Role renovation in Bucs 2024 WR room

Every year in the NFL landscape, change is inevitable for all 32 clubs with off-season acquisitions and departures. For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a renovation is imminent in more ways than one for the wide receivers room. Overall, the offense is undergoing a transition under the tutelage of offensive coordinator Liam Coen. Correlating with league trends, the Bucs offense will feature a slight increase in shifts/moves and condensed sets in 2024 to create favorable matchups.

The pre-snap movement provides a defensive signal and advantageous blocking and route angles for offensive weapons. From condensed formations, teams can execute a variety of calls from dropbacks, play-action or runs. In tight formations, receivers are closer to the line of scrimmage, allowing them to be easily incorporated into run blocking and, as a result, defenses moving a safety into the box. Then, against single coverage, offenses are presented with one-on-one matchups for outside receivers against isolated corners to threaten vertically.

For Tampa Bay in 2024, future Hall of Famer Mike Evans will assume his role on the outside and Chris Godwin will return to his full-time role in the slot. Over the 2020-22 seasons, Godwin played in the slot on 51% of his snaps in 2020, 53% in 2021, and 60% in 2022. Over those three seasons, Godwin ranked fifth in the NFL in receptions per game (6.5) and ninth in receiving yards per game (72.3). He also had impressive catch rates, hitting 77.4% of his targets in 2020, 77.2% in 2021 and 73.2% in 2022. The Buccaneers tried a different approach with Godwin in 2023, using him in the slot 32% of the time. His overall reception total went from 104 in 15 games in 2022 to 83 in 17 games last season. However, he still surpassed the 1,000 receiving yards mark (1,024) and his per-catch average jumped 2.5 yards.

“Right now, Chris is going to be brought back to the position, almost most of the time,” wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon said. “That doesn’t mean you can’t use him in other ways, but just from a position standpoint, if we went there today, he’d probably be the starter…He’s a guy who don’t hesitate to get physical When you have that guy, he gives you extra gap in the running game, then when you have that guy in the passing game, he has to be good at making contested catches. “

Godwin possesses spatial awareness out of the slot and uses his frame to take down defenders. The Penn State product is physical at the catch point and exploits the two-way operating space (can go inside or outside on the release) and plays with exceptional body control. Godwin is adept at generating runs after catches and is deadly on screens, jet sweeps, and in-breakers/crossers. Godwin poses a threat in the Bucs’ offense and third-round selection Jalen McMillan provides another versatile chess piece in Tampa Bay’s arsenal.

“If he hadn’t been injured, he probably wouldn’t have fallen to us in the third round,” McClendon said. “We feel really fortunate to bring him in, but what you like about Jalen is his positional flexibility. He’s a guy that can play all three spots, and when I say all three spots, I mean the ‘man to man and (ability to) make those contested catches and gain yards after catches and everything, you guys are excited, we feel lucky he “fell” in the third round.

McMillan will begin competing at the “Z” position during offseason practices, but has the flexibility to fill various roles in Coen’s retooled offense. He rushed for 1,098 yards for the Huskies in 2022, but suffered a left knee injury last season that caused him to miss four games and placed him behind Rome Odunze and Ja’Lynn Polk on the depth chart. McMillan has acceleration to attack the field vertically and combines effective body control with exceptional ball tracking skills. His ability to bait defenders with mid-range head/body fakes ranks at the top of the 2024 class.