“There’s a chance that if we get late to the playoffs, he could come back,” Bowles said of Godwin, who he mentioned had some supporting structural ankle injury, “but he’ll have surgery and be out.”
Mike Evans, the Bucs’ big backup receiver and franchise scorer, suffered what Bowles described as “moderate” hamstring tightness and may be sidelined for “a couple of weeks.” He said Evans likely won’t return to the team’s Day 11 bye class until then, meaning they’ll be without about 50% of his team’s receiver offensive production against the Atlanta Falcons on Day 8, the Kansas Town Chiefs on Day 9 and San Francisco 49ers on Day 10.
Evans had entered the sport with a hamstring strain, missed practices Thursday and Friday before doing some limited work Saturday and was sporting a negative trauma designation upon entering the sport. However, on a 24-yard run to the lead on a walking trail, Evans suffered trauma to another part of his hamstring. He fell to the grass and immediately grabbed the back of his leg.
“It’s pretty painful. I don’t know what the meaning of that is either, but he’s going to miss a couple of weeks,” Bowles said.
Godwin’s trauma took place when he was tackled from behind by Ravens inside linebacker Roquan Smith. Resources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the league is reviewing the games to determine if they contained all the elements of a hip drop, which was declared illegal this offseason and could result in a huge upset.
The team spent Tuesday comparing the options they will have for receiving assistance at receiver, both internally and externally. Evans and Godwin entered Day 7 locked into the league lead in landing receptions with five each, with Evans recording a sixth on a 25-yard touchdown in the opening pressure of their game Monday night.
“We’ve looked outside the building, but to have a true No. 1 here, you have to make some massive changes and give up a lot. That’s not where we are right now,” Bowles said. “We feel comfortable with the guys in the building. They probably don’t have the status of Mike and Chris or are as successful right now, but that doesn’t mean they can’t play. We’ll tweak some things and [Rakim] Jarrett will be back this week. We will also see it in practice and make a decision based on that.
“But to go out and get a guy to come here and disagree. 1 and a dominant guy is probably going to have a hard time breaking up your team, and we’re proud of the guys we have here.” now and we all know what their talent units are and we are committed to walking with them in the present.
The Bucs invested a third-round pick on rookie wide receiver Jalen McMillan, who had a good training camp but had a quiet start to the season, missing two games with a hamstring injury. He had three receptions on eight targets for 15 yards on Monday.
Senior Sterling Shepard, Mayfield’s former teammate at Oklahoma, had one catch on a target for 15 yards. Second-year receiver Trey Palmer, who missed two games with a concussion, was active against the Ravens but only saw three targets on one catch. Bowles said he will be able to take on a “full workload.” The Bucs designated Jarrett to return from injured reserve on Oct. 17, which began his 21-day practice window, allowing him to be activated at any time.
While the Bucs made big-name free agent signings during the Tom Brady era, such as trading for Rob Gronkowski and signing Antonio Brown, Leonard Fournette and Le’Veon Bell, the team’s preference has been to draft, develop and re-sign to their own players, as seen in recent free agency signing periods.
The production of Evans and Godwin culminated in Mayfield having the best statistical start of his career so far this season, with 18 touchdowns in the first seven games of the regular season, more than any other quarterback in the league, while completing 70.5% of his passes. . Bowles acknowledged he understood the desire to look elsewhere, but emphasized the team’s history of cultivating its own talent even as it competes for a fourth straight division title and a fifth straight playoff berth.
“If there are subtle moves in the market for us to ride, we are certainly looking to ride moves in the future, if that benefits us,” Bowles said. “In the same future, we think about creating our younger receivers and getting guys to play, and that’s what training is for. You’re not just going to go out and grab every single $50 million receiver that’s available and Naturally, We expect them to play. We were given some faith in what the young guys are doing and the expansion they are doing, and we are confident in those guys and we are committed to playing with them.”
In addition to Godwin and Evans, rookie starting nickelback Tykee Smith, who had consecutive weeks of forced fumbles in Weeks 5 and 6 and recorded the first interception of his career in Week 6, left Monday’s game to be evaluated for a concussion and not not coming back.
“He’s in concussion protocol in a thin generation,” Bowles said. “We’ll see what happens, but that tends to be difficult in a posh generation.”
