Fantasy Football Today - 🚨GodWIN!? Is the Franchise Tag Good or Bad for Chris Godwin? (03/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 9, 2021

Chris Godwin will stay with the Bucs, and we'll give you our quick reaction. Who is the best Bucs WR for Fantasy? Do these guys get enough targets to be elite? Subscribe to the FFT in 5 podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to FFT. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @CTowersCBS, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Bucks used the franchise tag on Chris Godwin, a guy who was a top 15 wide receiver on a per-game basis last year. He played only 12 games, and he was top 5 the year before that. He's been awesome for two straight seasons. Welcome to a bonus edition of Fantasy Football Today. Adam Azer, Dave Richard, Jamie Eisenberg. So I guess it's not a huge shock, but this is one wide receiver that is likely off the market unless they go the trade route, which is very unlikely with the franchise tag. Dave, did you want to see Chris Goblin somewhere else, or are you happy he's back with the Bucs? I'm happy he's back with the Bucs.

Sure, if he had gone somewhere else, there would be a chance for him to get more of a target share in an offense, but he might have been with a worse quarterback. So I'm thrilled that the Bucs are going to hang on to him. One of my favorite stats from the Bucs are going to hang on to him. One of my favorite stats from the Bucs 2020 season, Brady scored over 30 fantasy points in five games. Godwin was inactive for one of them. He had at least 15 PPR points in the other four. Godwin also had 15 plus PPR points in Brady's games with 29 points and 27 points, had 13 PPR points in another 27 point game for Brady. I think that there is a good

connection here that Brady and Godwin have developed. I think it can continue to grow. And when Brady has a big game and we can anticipate those Godwin, he's going to be a must start anyway, but he should be expected to be useful in DFS and a, and a big time high upside PPR machine when Brady's matchups are amazing. It's the perfect setup because Bruce Arian's slot receiver has been fantastic in almost every stop that he's had, whether as a coordinator or coach.

And Brady, as we know, loves leaning on his slot receiver. You know, the thing that we have to see with this Bucs offseason is Antonio Brown back. We expect Gronk to be back, but until that's official, we have to see how that all unfolds. So there's two key parts that are missing. And then as we talked about in the,

let's not forget OJ Howard, you know, is he going to be a part of this offense as well? So there's still some pieces missing. Godwin closed the season on an absolute tear 13 or more PPR points in six of his final seven games. His target share led the team in terms of his target percentage. So, you know, he's got a chance to still be an unbelievable fantasy receiver. The difference this year compared to going into 2020, you had to pay a huge price to get him. He did not live up to those expectations. He had a downturn in production clearly, but you know, this is what we talk about all the

time. If you draft a guy as a top five receiver and he ends up as a top 15 receiver, you're disappointed, but you shouldn't be that upset because he's still delivered more times than not. And there are people who drafted him last year who are upset because they took him to be a wide receiver one. And I think it's the injuries that really hurt him. Obviously he finished top 15 at the position. That's pretty good. It might not be expectations. One other thing, Jamie, you mentioned that he played in the slot. I just checked this with Pro Football Focus. 57% slot percentage. That's good, but it doesn't mean that he's an every-down-slot player.

It means that he is expanding a little bit, and he can play outside a little bit more. So as he develops and grows, great chance for him to continue to see big targets in that offense. Yeah, and Godwin, I think you talk about big targets. That could be a concern because he had 120 targets two years ago in 14 games. That's good. That's not great. I mean, that's not going to get you up there

with the absolute elite receivers or anything like that in terms of targets. And Jamie, you mentioned that he led the team in target share down the stretch. Well, his target share for the season was only 18%. And that's really low. And I mean, Brady really spread the ball around. They did throw the ball a lot, thankfully.

