While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be faced with a number of daunting questions this offseason, like what to do with Jameis Winston and whether or not to franchise tag Shaq Barrett, there’s one area they seem to be just fine in: wide receiver.
The Bucs led the NFL again in 2019 with the league’s best passing attack, as Tampa Bay averaged 320.4 receiving yards per game. Much of that can be attributed to the seasons of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, both of whom surpassed the 1,000-yard receiving mark. Not to be forgotten, too, was Breshad Perriman, who finished 2019 with 36 receptions for 645 yards and six touchdowns. Perriman will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and ESPN has him pegged as one of the more underrated players available on the market.
Cynthia Frelund of NFL.com examined every team’s receiver situation, and, not surprisingly, her analytics showed that the Bucs clearly had the best duo in the game.
Per Frelund:
“No wide receiver duo created a higher win share in my model than Evans and Godwin last season. The Bucs are another team that doesn’t need to devote huge resources to changing the receiving corps, especially considering the Tampa receivers’ air yards-per-target mark of 13.9 ranked best in the NFL, per NGS. And also, there’s Bruce Arians.”
Evans hitting 1,000 yards has become the norm, as it was the Pro Bowler’s sixth-straight season hitting that mark, tying him with Hall of Famer Randy Moss for the most by a receiver to begin his career.
Godwin, meanwhile, enjoyed his first 1,000-yard season in his third year. Despite being sidelined with a hamstring injury for the final two games of the season, Godwin still finished the year with 86 receptions for 1,333 yards and nine touchdowns, career highs across the board.
One thing’s for sure — whoever the Bucs have under center in 2020, he’s going to have a lot to work with thanks to these two.
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