The wide receiver free agent market in the NFL has officially dried up even before the action is really fully underway here.

As Chris Godwin re-signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, looks like the deal is worth a reported $66 million, with $44 million in guaranteed money here.

So I'm a little surprised here that he didn't get to the open market.

He certainly would have made more money had he gone elsewhere, being the top wide receiver on the market.

I don't know if he got, he would have gotten to the 30 million average annual range, but high 20s would have been very doable, especially for a

wide receiver needy team flush with cap space like the New England Patriots, but sorry

Patriots fans, Godwin is going to stay put. So let's unpack what this means for him and more

broadly for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I mean, first and foremost,

let's be honest, Godwin was awesome to start last season. Of course, his season ended just

seven weeks into the year with the injury, but he was awesome. He led the league with 50 catches

over that span. Only Jamar Chase had more fantasy points than Chris Godwin.

So he's wide receiver two over that first seven weeks of the season.

By comparison, Mike Evans, who, by all it counts, I mean still playing very good football

despite being up there in age.

At that point, through the first seven weeks, had 26 catches, so basically roughly half of what

Godwin had. And he was wide receiver 15. Now, obviously, Evans is a very different player than Godwin.

Godwin is a very high floor guy, but doesn't offer a massive ceiling. Like we were basically

at his ceiling over those first seven weeks. And the challenge with Godwin, something that you

won't get with, say, Jamar Chase, is he's not going to score a ton of touchdowns. This has just

been the way he has been for most of his career. Yes, early, very early in his career. He had the

nine touchdown season. But otherwise, we don't get a ton of touchdowns out of him.

And that's fine.

...