The NFL announced the three finalists for this year’s Comeback Player of the Year award Wednesday, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Chris Godwin was not among them.
Bucs fans have grown accustomed to seeing their players overlooked for league awards by bigger names from bigger market, and this time, it’s no different.
All Godwin did was suffer a torn ACL in Week 15 last year, still make it back to the starting lineup for Week 1 this season, and then set a franchise record with 110 receptions (playoffs included), while notching the third 1,000-yard season of his career.
Godwin put up these impressive numbers despite playing in a Tampa Bay offense that fell off a cliff in 2022, averaging just 18 points per game after averaging 30 points per game over the previous two seasons. Despite all of their struggles on that side of the ball, Godwin continued to be one of their few bright spots all year long.
No disrespect to the other finalists, but it feels like Godwin’s miraculous comeback after a season-ending injury so late in the year, as if maybe the voters barely noticed that he’d missed much time at all. Except for the fact that New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, one of this year’s finalists, missed just one more game than Godwin last season.
Are we a little biased around here when it comes to Bucs players? Probably. But this isn’t the first time it feels like a Tampa Bay player would have made the cut it he played in a bigger market for a mroe storied NFL franchise.
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