Chris Godwin’s Season Is Done After Tearing His ACL Against The Saints

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were shutout on Sunday Night Football, losing to the Saints in a 9-0 slog. That result didn’t do anything to dampen the Bucs’ playoff hopes, but did drop them into a tie for the 2-seed, one game back of the Packers who now are in pole position for the lone first round bye in the NFC.

However, much more damaging than dropping the game on Sunday was the loss of star receiver Chris Godwin, who took a nasty hit to his knee in the second half, but seemed initially to have avoided a catastrophic injury as he walked off the field under his own power.

Unfortunately, an MRI on Monday revealed Godwin had in fact torn his ACL and would be out for the season, a massive loss for the Bucs offense.

Godwin is, by far, Tom Brady’s top target this season, hauling in 98 catches for 1,103 yards and five touchdowns. Losing Godwin takes away a massive chunk of their passing attack and will only shift more attention over to Mike Evans. The eventual return of Antonio Brown and what he looks like coming off of his own knee injury and suspension for a fake vaccine card now looms large for the Bucs, who have dreams of a repeat championship but will now have to do so without a key piece of their vaunted passing attack.

For Godwin, it’s particularly gutting given he’s having a career year while playing on the franchise tag and was looking to get paid like a top receiver this coming offseason, but now faces the uncertainty of a free agency while rehabbing his injury.