Godwin started off the season as a blocking receiver. He had a hot training camp, in which PewterReport.com named him the Player of the Day multiple times, so that led us to believe he might have a role on the offense right away. He did, but it was more to just get him on the field than really have much of an offensive impact.

Godwin has always been a good blocker, but just because you can block doesn’t mean you’re always confident in it. As shown in the play above, in the first half of his NFL career, Godwin was still trying to be consistently confident with that.

As the first game of the year versus the Bears went on, however, Godwin did gain some of that confidence, and you could see why the team wanted to get him on the field and get his feet wet as soon as they could in situations like the one above.

Godwin was at the top of the triangle in the bunch formation to the right side of the play. Because of this, it was his job to block the defensive lineman, as he knew the play was coming to his side. No. 93 on Chicago, Sam Acho, weighed about 40 pounds more than Godwin, but none of that advantage showed because of how Godwin engaged him as a blocker. Godwin was confident with his hands, didn’t panic to draw any kind of penalty, but instead got his job done.

Godwin actually played 41 precent of the team’s offensive snaps during their first game of the season, a higher number than I would have recalled. He received two targets in that game, but both weren’t really close to receptions.

One of them is shown above, and just like we talked about getting his feet wet and having that confidence as a blocker, you saw in the play above that Godwin was giving effort and playing hard, but didn’t focus it into precision, likely because he just didn’t know how to be precise in that situation. He ran right into the defender, and then when it came time to break on the route, he couldn’t separate. It was something he would learn about the NFL speed and his own game within it.

Even though Godwin’s offensive snap percentage went from 41 percent in the first game to just 21 percent in the second game, his immediate impact went up. Godwin finished the Vikings game with three catches on three targets for 44 yards.

The pass above was his first reception early in the game. The Bucs kept him pretty involved on the first drive, but after the team started to go down quickly on the scoreboard, Godwin seemed to vanish from the game plan.

It wasn’t until we reached a time in the game that I like to call “Garbage Time Godwin” that we saw Godwin’s second catch of the day. He didn’t do much blocking in this second game because, well, the Bucs didn’t run the ball much because they were down by a lot.

The two clips directly above were back-to-back plays, both successful for Godwin. It was at a time in the game where the Bucs were down 34-17 with just over six minutes left in the game. They had to get vertical, and even then, there wasn’t much of a chance to win, hence the garbage time nickname.

Godwin ended up making both of the receptions, which was good for him, and even though they didn’t mean much in that game, I believe they played a role in his development and experience, something that would pay off late in the future fourth quarters during the 2017 season.

After a pretty efficient game in Minnesota, Godwin had his offensive snaps cut even more the following week versus the New York Giants. In it, Godwin saw just nine offensive snaps, which came out to 14 percent, a season low, to that point.

Godwin had been involved in a blow out in their favor in the first week, a blow out against them the next week and then a close game in their third contest. Each week he saw his snaps go down, which hinted that he was clearly seen as more of a blocking receiver and special teams player, to that point, which was fair considering he was just a rookie and the offense had some veterans on it.

In the play above, Godwin once again showed his strength as a blocker on the first drive of the game, but really didn’t do much after that. However, he was the deep decoy that got O.J. Howard free on his long, deceptive touchdown that game.

Over the next five weeks, Godwin would come out of each game with just one catch for less than 10 yards each. Against New England, it was one catch for eight yards. Against Arizona, it was one catch for nine yards. Against Buffalo, it was one catch for five yards. Against Carolina, it was one catch for eight yards. And against the Saints in New Orleans, the game that really sent the season spiraling down, it was one catch for nine yards.

Do you know what all of those games had in common? The Buccaneers lost. Godwin’s percentage of plays still hovered around 20-25 percent with the team running a lot more plays due to being down on the scoreboard, but lack of targets and therefore lack of production proved that Godwin wasn’t really suppose to be involved in the offense as much as he was in the team’s first two games. When the going got tough, Godwin’s number wasn’t called nearly as much.

But then Winston got hurt, and Winston was forced to sit, and with the starting quarterback out and the record looking bleak, Godwin got his chances – chances that involved him as more than just a blocker when the team was holding a lead.

With Mike Evans suspended the following game, Godwin got his chance to shine against the Jets and, really, he never looked back. After seeing an average of less than two target per game in the first half of the season, Godwin was given the starting role and saw 10 targets, which yielded five catches and 58 yards, all obviously career highs, to that point.

Godwin didn’t see too much action in the first half of the Jets game, but right out of the gate to start the second half, Godwin got back-to-back targets and back-to-back catches with them.

Every good wide receiver has a bread and butter route concept, if you will. For guys like Mike Evans, it’s strong work near the sideline with comebacks and post routes, for guys like DeSean Jackson, it’s slants, skinny posts; things that keep him moving. Godwin had not discovered what his go-to route concept was going to be to this point, but the team chose for him after having good success with routes that broke to the middle of the field. You have to be a strong receiver to make catches over the middle, so Koetter trusting Godwin to have that role was pretty Evans-like in terms of confidence.

The Bucs implemented a “run it ’til it doesn’t work” strategy with Godwin and his routes over the middle as that Jets game went on. The play above was the third play of that drive where they had Godwin run an inside route, and it caught up to them that time, but it was encouraging to see them go back to him time and time again.

The play directly above actually carried a lot of weight, more weight that just the 20 yards it ended up recording.

If you’ll recall, almost all of Godwin’s previous successful routes came from routes that broke to the inside. But, on that play later in the game, they had Godwin brake towards the sideline. This taught us a few things.

