract is pretty reasonable, and so the Bucs should be able to score a draft pick, late first early 2nd, which they could use for a WR. I think a contending team would be willing to fork over a late first rounder for Godwin if they need WR help. That late first or 2nd round pick could be used to pick up another top WR who will play under a rookie contract. Will that rookie be as good as Godwin? Not likely, but they should be one of the better WRs in the draft.
3) Godwin is under contract through 2024, which will force the Bucs to franchise tag him, sign him to another deal or let him walk. There are some hard choices that need to be made. Trading Godwin would be one of them for sure, but it would perhaps lessen the need for some other hard choices. Pushing money around by restructuring Godwin is like taking a rag and trying to clean off a muddy windshield. You mostly just smear it around. If the Bucs trade Godwin, they might be able to find a way to keep Lavonte David. Otherwise - not a chance. Those are the kind of hard choices the Bucs are facing.
Prepare for Godwin trade rumors to start swirling, and don't be shocked if he gets traded.
No. Why are people looking to trade away our best players? Hell no.
Isn't Lavonte David one of our best players? What's a better choice? Godwin or David and a high draft pick? If you think both are possible, I'd say you are fooling yourself.No. Why are people looking to trade away our best players? Hell no.
This is one of those tough decisions. Draft picks can definitely speed up the re-boot.
As a fan, I’m not into this idea. I love Godwin for everything he does.
I'm a fan because of players like Evans, Godwin, Lavonte... So the idea of letting Lavonte sign elsewhere or trading Evans or Godwin sounds just plain dumb. Find a way to keep the soul of the team together. These guys have given up their bodies and been heroic. Those guys you never let out of the building.
Trade Devin White. He's a turd.
@buccaneerNW, I wasn't suggesting trading Evans. Even if you did, it would only make the cap situation worse. Lavonte David is a free agent and can't be traded. I didn't say "trade fan favorites such as Godwin or others". I'm not saying strip it down and tank for QB X. I'm saying - Trade Chris Godwin.
Everybody knows something has something has to give this offseason. Renegotiating contracts isn't going to do it. Sorry for being the bearer of bad news. But when you pull your head out of the sand when training camp rolls around, don't expect to see Lavonte David there.
I'm not a number cruncher, but if you trade Godwin then there might be a glimmer of hope for signing David. And if the Bucs are smart that's how they'll frame it to the public.
@buccaneerNW, I wasn't suggesting trading Evans. Even if you did, it would only make the cap situation worse. Lavonte David is a free agent and can't be traded. I didn't say "trade fan favorites such as Godwin or others". I'm not saying strip it down and tank for QB X. I'm saying - Trade Chris Godwin.
Everybody knows something has something has to give this offseason. Renegotiating contracts isn't going to do it. Sorry for being the bearer of bad news. But when you pull your head out of the sand when training camp rolls around, don't expect to see Lavonte David there.
I'm not a number cruncher, but if you trade Godwin then there might be a glimmer of hope for signing David. And if the Bucs are smart that's how they'll frame it to the public.
Yeah, I know you're not talking about Evans. I have heard others suggest it and I was just making a general point about our few core players.
And yeah, I know Lavonte is a free agent. Somehow, they need to find a way to sign him back, IMO.
I'm a cap realist. I realize there's going to be some pain. I'd start by lopping of guys who are overpaid (or soon-to-be-overpaid) and underperforming... Obviously Donovan Smith is in a tenuous situation. I don't see any way they can afford to keep him. Cut him or trade him and you save 10 million. Trade Devin White and you've dumped 11 million... So you're now down to 34 million over cap. Cutting loose Brate, Succop, and Fournette saves another ~10 million. Okay, now we're at 24 million over. We don't save much by cutting Gage, and he still could be productive for us. Maybe renegotiate. Mason maybe is a reneg as well. Let's say we can save another 8 million by renegotiating those 2 guys. Now we're at 16 million over. If we have to start trading guys, I'd say my untouchables are Evans, Godwin, and Wirfs.
I'm looking at overthecap.com to see where we can trim, and there's not a whole lot of other areas. We really appear to be fucked. But I'm sure there's plenty I don't know about manipulating the cap to get us there. I just hope they can manage to keep the few core guys and re-sign David.
Renegotiating contracts = putting the team over the cap in later years. The Bucs went way over the cap in an effort to win another SB. Didn't work out. Time to pay the piper.
Renegotiating contracts = putting the team over the cap in later years. The Bucs went way over the cap in an effort to win another SB. Didn't work out. Time to pay the piper.
We're paying the piper no matter what. Problem is, if you don't do some renegotiating, then you WILL have to start trading away your best players. And not every renegotiation is cap-busting. The big hurt came with the biggest contracts and adding void years. Those void years are killing us. You CAN restructure with extension and spread out guaranteed money over the life of the contract without adding cap killing void years. Of course this only works for guys who are still young enough to see through most of their contract. Anyway, guys who are paid to know all the ins and outs will figure it out. Trading away our best offensive weapons ought to be our last resort.
Not likely to happen.
Teams rarely wholesale clean house because they need fans to buy tickets, tv etc. AND because its not exactly fair to the HC to give up all his talent for $. They will rework his deal
(agree cap is really bad so if they were ever going to dump/trade key players it would be now)
Godwin for a late 1st? Sadly, I would agree to it.
Then trade White for... whatever... call it a 3rd rd pick.
See if David will take a team friendly longer contract (4 years maybe even tho we know he has 2 years tops).
Acquiring draft capital is how you rebuild rapidly...
I love Godwin but trading him for a 1st rd pick is a no brainer.
And he will be much better next year with ACL fully healed. Teams know this...
If we keep him, I'm fine with that too. I'm starting to think Baker with our wr talent may surprise some people
Godwin for a late 1st? Sadly, I would agree to it.
Then trade White for... whatever... call it a 3rd rd pick.
See if David will take a team friendly longer contract (4 years maybe even tho we know he has 2 years tops).
Acquiring draft capital is how you rebuild rapidly...
I love Godwin but trading him for a 1st rd pick is a no brainer.
And he will be much better next year with ACL fully healed. Teams know this...
If we keep him, I'm fine with that too. I'm starting to think Baker with our wr talent may surprise some people
I just think the core players like Godwin and Evans are worth more to the team than what you actually could get in return -- a draft pick that has a 50/50 shot to succeed. We know what we have in Godwin and both Licht and Bowles have stated that Godwin is the model of the type of player they want other Bucs to be. I just don't see them unloading him for anything less than a mid-1st and a high-to-mid-3rd. It's not happening. I doubt it's something they'd even consider looking into.
Godwin is too valuable in an offense that will feature more 2 WR sets and requires the WR to be capable of run blocking. Godwin will not do as much work in the slot anymore but he and Evans are too valuable as they will be needed to break 8 man boxes when teams load up to stop the run.
Godwin is one of my favorite Bucs players, so I'm not at all partial to trading him. There are numerous other players who offer considerably less value to the team who should be traded or released.
