The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a bidding war to bring back Chris Godwin before the 2025 season, keeping the veteran Pro Bowl wide receiver in place with a 3-year, $66 million contract.
They’ve seen little return on that investment in the year since, leading Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon to put Godwin’s big-money deal at the top of his list of the “NFL’s Worst Contracts” for the 2026 season.
Godwin’s contract included $44 million in guaranteed money.
The New England Patriots, on a spending spree for the ages, reportedly offered Godwin a contract worth more than $90 million that he turned down to stay in Tampa Bay.
“The 30-year-old has failed to play in double-digit games in back-to-back seasons and his productivity when healthy plummeted in 2025,” Gagnon wrote on June 12. “Godwin hasn’t put up 1,200 yards or scored eight touchdowns since 2019, which is also the last time he was a Pro Bowler or All-Pro. His $33.7 million 2026 cap hit ranks No. 1 among wide receivers, and the team would have to bite the bullet on a $16.2 million dead-cap charge to move on in 2027.”
One Injury Wiped Out 2 Seasons for Chris Godwin
It’s not accurate to say Godwin has back-to-back seasons with significant injuries — it’s 1 injury that essentially wiped out 2 seasons, and in his prime at that.
The Buccaneers, for some inexplicable reason, signed Godwin after he suffered a catastrophic leg injury, which cost him the final 10 games of the 2024 regular season and 8 games of the 2025 season.
That’s 18 games — a complete regular season plus 1 — just over the last 2 years alone.
“Between the player reactions, the fact ESPN won’t show a replay and the cart coming out, this appears to be a serious injury for Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin,” NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo wrote on his official X account after Godwin was injured against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 7 of the 2024 regular season. “Awful.”
The most confusing thing about Godwin’s struggles was that he never went on injured reserve to start the 2025 season, which he obviously should have. He returned in Week 4, but wasn’t fully recovered from his 2024 injury, then had to miss another 5 games.
It’s fair to ask some questions now as to what went wrong in what should have been a fairly straightforward process. Questions like: Why did the Buccaneers sign him for so much money before he showed he was going to be able to bounce back from his injury? And what medical advice did the team and Godwin receive, who did they receive it from, and why was it so inaccurate?
Mike Evans-Chris Godwin Dynamic Duo No More
Godwin has been the Robin to Mike Evans‘ Batman throughout the first 9 years of his career, but he’ll be without Evans for the 1st time in his career after Evans signed a 3-year, $42.4 million free agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers.
Together, Evans and Godwin were one of the NFL’s most dynamic wide receiver duos — in Godwin’s 1st 9 seasons, 4 of those saw both of them have at least 1,000 receiving yards each, and another season, in 2020, saw them help lead the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win.
Buccaneers Blasted for Handing Out ‘NFL’s Worst Contract’