First, it showed us that Godwin could have success on a variety of different routes, which meant that he was becoming more confident as a receiver with the added playing time. Godwin was one of the more successful and diverse route runners in college football while at Penn State, so seeing this was a good step towards getting what you believed you were getting when drafting him.

Second, it showed that the Bucs were comfortable using him as a piece that they could diversify away from what was working and have him do counter routes against defenses that were planning for him to just do the same thing he had been doing to get success early in the game. That isn’t often asked of rookies, but it was asked of Godwin, and he stepped up to the plate. The success on that route, for the reasons above, showed me a big turning point or acceleration for Godwin’s development.

The following week Evans was back but Winston was not. As a result, Godwin didn’t get the start and his snap percentage went back to normal. But just because that was the case didn’t mean Godwin didn’t make the most out of his opportunities when they came.

Late in the fourth quarter in Miami, the game was tied 20-20. On a play that led to the two-minute warning, the play shown above, Godwin got his first target and his first catch of the game – it was a big one.

But the one after that, the one shown above, was even bigger. If you ask me, it was Godwin’s arrival.

With the game on the line, coming off of a failed passing attempt the play before, who did quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick go to?

Not Evans.

Noe DeSean Jackson.

Not Cameron Brate.

He went to Godwin.

Think about it. When the team was fully healthy, Godwin was mainly getting reps with the second team, whose quarterback was Fitzpatrick back in training camp and the preseason. Fitzpatrick and Godwin had months worth of chemistry together, to that point, so when crunch time came it was a no-brainer where Fitzpatrick was going (you could see he was looking Godwin’s all the way).

Not only was it encouraging to see Godwin catch that ball (and show a little confident emotion with the first down point afterwards), but it was also encouraging long term, even when Winston would return, that when the chemistry is there Godwin could be counted on. It was Godwin’s signature move working on the inside with good hand usage and good separation paired with some engraved chemistry.

To me, that showed that Godwin was ready for a bigger role.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean an immediate switch was happening. The following week in the team’s loss in Atlanta, Godwin received just two targets with one catch for 17 yards, but only played 19 offensive snaps in total. And the week after that, in the team’s overtime loss in Green Bay, Godwin saw just three targets and amassed 24 yards on two catches.

But when Winston returned as the team’s starter and the Bucs were back at home against the Lions, Godwin’s role expanded once again.

Godwin finished the Lions game with a team-high 68 receiving yards on five catches, which came from six targets. Godwin was just one target away from having the most on the team that day (and yes, all receivers were healthy).

Godwin’s first target of the game, the one shown above, didn’t come until late in the second quarter. Early on in the contest, the team was trying very hard to get Jackson involved with passes deep and short. It didn’t work as well as they wanted, and because of that they had to adjust.

As I watched that game, having Godwin’s other successful games in the back of my head, one thing became clear: this team could trust Godwin to make big catches in crunch time. The play above wasn’t anything monumental, but it was Godwin making a strong catch to get a few yards and advance the ball during the two minute drill, and you also saw him race to put the ball down and get back to the line to stop the clock. You want conscious, smart receivers, and Godwin certainly is.

It wasn’t just the amount of targets in the Lions game that encouraged me with Godwin, but also the kinds of targets he was getting. In previous games, we’d seen him be successful with inside routes and strong catches over the middle at lengths of 10-20 yards down the field. In the Lions game, we saw him have success on a short slant route earlier in the game, and in the play above we even saw them give him a wide receiver screen, which had success.

The Lions game was important for Godwin because it showed that the team had confidence in him as a complete receiver; he wasn’t just a specialized thereat. They realized he can be a main piece or a compliment piece for a variety of routes in a variety of situations. Though he still had work to do with the nuances of separation in many of those routes, exposing him to that kind of stuff towards that nuanced learning process meany they trusted him and believed in his potential to do so.

The final catch I wanted to show from the Lions game was back to Godwin’s bread-and-butter over the middle. In that catch, Godwin showed just how strong he is as a receiver, not only to bring that ball in, but not even go down to the ground. He’s balanced in the air and when landing, and that’s what helps make him a good receiver over the middle. Going over the middle can be dangerous, but Godwin does the dirty work.

When you do the dirty work, you get rewarded with the fun stuff, like taking a slant pass 70 yards down the field for the team’s most explosive play of the season like Godwin did two weeks later in Carolina.

Godwin is never going to be a burner, and with him being only 6-foot-1, he’s never going to be one of the best short-yardage threats, either. But, he doesn’t have to be “the best” if he plays the receiver position really well as a whole, and that’s what I think Godwin does. I think he plays the receiver position very well as a whole.

Sometimes that means you’re catching passes with heavy contact over the middle. Other times it means you’re racking up yards after the catch as fast as your feet can run.

And other times…

Other times the first touchdown of your career is also the game-winning touchdown on the final play of the season.

Godwin’s rookie season was one of learning, of doing the dirty work, of being patient, of soaking everything in, but that’s normal for a rookie year. What was abnormal was how rewarding it was, at times, and how opportunistic it became because of circumstances outside of his control. Godwin couldn’t make the coaches play him early in the year, all he could do was be ready. He was, and when the time came, he delivered.

“Chris does everything the way you’re supposed to do it,” Bucs receivers coach Skyler Fulton said. “He takes care of his body, he works hard, knows what he’s supposed to do, and he does it the way we coach him to do it. Chris already carries himself like a vet, but there is no substitute for experience.”

There’s a few locks that come with the treasure chest of a good draft pick. Godwin has already found the keys and unlocked some of them, but the main key on the front of it is found through experience.

How far away is Godwin from getting that key of experience? We discuss on the next page.