But he really wasn't getting double-digit target games or anything like that. So Chris Goblin was on pace for 112 targets. In four games without Antonio Brown, he was on pace for, I think, 116 targets. And with Antonio Brown, something like 110. So this was not a heavily targeted guy and people might look at that and

be a little nervous but you know you guys have him ranked outside the top 15. You're going to get him in round four. That's the best thing about it. You're going to get Chris Godwin in round four this season. And also I just want to mention you said the let's not forget segment. The three of us already recorded

an episode today. I'm going to publish it a little bit later. So we three of us already recorded an episode today. I'm going to publish it a little bit later. So we're going to have this Godwin emergency pod and then later this afternoon on this Tuesday, you'll hear the episode that we already talked about,

which was with, we talked about OJ Howard a little bit. Okay, so how about Chris Goblin or Mike Evans? Start with that. I was just asked this question on CBS Sports HQ and I struggle with it, you know, because Mike Evans is Start with that. I was just asked this question on CBS Sports HQ,

and I struggle with it, you know, because Mike Evans is going to score more touchdowns. You know, I think he's proven that in their time together. You saw what the red zone work was this year. It seems like Brady and Bruce Arians just love trying to get Evans into the end zone as much as they possibly can. But Godwin does, I think, everything else a little bit better.

You know, I think his catches will be higher. I think his yards could be similar, if not more. So it could be a format thing. Non-PPR, Evans is better. PPR and half PPR, Godwin is better. But they're both going to be drafted in the same range of players. They're both going to be borderline number one, high-end number two fantasy receivers.

You should be thrilled to have either one on your roster. I agree almost 100% with what you said. I'll take Evans in non and half PPR, Godwin in full. Comparing the paces, Godwin on pace for 87 catches. Evans played 16 games, had 70 catches. Godwin on pace for 1,120 yards. Evans had 1,006 yards.

As Jamie said, Godwin does everything better except the touchdowns. Evans had 13. Godwin had nine. Um, give me, look, you know,

points per game. They're 15 and 16. Yep. Yep. And with Godwin ahead. So even with the injuries and the fact that he kind of kind of struggled a little bit.

And when you look at those top 16 wide receivers in PPR, they were basically the lowest in terms of targets per game. Will Fuller, Adam Thielen were in that category too. But is that just something that we should expect because they have Tom Brady that they're going to outperform their target share, I guess? Sure.

Or put up better numbers than the average receiver would. I think it's more Bruce Arians than Tom Brady, to be honest. Yeah. It's the offensive system. It's the fact that they... This is another team where you don't want them to make a huge splash at running back. You want them to still be pass-heavy,

and I think it will be. And that's what keeps Godwin and Evans, and maybe to a degree AB if he stays and the tight ends to as popular fantasy choices. I wouldn't mind a big splash at running back. I mean, they still run the ball. They showed that in the playoffs. Yeah, but I don't want them to run it too well.

It's Bruce Arians. You don't have to worry about that. Yeah, but what happened to Chris Godwin? What happened to Godwin? Becoming a ground and pound type of guy. In the Super Bowl, Godwin disappeared. They all disappeared. It was weird, except for Gronk. Bucks have been, the last three years, fourth, fourth, and sixth in pass attempts per game.

All right, that's it for this bonus pod. That's two. We set the over-under at four and a half yesterday. Is it two? Because we did the fantasy football today in five. Yeah, no, absolutely it's two. I put a little siren next to it. It's a bonus pod.

That's two so far. We're going to shatter the overrunner. We're going to absolutely shatter it. What's your headline for this one? Because I know you struggled with the Dak one. Right. So I chickened out. Yesterday, I was going to go with Dak is back

and leave out the C in back. You know, Dak is B-A-K. Why did you chicken out on that? I think it looks really dumb. So people told me to, it got overwhelming support on Twitter, but I chickened out and I just played it straight.

Dak is back. What's my headline? Let's come up with a headline right now. Bucks Godwin? Big win for Godwin? Everyone loves Chris in Tampa. I think big win for Godwin. The thing is, though, it's not a big win for him, though.

Question mark. Yeah, it kind of hurts him. Question mark. Well, yes and no. Big win for Godwin. Next year, the salary cap is going to be huge with the TV deals coming in. So it's not bad to get your guaranteed money for one season. How about good for Godwin? Chris gets the tag. How about it's not bad to get your guaranteed money for one season. How about good for Godwin?

Chris gets the tag. How about it's not Giants talk? Okay, well, we'll figure it out. For David J.B., I'm Adam. Talk to you later.