Chris Godwin Secrecy Versus Jalen McMillan Status Reports
August 19th, 2025
Chris Godwin celebrates after Godwin caught his first touchdown of the 2024 season.
So Chris Godwin has been injured for 10 months and the Bucs won’t offer a hint of his status — what he’ll miss or when he might return.
Fellow receiver Jalen McMillan was injured Saturday and already Todd Bowles has said he’ll miss games and a credible report has surfaced that it could be half a season.
Why have the Bucs been relatively open about McMillan while Godwin’s status is a state secret?
Joe doesn’t have an answer, and Joe has a feeling the truth would sting.
TampaBay.com reported McMillan could miss at least eight games — hours after Bowles said today that McMillan will miss significant time with a “severely strained neck.”
On Saturday night in Pittsburgh, Bowles was less candid and said McMillan had a back issue — minutes after Joe heard McMillan loudly tell teammates he had “a sprained neck.”
Has Godwin requested secrecy? Will he miss a lot of time after a second ankle surgery and the Bucs don’t want to draw attention to their huge investement in an injured player, albeit a franchise great who is expected to eventually recover?
Silence invites speculation, as ProFootballTalk.com founder and NBC NFL insider Mike Florio often says.
The Godwin mystery has now become a huge key to the Bucs’ season, whereas it was much less so before the McMillan injury. McMillan and Godwin combined for 13 touchdowns last season.
The Bucs are no longer going into the 2024 season with strong depth at receiver. After Mike Evans, Emeka Egbuka and Sterling Shepard, there’s a huge dropoff. That wasn’t the plan. And Evans and Shepard are 32 years old.
Joe is very curious to see if the Bucs move on a veteran receiver this month.